In Tune

Or, Musical Mishaps

By: Pamela Call Johnson

Narrated by: Sarah Neale

"Uplifting and humorous short stories about playing hymns for LDS congregations in small branches in the Midwest." (Around and Around)

One of the church families was moving. There was a farewell party at the McCready home. McCready’s home is a large three-story farmhouse off the main street - probably a real farmhouse at one time. The McCready family home is large, and so is the family; the mother teaches piano lessons and music part-time in the local schools and knows music well. During the course of the evening, Sister McCready taught us a fast and easy way to lead music - just use a circle. It’ll do the job. No matter what time the music is, the circle works. Move your hand around and around in a circle, smile and sing, and nobody will know the difference.

Well, only those who know the difference will know the difference; and if there are some of those in attendance, they will be doing the leading.

It was a fun party. More than 20 years later, looking at the picture I took then, the ones who were there have left the area. At the time, we had only been in South Dakota a few months. I had no idea what a big change for us was coming. It was a change where people leading music with a circle was a reality and a fact of life. It was a change where I would dearly miss the strength of people like Brother and Sister McCready. It was a change that would impact our lives forever. We would move to a depressed, struggling congregation and spend five years there fighting with all we had to strengthen it. We would grow and develop in a way that permanently influenced us, and I would learn the value of good music and how it could bring the spirit to our lives through the worst of times.

©2017, 2020 Pamela Call Johnson (P)2021 Pamela Johnson