Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Music in Seminary

    Even though I am a musician it took me a few years to realize that having a class of seminary students who weren't musical did not cancel out having music. Music is a language that any one can speak if exposed to it unapologetically. In our class we use the Hymn Book but we cycle through songs from the Seminary Curriculum, the Children's Songbook, and one of my favorite places to get free music, the Hoffman House. Melanie and Roger Hoffman have been favorite composers for decades. Who hasn't heard the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sing "Consider the Lillies of the Field"? Yup, that's them.


 This year we will definitely be singing Melanie and Roger Hoffman's "Savior". This song is simple but such a conduit to the Spirit of the Lord.
  There is also the "Song of the River" which was published in the New Era. I love the message and the tune.
  I also noticed an accompaniment to "More Holiness Give Me". You sing straight out of the hymn book but the piano part is an arrangement.

Savior-http://www.hoffmanhouse.com/sheet/SaviorC.pdf

Song of the River-http://www.hoffmanhouse.com/sheet/SongfortheRiver.pdf

   If you are not musical can you still bring this powerful tool to seminary? Of course! Have a CD player, I-pod, whatever in your classroom. Use it before class, during your lesson while they are writing in their journals, at the end to punctuate your message, and allow the spirit to teach through music.

Download seminary curriculum music here.

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