The church choir year is winding down for us, and I couldn’t be happier. We have sang and rang bells since September, and now have one more service to ring at next Sunday. Then we are done for the summer.
There are only eighteen active musicians at our church, plus two organists. Many of us perform in both the choir and the bell ensemble. We are a rather large congregation with around 500 members, but it is only we few who keep the music going. That gets a little disappointing and exhausting at times. The congregation is quite thrilled with the music we provide.
We were pretty tickled at choir last week to hear that a congregation member who is a rancher wanted to thank the musicians for all our work, and donated 100 lbs of ground beef from his own cows to us. It came in 2 pound packages and had been processed at a butcher shop in Belfield, a little town just west of Dickinson. It was a rather unusual gift, but certainly heartfelt. It was also a reminder that we truly live in the West. We will all be fortified to start in again after our summer off.
What are your experiences in music ensembles? What are your favorite bird songs?
Trail Baboon 
I played in a combo in high school. We had practically no repertoire, and performed in maybe three gigs. I did it again when I was in my ’60s. We learned four songs and played at a wedding reception.
The second time around, we all had money, nice instruments, and more discipline. We were actually pretty good. However, most of us were still working and had lives to conduct. It didn’t last.
We have lots of birds around the house; many of which, according to the wife, are migratory. One of these, I don’t know which because I’ve never been able to spot him, is apparently from Mexico.
Chimichanga, he seems to say.
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I sang in choirs in high school and college, but gave it up when I was 23. I have come to regret that. I picked up bells at 70, and that’s about all the music I do any more. Had I kept up with choirs during the decades in between, I’m sure that I could still sing. Now I kind of grumble and croak along with hymns and sung responses.
As much Church music as I write, https://www.youtube.com/@alexataiwan3
one would think that I could sing it. Alas!
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I have zero musical ability. When my daughter lived in Rhame by you, it was common for them to receive beef from ranchers.
Clyde
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Oh, and oriole.
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Cardinals dominate the avian chorus in our neighborhood.
I played jug in a jug band one night on an open stage.
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I started in band in Grade 5 on the clarinet. In Grade 7 I switched to bass clarinet, and played electric bass in the jazz band. Since you can’t march with a bass clarinet, I played bass drum in the marching band. I also was in choir and sang in the jazz ensemble there, too. I played bass clarinet in the Concordia concert band for 4 years. I did no music in grad school, but joined the church choir when we moved here. I never owned a bass clarinet. It is one of those instruments that school and colleges provide. I was able to borrow a bass clarinet for a couple of years here to play in the city band. Husband played cello in the high-school orchestra, and played in the city orchestra here for a couple of years.
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The music gene is absent in my family, but it is strong in Sandra’s Russian heritage, which was passed onto my daughter. Her husband’s family is the same, giving their two children strong musical ability. Their daughter was in marching band and choir in college. Mr. Tuxedo avoided instrumental music at Concordia because you can’t do both speech and music. My daughter can compose music and has written many songs, nothing noteworthy as she admits.
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Budgies, of course. And here is where I vent on a specific YouTube channel that is supposed to help at home budgies sing along with a flock.
Safa is the channel that has many videos. The camera records a dozen and more budgies in a cage the size I would have for two budgies. One of the birds has a severe beak and face infection. Many are laboring to breathe. I and several other viewers have commented on the deplorable condition of this flock and we get a stupid smiley face upvote from the poster. I’ve even reported the channel to YouTube as animal abuse.
The heading advertises budgies singing and playing, and the sound is for “lonely” budgies. B.S!
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Wessex, I think about you often. Sandra’s assisted living place has had an aviary about 6 x 6 x 3 sitting unused in a seldom used lounge for a couple years. Some business did not want it anymore and donated it. 2 months ago they moved out into the main lounge and put birds in it, I do not know what kind. I worry they have a person with the right knowledge tending the birds. It is in the memory care unit. I have never seen a patient even glance at it.
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I’ve seen finches in a number of memory care and assisted living locations. Quite often, the aviary is a glass enclosure. That’s rather sad, IMO.
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Yes glass. Not finches
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Oops. Those are finch beaks
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I was in choruses all through high school and college, and several community ones as an adult
Favorite birdsongs that I can identify are white-throated sparrows, robins, and purple martins, but there are SO many I hear and would love to know WHO IS THAT? I understand I should get the Merlin app on my phone…
OT: May not be on the Trail for the next few days – college people having a reunion across the river in Trempealeau, and it’s going to be fun, and crazy here.
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I like being scolded by the wrens in our yard.
