Melinda Mills

"(Genesis 3:20) 20 After this Adam named his wife Eve, because she was to become the mother of everyone living. " That includes whomever Adam's sons got married to.

Two created by God, all others procreated. But whom did Jesus die for?

Can't follow the discussion no more - too high for me. Just consider this exhortation. 13 But wicked men and impostors will advance from bad to worse, misleading and being misled. 14 You, however, continue in the things that you learned and were persuaded to believe, knowing from whom you learned them 15 and that from infancy you have known the holy writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is inspired of God and beneficial for teaching, for reproving, for setting things straight, for disciplining in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be fully competent, completely equipped for every good work.

Never used to go, except in lunch break. My children neither. Hope I don't have to go this time.

That sounds nice and jazzy. Nice lessons for the harmonica. You making sweeter sounds than a birdie.

Looking forward to hear what is going to be said about animals/pets at the assembly.

Yes, I remember those times when song 212 (We Thank You) used to be sung at all conventions. It was indeed a favourite for most persons. When I am preparing for the meeting I usually check all the songs. (I still can't sing some of the new ones without the recorded music.) I review them just in case the music does not play at the KH. It is sometimes problematic. Even in "raising" the song one has to know what pitch to start at so the song won't be too high for most persons. This is important as most brothers don't know vocal music. I also check to see if one of those songs I know the alto for is going to be sung, especially "We Thank you Jehovah". I also look forward to singing No.3 in the new Book - "Our strength, Our Hope, Our Confidence". This makes me look forward to the meeting even more when a favourite song is going to be sung. Participation by commenting and singing makes the meeting more enjoyable. It is like bringing a gift for Jehovah and everyone there. And we should not appear before Jehovah empty-handed (unprepared).

True. It hurts when one sees people paying scant attention (or passing notes or giving instructions) during singing which is a big part of our worship. Our music culture needs to be improved - even our vocabulary, e.g. the chairman frequently says we will "use" song No. so and so. We have to sing the song and sing it well. We are doing better but we can still improve our singing and participation in music as part of worship, The general culture now is listening to music rather than playing and singing. The smaller keyboards can suffice, as well as guitars. My keyboard could hold into my car trunk. I don't know much about the wind instruments but I like the sounds, especially the horn and the euphonium. I love the sound of your harmonica also. I always had a keyboard since in my twenties. I now have an electric piano, which is too large to move around with. It was easy to move with the small Yamaha PR 30 keyboard which I had. It had many features including recorders, but no pedals, and less than 88 keys which made playing certain things difficult. But the the present electric piano (Privia) has all those features and more, and with all the keys and pedals. The piano can be moved but in a large van but I think to move it around would damage it, so I don't intend to move it.

Only found out last week that Mozart is the author of the melody for Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. It's a bit more sophisticated than the tune we now know, though.

Someone once said that the reason why songs sound similar is that there are only eight notes on the stave. So most songs have the same notes. Simple but true.

I was going to mention this song, and you got to mention it first. This is one of the songs for which the little choir was taught altos. I can still remember that alto after all these years but I think this song was missing from the book in recent years, if I am not mistaken. I am glad it is back in the book. I just looked it up. The old one was in the key of D, but this one is in C and just about three accidentals in the bass. I will add this song to the ones I want to practise on the piano as well as the two you mentioned above. "We thank You Jehovah" is another. The bass is even more beautiful than the alto. I sung the alto the other day and a sister looked back and said, "that was beautiful, Melinda". I think there is one or two more songs for which the alto was taught for that occasion but can't recall them now. (That brother is deceased now and I am glad that I can still remember these altos - that his work lives on.) It is so good when we have the same appreciation for these things.

Agree. However, with this one, I was taught the alto for the branch dedication in 1967. However, now the first part has been changed I can no longer sing it. It was a beautiful alto. Sometimes I am still tempted to sing the alto for the second portion.

