So today actually went so much better than I thought. Thanks for all of your comments and ideas. I don't dislike the song itself, I just don't feel it is a whole primary song, it would be beautifully done by a YW small group. Also I think the song had been on lds.org, but it was lost when they started to redo the website, that's about all I can think of.
First: With the loss of time from Testimonies going over, and all the confusion from the first Sunday of the year, we started really late. I had brought my 'SUNS' to welcome our new Sunbeams and do wiggle songs with them. While the Primary Presidency was trying to get everyone where they needed to go, we started having our new Sunbeams pick 'Suns'. When it was time for Singing time we did a couple more then learned the Chorus to "If I Listen With My Heart", in the end I put a short bit of ASL (sign language) to go to the chorus. The little children too right to it and loved it. I will film myself doing it and put it on the blog for anyone who would like to see it. We ended JR doing one more wiggle song with our 'Suns'.
Second: Teaching the first verse to the SR primary went so much better than I worried, still not great. It is a hard song to learn, melody and words and all. But they were troopers. And I tried to have a positive outlook and energy for them.
Third: Before primary I talked to our Primary President and the councilors and expressed my feelings and asked for their thoughts. I suggested a number of suggestions (make it a musical number, have SR primary do the verses and JR just do chorus, do only one verse...) We discuses it a bit and said we'd talk about it after church. They all saw me teaching it, heard the song, ect. After church we talked and came to what I feel is the best conclusion. I feel so good about it. We are going to start our program with this song, the first verse is going to be a solo, we have the young girl picked out and feel so good about it. This young lady has a speak impediment. For almost a year now has been taking private voice lessons as a way to treat her speak impediment. Her mother had mentioned to one of the councilors that it would be wonderful if she had a chance to preform in one of our program's musical numbers since she doesn't get recital to preform and that way she could have something in her voice lessons to work towards. The second verse is going to be sung by a small group of our older girls with the young lady who sung the first verse. On the choruses and the 3rd verse the entire primary will sing. So now I only need to teach the third verse to the entire primary, and that is a bit less daunting then the whole song. As we spoke we all felt so good about this choice. When I told my husband I just felt so comforted that this was the best choice and the choice that was right for our primary. I am grateful that the Lord answers prays and knows what is best. One of the councilors afterwards mentioned that maybe my feelings were more inspired than frustrated because if I had not felt this way we would have never come up with this wonderful solution.
Thanks again for all who read and for all who left comments. I too love to oo, la, bump, buzz, or moo to a song to help the children use the melody, we did that today.
I will record the chorus ASL and post is as soon as I can get it ready.
I'm an Arizona Girl. I can't say that I don't love the Mountains of Utah or Colorado, or that I don't miss the perfect white beaches of Northern Florida, but the desert is a different kind of beautiful that I never want to leave. Blog Purpose: to keep our friends updated on our life and to share ideas as my ward's Primary Chorister
4 comments:
It's amazing how the Lord can fill in the gaps for you at the last minute! I still wasn't sure how exactly I was going to present this song today, but during Sr. primary, I just got up there and started talking, and I know that what I did and said was inspired because I got teary, and I saw a few of the older kids look a little emotional. The Spirit at work! We must have been "listening with our hearts"...ha ha! I am sure that sweet little girl will be the perfect way to present the spirit of the song in the program. Beautiful!
It can always be hard when you don't feel connected with the song, but it sounds like you did a great job. The composer, Sally DeFord, has her own personal website with a recording on it also. She has a few different arrangements of the song too. We are actually using the one for the 'low voice solo' because I think the piano arrangement sounds so much better than the simplified version. You can check it out at http://www.defordmusic.com/ifilistenwithmyheart.htm and even print out the sheet music for that arrangement! Good luck!
What I find difficult about this song is the lack of rhyming. I did find some good ideas at sugardoodle to get their attention with sounds to start with. I have a very very young Junior Primary (the oldest kids in there are 5 and in kindergarten because our Senior Primary is so small they added all the 6-11 together). I just added about 6 Sunbeams. I did find that they will learn difficult songs if you get the parents to work with them on it. And I found that by adding "Scripture Power" which we decided would be perfect for this year gives them an outlet that they love. I agree that it is a difficult song to teach and learn, and I wonder sometimes why they don't pick some of the beautiful older songs from the Primary songbooks instead of insisting on new songs every year.
I have been working on this song, and I have been frustrated by the lack of rhyming. It really helps the younger kids.
I loved reading your post, it's really helped me in preparing to teach the song this Sunday.
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