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A Really Slow Start Today!
I played clarinet from age 10 to age 40. During that time there were many small and large groups, as well as solos. The culmination was my college sophomore recital in which I played Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto in A Minor which lasts 32 minutes. It is a beast. I sang in choirs a bit, but I really never had much of a voice to offer there.
Re: birds. I also love those wrens. There is a wren house in the tree in front of the living room window. I saw a bird checking it out the other day. We have pilleated woodpeckers that fly through the yard screeching. I hardly geta glimpse of those, but you hear them!
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How wonderful!
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I was a huge music fan as a kid and loved all of the Broadway musicals and sang along with Oklahoma and enjoyed lots of things like the flower drum song, and my fair lady had my own record collection, including Rusty in Orchestra Ville and took up guitar in grade school which was kind of a solo event for me until three guys invited me to be the lead singer in their band and I transformed them from a metal band playing all Jimi Hendrix and cream kind of stuff to an acoustic band that played Bob Dylan Crosby stills and Nash James Taylor, that sort of thing that lasted through high school and then I put the guitar down for the most part would pick it up on occasion, but didn’t get started again until about 15 years ago when I joined the guitar circle that took time off during the pandemic, but then restarted in my garage. We now get together every Wednesday night this week being the exception I switched it to tonight because my son is in a piano recital tomorrow afternoon, followed by the Timberwolves game and I am a big Timberwolves fan have been when they were bad and now I am appreciating them when they’re good. I plan on picking up additional instruments with some serious practicing once my feet get settled. I have Trumpet accordion piano bass and trombone on my wish list maybe harp harmonica and other woodwinds and brass as well as cello and violin. looking forward. i was in a chior at macphail for a couple years snd loved it. have a three man group now and hope to play more as time goes on.
it wins out when i do the what do i want to do with my lfe anaylsis so im guessing ill plug it in soon
birds
new red wing blackbird in the yard this year . i love it
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entered junior high school that was my first public school experience and they asked what music class we wanted to pursue band orchestra or choir if choir was the choice what choirs were you in in grade school? Seeing as I came from Catholic school I wasn’t involved in any of that, and so I signed up for general music, and when the choir director went around halfway through the year, listening to voices, he asked me what I was doing in general music and I told him I was in Catholic school and he said oh well you have to come to be in concert choir right now and sing base that was the beginning of my music career. That’s what got me into the band that those guys invited me into because they knew I was in concert choir and had the hippie appeal that would be required in the band setting and it just turned out perfectly kind of by accident
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The vultures who fly over our neighborhood are silent.
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I had Merlin going for quite awhile today. When I step outside, the first birds are almost always the house sparrows, robins and cardinals. Then the next most common birds are house finches, goldfinches, catbirds, blue jays, crows, downy woodpeckers, chimney swifts, wrens and chickadees.
Some days you can hear mourning doves, Eurasian collared doves, and rock pigeons.
Today there were warblers -yellow, chestnut-sided, bay-breasted, and Tennessee. Warbling vireo, cedar waxwing, chipping sparrow, cowbird, red-winged blackbird, brewer’s blackbird, tufted titmouse, oriole. At Raspberry Island there were song sparrows and at least one spotted sandpiper.
White-throated sparrows have the most beautiful song, but I also like to hear nuthatches in the trees. They have a distinctive muttering song,and sometimes they just emit a chip call that sounds to me like they’re saying “Hey. Hey Hey.”
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I love to hear the mourning doves, too.
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I’ve been in various church choirs since I was a kid. Mostly pleasant experiences, although my last choir got to be too heavy a lift. Hard to explain but the choir director was just not my cup of tea and it was at a time when I was re-thinking my commitment to the church itself.
I love listening to my little trio of woodpeckers!
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Late to the Trail as I was rehearsing with school choirs during the day and had a concert out in Minnetonka this evening. I have had many musical experiences throughout my life. I’ve sung in church choirs since I was in early elementary school and continue that now. I sang in school choirs from grade 7 – 12. Instrumentally, I played clarinet from grade 5 through 12 – sat first chair as a freshman (junior high school) and again as a senior. Piano was and continues to be my first love. I only took lessons from 4th through 12th grade – every thing since then has been self taught. I have accompanied many choirs, small ensembles, soloists, and was at the pit band keyboard for our high school musical (“South Pacific”) as a senior. That year I was also one of the keyboard accompanists for a community performance of “The Messiah”. I chose not to major in music in college – can barely reach an octave with my small hands so piano performance was never an option – because music was and continues to be my therapy.
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