| Date sent: Wed, 5 Jan 2000 14:30:29 EST Subject: Re: Wedding Repertoire & wedding gigs To: vocalist Send reply to: VOCALIST <vocalist>
Hi Jessica;
I'm not a wedding singer myself, so I don't know how valuable this info will be. However, my dearest friend spent over 20 years as organist/musical director/director of liturgy/choral director etc. for various churches here---so I've gotten to know a whole mess of church musicians (some better than I wanted to). It's like a club.
Carl was always leery of the bride's "Aunt Myrna," "Cousin Fred" or - God forbid - the best friend who sings really well with the radio in her car---who were going to sing for a wedding----he much preferred working with professionals or semi-professionals who actually prepared for wedding work.
With this in mind, perhaps your friend could call around to churches in her area, and see if the musicians there will talk to her, give her suggestions, tell her what things they frequently use. (Carl had a particular psalm response that he used for nearly every wedding) Some of them may not be open to a discussion, but I'm guessing that at least a few will--especially if she has training. Plus, once she has gotten some repertoire from them, and they've heard her, they will use her. (and these organists ALL know each other & will refer between churches)
One other thing about the organists----they usually do not care to 'rehearse' with the singer for each wedding. Their thinking is that the singer should learn their music on their own, and come in prepared (except for a run through, perhaps). At least, this is what I get from the AGO (American Guild of Organists) guys in the Milwaukee area. I can't imagine that it's too different elsewhere, they do have a national convention every year, and from the stories I've heard, they've all got alot in common.
Also, many music stores will have a section on wedding music. She could just pick up one or two anthologies. As for guessing which pop song will be the hottest wedding tune--that changes with the wind. She'll probably have to learn those as they come up. (Imagine my lyric baritone buddy trying to sing Luther Vandross--yech)
The wedding fairs are a wonderful idea----there are several coming up in Milwaukee too, so this must be the time of year. Even if she's not quite ready to put her name out there, it would be a great idea to see what's going on at the fairs.
Best of luck to her! If you get a good wedding reputation going, it can be rather lucrative.
Tami Milwaukee
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