Planning a Funeral

Planning a funeral can be quite an emotionally taxing experience. Not only are there tons of arrangements to make for the service, but also there is added pressure to plan a funeral service according to the wishes of the deceased. One way to combat this stress, is by planning ahead of time what services type, pastor, church, songs, and family members the ill family member would like to include in the service. Many funeral homes even have a pre-planning form that can be filled out before the passing of a loved one in order to assuage the stress of planning a funeral. Furthermore, many funeral homes even keep these forms on file. One example of a pre-planning form is from Macken Funeral Homes from Rochester, MN. For more information, contact me at KCVocalist@gmail.com.

Finding Help on Short Notice

Even if you have amazing organizational skills, there will be times that you will need to find musicians for you special events on short notice. In these situations, the best place you can look is to people you trust for referrals. Here are some ideas of people you can ask:
1. Friends who have just thrown a special event--it's likely that whoever played, sang, or DJd the event was not the only person who was considered for the job, so ask friends for anyone else they found along the way.
2. Your local church--the music directors at churches often have ideas of people who can perform at your event and are extremely connected in the music community.
3. Wedding or funeral coordinators--these people have been in the business for years and probably have worked with musicians in the past that they could refer you to.
4. Choir, band, and orchestra directors--being leaders of a large groups, these directors have a good idea of who plays or sings and who is the most trained for your event.
5. Other musicians--most musicians are pretty well connected in the music world and could direct you to a musician best suited for your needs.

For more information, contact me at Kcvocalist@gmail.com.

Thumbtack

Thumbtack is a great website that allows service professionals to list their businesses. Check out my special event singing listing!

Go2Wed

This wonderful website is designed specifically for brides living in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, North Dakota, and South Dakota. It is full of useful information about how to plan your wedding, creative ideas for making your day special, and information on the different vendors in your area. They hold wedding fairs approximately twice a year, which are great sources of information and ideas. Check out their website at www.go2wed.com.

Tips for Orchestrating Practices

If you've hired musicians who are going to collaborate for your special event, it is important for those musicians to practice together--especially if they haven't played together before. This practice is important for a number of reasons: 1. the musicians can work out kinks in the music 2. the musicians can work out things like transitions, dynamics, tempos, and breaks and 3. you get to hear the piece before your event and change things to fit your preference. This third point is one of the most neglected areas--partly because the coordinator of the event is usually too busy with other things to attend this rehearsal--but it is critical in determining preference of style. It can't be assumed that a musician will know exactly what style you would like a song to be performed if you haven't told them, so either be specific about the song, or be present at the rehearsal to direct any changes necessary. For more information, contact me at KCVocalist@gmail.com.

Instrumental Music For Special Events

With the vast options for instrumental music out there, it becomes very overwhelming to decide how to go about finding instrumental music. Here are a couple of tips for finding instrumental music that will work for you:
1. Ask your instrumentalist if he/she has any ideas. Many times musicians have played or been to many different weddings or special events and have great ideas.
2. Ask church musicians what is usually played at these kinds of events
3. Find a composer you like and listen to his/her music--after deciding what genre or feel you want at your event, start listening to music. Once you find a song you like in particular, look at the composers other works. A lot of times the composer will have a similar sound to many different compositions.
4. Find a song you like, youtube it, and see what youtube pulls up as suggestions of what else you might want to listen to--many times you will find you like their suggestions!
5. Use the soundtrack of your favorite film score--this type of music is composed solely for the purpose of creating mood and interest without being distracting.
If you would like more tips, please contact me at KCVocalist@gmail.com.