About the colour of the song books, I saw my parents with the red and green one, but I was not aware of these things at that age. Only knew that I used to sing from the green one, but the red one was hanging around as well. Thanks for clearing that up. Will save those pictures.

"Ave Maria!, (Latin: “Hail Mary”), original German title Ellens Gesang (“Ellen’s Song”) III, song setting, the third of three songs whose text is derived of a section of Sir Walter Scott’s poem The Lady of the Lake(1810) by Austrian composer Franz Schubert. It was written in 1825. Probably because of the song’s opening words, Schubert’s melody has since been adopted for use with the traditional Roman Catholic prayer (in Latin) of the same name. Although the song is a prayer, Schubert’s “Ave Maria!” was not written with religious practices or the Catholic church in mind. " Taken from Internet. Yes, quite a few of these compositions were taken over by the church but were not written for religious purposes as can be seen in the quote above. However, I won't sing this attractive song because "Ave Maria" means Hail Mary and one could think we are worshipping her like the Catholics. There is also a pop song with those words in the chorus which I don't sing either. On Handel's Messiah, I can play a small part of the Hallelujah chorus which is in one of the piano tutor books, but I have not had time to listen to it although I have a CD with it, which was given to me. Handel, like Schubert, developed it without the church, but it later came to be required agenda in Christmas services, although it is not really about Christmas. They say Handel wrote the music but one of his friends (Jennings) wrote the words, part of which were taken from a church prayer book but the majority were from the Bible books prophesying about the Messiah.

Double check - I think the colour of the 1950 song book was red.

That's a shame that your father had to keep them under wraps. It was still able to influence your taste in music and interest in playing music. Reminds me of what happened to people like Galileo and others who had to hide beneficial beliefs from others because of the ignorance of some in authority. My take is that these gifts are from God, and that they were allowed to come about to uplift mankind when things were especially dark in the world; e.g. lack of human rights, slavery, inquisitions, concentration camps, etc. There was even a period called the "Dark Ages". Some pieces of classical music are so good that you feel you were transported "out of this world" for a few minutes. ( Look at the comments under these videos of classical music. Also look at he attendance at some of these concerts and what people pay to attend.) Many people in their comments say it is a shame such good music is in the world and few people know about it. Look at the quality of the music that is played daily - cannot even compare. Look at the Jewish lady (I think she was from Poland) that survived the concentration camps because she could play music to a very high level and they let her live, though other members of her family perished. Also a lot of the music written by Handel, for example, was written for the enjoyment of mankind but the church, being powerful at the time, hijacked it for themselves and called it church music. All brothers are not unappreciative. In the seventies on the occasion of a new Kingdom Hall dedication, classical music was played in the background before the start of the dedication service. We have so much theocratic music now that that won't be needed now, that but that is just to show that all brothers are not prejudiced to classical music. I have just remembered that Mozart was introduced to me through the high school I attended. Every morning before the school prayers, it would be played on the school stereo until the headteacher came in to start prayers. Afterwards I got the LP with some of his Concertos.

I like Mozart the best as well, but I believe I was partial to his music since I got a gift of a long-playing LP with quite a few of his concertos when I was at high school. I used to listen to them over and over again; my eldest brother also became an enthusiast and used to borrow it from me often. Recently I fell in love with Andante from Mozart's Concerto No. 21. I also discovered Rachmaninov, one of the composers from the Romantic period (just after Mozart, Lizst, Chopin, etc) I think he was a Russian. The pop song, All by Myself is derived, from his Concerto No. 2, Adagio Sostenuto. I also love singing and was fairly competent at it, but ageing affects one's lung capacity, I believe.

Good thing you don't live in the Caribbean - that would be accepted as lyrics for a double entendre calypso for the carnival season.

