You’ve found a perfect piece of music for your church wedding. You mention it to your musician and you get back a “what’s that”? look. Or a response like “I don’t think I have that in my library.” Or worse, “I know I don’t have that piece.”
What to do?
Don’t worry, this doesn’t have to be the end of the world. Here are some tips for getting past this little hurdle.
When this happens
This is a not-so-uncommon occurrence for vocal solo music. But it can also happen with almost any piece of music (believe it or not, every musician doesn’t have a complete library of every piece ever published!). Fortunately though, most experienced church musicians or larger churches have thorough libraries built over the years that contain most pieces you might suggest.
But, if the musician just doesn’t have the music you want, what’s next?
Next steps?
There’s two things that have to happen in this situation:
- First (obviously), the music must be found and obtained
- Second, the musician will need to learn the music
One alternative for you is to just select a different piece of music.
That’s a real possibility and depending on how soon your wedding is, this may need to your next step.
But that’s not the alternative I want to focus on now.
I want to help you get the music you want for your wedding ceremony, because that’s the music that will make it extra special for you. Let’s save the alternative for a last resort.
Don’t wait to get started
So don’t necessarily drop the idea just because the musician doesn’t have the piece unless there isn’t enough time left before the wedding date to find and buy and learn the music.
This is a great reason to start your wedding music planning early: well in advance, not just one or two months in advance. An early start will help guarantee you get what you want!
So that’s my first tip: Start early and you have a better chance of getting the music you want!
The extra chapter on wedding music planning timelines, part of my Guide to Selecting Memorable Church Wedding Music will help you lay out your schedule in advance.
Someone needs to buy the music
If the music needs to be bought, someone—either you or the musician—needs to buy it. It’s generally best if the musician buys it.
He or she will be better able to find it (after all, do you know where to look for music?).
He or she will best know what to look for (you don’t want to waste time buying piano music when organ music was needed or vice versa). And if you don’t know what to look for, why risk buying the wrong thing and ending up further behind schedule?
Assuming the musician buys and pays for it be sure to recognize the extra effort they’re going through on your behalf.
Resources if you need to buy the music
But, if (for whatever reason) you end up buying the music or if you want to check to see how readily available a piece is, where do you turn?
My absolute first suggestion is Sheet Music Plus . They have the easiest-to-use search capability I’ve seen. In most cases, you won’t need to look any further.
Another suggestion is JW Pepper .
Both of these are music wholesalers. They’re not the publishers – they carry music from many publishers – which makes them great places to start.
If you need to try some specific publishers, here are some places you could look (in no particular order):
- Concordia Publishing House
- Edition Peters
- Augsburg-Fortress Publishing
- Wayne Leupold Publishing
- The Lorenz Corporation
- Alfred Music Publishing
- MorningStar Music Publishers
Yes, it’s a long list. Fortunately, sheetmusicplus.com is so good at finding things, you may not need to look elsewhere.
Has this happened to you?
Have you “stumped” your musician? What happened and how did it work out (and how far in advance of the wedding did it occur)? Please tell your story in a comment below. I’d love to hear it!
© 2010, Wedding Music Unveiled. All rights reserved.
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More good advice. We’ve had to learn songs pretty last minute on occasion; so it’s really appreciated when you’re told what needs to be played early on
It’s amazing how much trouble can be avoided for everyone a little bit of planning ahead. Thanks for the comment.