rechelle's lifelyrics

Website Wednesday came and went this week while I was busy working on formatting and entering sheet music for the new song book. Thursday, I started writing my article for this week, but then I realized I just passed another milestone in my “Cherished Hymns” project. I decided to table my article for now so I can share a little more storytelling about the project I’ve been working on for more than a year, especially now that I have completed more than 75% of the songs.

As expected, I have gotten much faster at entering the notes, lyrics, and other components for the sheet music since starting this phase of the project in May 2024. (Before that, it took a year to compile the song list, research for writers & publishers, and procure all the necessary print license agreements.) On Thursday I was able to complete 4 songs! However, on Friday, I had to start from square one on a blank staff with no source music for the song, “Resurrection Morn,” written by Diana Perry-Gillette and sung by the Perry Sisters in 1990. I pulled up YouTube and started listening to their Celebration video over, and over again to determine the timing, key signature, and division of the words being sung by musical measure. I found that many of the words I thought would have been on the downbeat (first beat of the measure) were sung at count 1 1/2 or 2. A couple of times, I had to walk away and put my mind to something in the kitchen, so I could come back with fresh ears and eyes for the task. Finally, the patterns started to take shape, and I was able to follow along with my new sheet music while the video was playing. It took almost all day long to complete, so I only finished 2 songs on Friday.

Sometimes I feel so inadequate to be doing this project, but then I remember how much it has helped me grow musically, and how much more skilled I am than I was when I tackled a similar project 15 years ago. It also encourages me when I think about the fact that our little church will have easy-to-read music in hard bound books instead of the copies of photocopies of previously published music in spiral bound books. A few years before I started working on “Songs We Love” for our church in California, one of the ladies in the church here in Oregon obtained permission through CCLI to compile copies of music into books. The church could use the books while the fee was paid faithfully every year they were in use. It seems like an affordable way to go for a small assembly, but eventually, the cost for licensing every year outweighs the upfront cost to purchase permission to print a limited number of copies in books that will last upward of 15 years. This year, the church didn’t have to pay the CCLI annual fee, because we got print licensing for all the songs that will be included in “Cherished Hymns.” So, even though this project may not be as well done as a hymnal that is produced by professional musicians and engravers, it is going to save the church money in the long run and it will be a book of songs that have been cherished and sung in our assemblies over the last 50 years!

Some of the songs I added to the “Cherished Hymns” song list were sung in our church in Long Beach, California when I was a girl from “New Songs of Inspiration #8” that are not in our current hymnal, “Best of New Songs of Inspiration.” It’s amazing how familiar some of those songs are to me even though it has been decades since I heard them in the congregation! Some of the songs I’m entering now because they weren’t included in “Songs We Love” 15 years ago are favorites from the book that we have been using through CCLI licensing here in Oregon. In the 1970’s and 1980’s, my Grandma was involved in a couple of projects compiling photocopies of sheet music for special books that were used in addition to the church hymnals, “New Songs Of Inspiration #8.” There are several songs in the old brown book (pictured above) in which she wrote out the lyrics and music notes by hand, because she couldn’t find sheet music to copy. Other songs were typewritten on staff paper with the notes drawn by hand over the words. I am using some of those pages as source music for my project. Now that I have had to arrange several pieces by ear, I have an enormous appreciation for the work she and others did to create sheet music by hand when they couldn’t find published sheet music!

I can’t tell you how much it means to me to have this connection with Grandma after so many years. She passed away long before I took the first step on the path of writing my own music, playing for the church, or publishing sheet music for song books. She used to tell me, “I learned how to play the organ when I was 50!” That means that in the 1960’s, when the church told the congregation they were interested in purchasing an organ to add to the piano music if anyone was interested in learning to play, my Grandma volunteered straightaway. She practiced diligently, and played for the church until she was in her late 70’s when she began to develop frailty that hindered her ability to continue.

I didn’t start playing piano for the congregation until I had written several songs and started dedicating some time to brush up on the long-neglected ability I had as a girl so I could play my own music. I was only intermittently playing for the church in California a couple of years before I volunteered to learn Sibelius music notation software so we could produce “Songs We Love.” That project improved my sight-reading skills immensely and helped me to grow into the role of playing music for my church.

Now that I’m working on this project as a more experienced musician, I have found many mistakes in my work from 15 years ago. I worry about what kind of mistakes I won’t catch this time around. But I am also returning to those beloved handwritten sheet music pages for source music that represent hours of Grandma’s time and effort. I have come across mistakes she made in the music notation. It doesn’t take away from the benefit our congregation has had for all these years, because we have enjoyed singing those songs as they were. It helps to remind me that I’m doing this project to the best of my ability, just like she did then, and others can continue to enjoy it after I’m gone.