Heavenly Peace

I was recently asked by a friend of mine to perform at a Christmas Concert that she was organizing. She asked if I’d sing and play “Silent Night” on the guitar, and I said yes. For those of you who don ’t know, the piano is my main instrument and is always my first choice when it comes to accompanying myself as a singer/songwriter. However, because I was specifically asked to play it on guitar, I figured "Why not?" and so I agreed. I found a nice guitar arrangement of the song on YouTube and went to work learning the chords and the fingerpicking pattern.

The day of the event comes, and it is

freezing outside! The venue is a warehouse-

type building, so it’ s also cold inside. This makes me a little concerned because singing in a cold building can be challenging. Just like our muscles tense up when cold water or air touches us, the vocal cords can do the same making it harder to sing. I go outside to tune my guitar and run over the song a couple of times. Once I feel comfortable, I go back inside and wait for my turn to soundcheck. While I’ m waiting, I begin running over the song and realize my tuning is a little flat. I’ m not too surprised though because cold (and warm) weather can also affect the tuning of your instrument. I figure as much and go back outside to retune my guitar. When it’ s my turn for soundcheck, I go on stage and test my guitar. Immediately, I realize it’ s out of tune. AGAIN. And it’ s significantly flat this time. I literally just tuned it a few minutes ago, so I know it’ s not going to stay in tune. It’ s too cold in the building. I start to panic a little because I didn ’t learn the song on the piano. I take a deep breath and pause,

giving myself a moment to think. I walk over to the house band and ask them if they could pick up my arrangement of "Silent Night" and play it for them on my phone. As they begin to play it, I notice that it's a little too fast, so I kindly asked them to slow it down some. At this point during soundcheck, there s not

enough time for a full run-

through with me and the band, so we just go over enough of the song to get the feel. I walk to my seat because the show is about to begin, and I am praying, hard. My nerves start to get the best of me, but I remember that I’ m singing Silent Night. ”“ I’ m singing the song about the birth of my Savior, and what an honor it is to do so.

I’ m enjoying the other acts singing their songs, then it’ s finally my turn to sing. I go on stage, the band starts the song, and I

know immediately that it’ s too slow. I try to

go with it anyway, but my nerves are making me lose breath support. We get to the second verse and I know I can ’t keep singing at this slow of a tempo, so I gesture to the band to speed it up a little. It's sounding good, but my voice sounds a little shaky. Then, I begin to focus on the words of the song. We get to the ending, and I’ m singing one word. “Peace. ” That one word begins to calm my nerves and put everything back into perspective. Yes, it was freezing in that building, but “ peace. ” No, my guitar wouldn t stay in tune, but peace. ” Yes,

“ I was shaking and extremely nervous to sing with a band I didn ’t have a lot of time to rehearse with, but “ peace.

Heavenly peace.