Church Pianist: Humorous Story
Having so many hymns in my memory bank has its advantages as well as its disadvantages…
Ever realized the similarities in the hymns “Face to Face” and “He the Pearly Gates Will Open”? Some of you may have never heard of the last hymn mentioned. Maybe it’s a good thing 😉
Years ago, I accompanied our song leader singing a solo of “Face to Face”. I started off playing the correct melody on the verse but somehow transitioned into the chorus of “He the Pearly Gates Will Open”. Our song leader went right along with the flow!
I didn’t realize what I had done until he brought it to my attention after the service.
Notice the similarities between these two hymns..especially both choruses.
Tags: church pianist, face to face, he the pearly gates, jenifer cook
Jenifer,
I was playing face to face one time and got it mixed up with All that thrills my soul is Jesus. 🙂 Nelda
Funny…I could see where that would have been an easy mixup! 😉
Hi-just stumbled upon your site and am enjoying it! Am I missing something or is ‘Face to Face’ on there twice? Should the one on the right be ‘He the Pearly Gates…’?
Call it your uncanny ability to create impromptu hymn medleys!
My church pianist hasn’t been notifying me of all my email and trying to catch all the emails that didn’t make it to my inbox. Sorry about that! Thanks SO much for flagging me about the duplicate hymns! I’ve since corrected the picture 🙂
By the way….I like your explanation for my mistake…hahaha! I’ll have to remember this one!
Loren shares…
1. I recall the time that our old church organ had an electrical fire during the service. I was playing the organ at the time. Needless to say, there was a brief interruption while some guys helped me to literally take the burning section out the back door and put it on a snow pile. Amazingly, after about 6 months, one of our members was able to repair and put the organ back into service.
2. I had military duty one particular Sunday and could not play with Louise, so she recruited her mother to play the piano while she presumed to be able to play the organ. Knowing how tricky and somewhat temperamental this organ could be, I urged Louise to turn it on well before the service began and to make sure that everything was working properly. Louise got side tracked greeting people, and did not remember to turn on the organ until immediately before the service was to begin. She was to do the introduction for the 1st hymn, and was completely shocked when the only sound coming from the organ was “guttural grunts” (her words). Loren