Don't apologize about the babblings, we are not one-dimensional, we are complex people and music comes from the whole person and his experiences. More likely than not you are multi-talented. It just has to be cultivated. In fact we are all musical. Look how quickly the brothers learned the new songs in 2009 and 2016 and they sing from screens with just words. In the new system we will have time to discover lots of things about ourselves. I enjoyed what you wrote. People, I believe, are changing because they are distracted by technology. Persons who stick to what humanity is about will always have rich lives and people will always enjoy having them around. Look at a few videos on Youtube and see how people enjoy singing, playing music, and sincere expression of the human spirit. They want to clap forever.

Someone wrote that for entertainment it seems. I know you had posted it some time ago.

Excellent playing! Thanks for that. I love that one too. That one is fairly difficult and you performed it well. The one I was practising is No. 43 in the new song book- "A Prayer of Thanks" in key of C. My favourite song though among the newer ones is "Beauty in Grayheadedness" - No. 138. Just realized that grey is spelled 'gray' in the song heading. Maybe a US thing. Also thanks for the background information on the harmonica and the chromonica. Getting an education already. Off to a good start. Also like the rules you laid down int he penultimate paragraph. (Check messages)

He performed well so it can't be performance fears I was talking about. He probably wanted me only to hear it and he achieved that.

Yes, posted a video and it was nice. He was playing a classical piece. on the harmonica.

You are world class! I performed for the adults in the little piano school I go to, but you performed for the world! It pleased me mightily! The teacher is a young woman about 30, but she is professionally trained and has the insight of a 60 year old. She was helping us to get over our fear of performing. That was my second performance. The first one was at a nice new school on a new piano. It was held in February. Audience of about 200. I played Hungarian Rhapsody Theme. Yesterday was just an end of term performance so we could help our peers get over performance fears. I played Black Forest Polka and a piece I used to play when I was eleven in key of G. They were astounded I could still remember it although I never had the book with it. It was owned by the teacher. She would let me play from that book for a change. "If you don't recognize the tune, it never made the cut for Kingdom Songs." Too funny! I enjoyed it so much that although I know the piece, I can't write the name of it. Sounds like Bach. My preferred kind of music is classical, so you did well. Hi JWI, Funny but I am still playing Kingdom Songs from the big brown 1984 book. (And my copy still looks new) They are about seven songs in there that I used to play well (13, 14,15 , 17 and 201) and I have just continued where I left off. In the new book I am working on No 43 - A Prayer of Thanks and 115 Gratitude for Divine Patience which I also used to play before. I pick the ones where the music is simpler. I rather play in C than with four flats or sharps. The best one is 15 Life without End - At Last! No. 15 in the old book in the key of C. In the new book it is in Aflat major I think with four flats. I sometimes turn the function key from piano to Pipe (Church) Organ and pretend to be an organist. Some brothers are prejudiced to the organ, so I play it for myself. These new electric pianos can sound like almost any instrument by just the touch of a switch. Love of music is God-given and he is not against music, but everything must be put in its place. I decided to continue my music as it is said to help the brain. If you don't use it you lose it. Music helps us to use a part of the brain that is not frequently used. It also helps to build a high level of discipline, listening ability, appreciation, tolerance and other good qualities. Look up the benefits. They have also come across quite a few Alzheimers persons who can still play although they are not very functional otherwise. So that says something. It helps one also to be able to enjoy oneself when alone. So don't put the harmonica back into the case, do a little practise every day. Hope to post something if I get it recorded. Like you and Anna, I like Bible study, language, fine art and music. If they put me in prison rest assured I will sing not Dee Dum Bum Bum , but "Firm and Determined in this Time of the End... from "Forward You Witnesses!" 29 in 1984 book. Was singing it since the 1950s, so don't think that is coming out of my brain now. I will simply read and sing the new words but the old words are etched there for good. (Let Rook know)

Too funny! Could still be a theme, but for a blog or a book. The righteous must take care of everything that is his, especially souls - human or animal. God sets the example. Taking care is not worshipping, though.