Page 398

Sight singing and synchronicity

To keep my musical skills sharp I like to challenge myself by sight reading random songs. I had a few minutes before I logged in to teach a virtual voice lesson so I opened a hymnal and randomly turned to pages 397-398. Page 397 “I Need Thee Every Hour” was already familiar and would defeat the technical purpose of cold sight reading, so I glanced across the page to number 398: “Jesus Calls Me”. Hmmmm…I was pretty sure that I’d never sung that one.

So I observed the key, meter and rhythm, audiated (sang in my head) the melody and intervals, then played just the starting note on the piano. I sang straight through the first verse and chorus. Nailed it!

Feeling accomplished, I closed the book and soon my adult student logged into his online lesson. He leads worship songs at his church so at his lessons we usually sing through the hymns he’ll be leading the following Sunday. I never know the titles until his lesson. His church displays lyrics on big screens for the congregation, but the song leaders use two different traditional hymnals as well as charts for contemporary praise songs. I have my own copies of the hymnals.

My student had just received Sunday’s song list via email from the church pianist and music director. He said, “Well, the first song is a hymn from the red Methodist Hymnal —page 398.”

I laughed and said, “You’re not gonna believe this!”

I mean, what are the odds of me randomly choosing that hymnal and that hymn from a book of 900+ hymns?

More than a coincidence, I’d say that hymn was a message meant for me that day.

“Jesus calls us o’er the tumult

Of our life’s wild restless sea.

Day by day His sweet voice soundeth

Saying “Christian, follow me!”

Page 398 from The United Methodist Hymnal, copyright 1989