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Tag Archives: music ministry

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Music for Liturgy: The Old Made New

I love that the liturgy is made up of both the ancient and the modern. Old, steadfast laws and traditions meet the new and ever-changing culture and yield the beautiful, living Church.  At each Catholic Mass, the nave is filled with evidence of what happens when young and old collide. Fresh Easter lilies pose proudly near the antique Presider’s chair, the newborn is held by her grandmother, the altar server presents the Sacramentary for the bishop, and for Life Teen parishes, the drum set tries

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Engaging Busy Teenagers in the Ensemble Without Sacrificing Quality

Today I would like feature our guest music ministry blogger Angus McDonnell. I asked Angus to talk about how to get teens involved with music at Mass while keeping things sounding good.

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How to Shorten Music Practice

Well I hope this title caught your attention and no, I’m not just going to tell you to make your practice shorter by practicing fewer songs. Today, most people have access to the Internet and, as we know, are spending a lot of time surfing the web, watching videos and listening to music. Well, why not direct some of that time that your musicians are spending in cyberspace to learning the music you will be going over at your next practice? In recent years, the production quality of Catholic music

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Organized Musicians???

I bet I already know what you’re thinking: Musicians are the most disorganized, tardy and flaky people on earth! Well, if you are a musician I mean no disrespect. After all…I am a musician myself. But, I do have to say that if we are all being honest, there is a reason why we have this stigma attached to us. I think we sometimes chalk it up to it being the creative “Artist” and therefore a little bit flaky. So does it matter? Well, yes – it does.

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All Rights Reserved… Used with Permission

Recently, I was asked to speak to a group of Music Ministers at a Musicians’ workshop. As I began to speak about the need to have a copyright license to reprint the lyrics to songs on a worship aide, suddenly the room became awkwardly silent. To my surprise, many musicians did not know about the need for licenses. Maybe you are one of those musicians, just finding this out for the first time. If so, relax and let me answer some common questions about Copyright licenses. Music publishers offer

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Music Ministry 101: Ramping is Important.

At a recent Life Teen Liturgy & Music Conference I asked a large group to use only their ears and listen to the silence. Then, after a brief moment, the band on stage played a loud, crashing introduction to a song. People were startled, to say the least, but that was the point. This is, after all, what parishioners experience at Masses every Sunday.