Stuff

Not a ton to update you all on. I gave my first non-karaoke singing performance in a recital on Sunday, and it went well, as far as I know. I don't have any recording of it, and it went by so fast. And one of the big reasons I'm taking voice lessons is because I'm not always great at being able to tell whether I'm singing properly, so I'm not the best judge of my own performance. People did seem to like it. I made it theatrical and entertaining.

One odd thing: The accompanist was sight-reading that day. While it's not a complicated piece, she wasn't able to to make the fun changes I'd hoped to make. She also had trouble following me on tempo changes. And I hadn't expected that she'd play my melody line with her right hand. All of this I discovered in our run-through 15 min. before the recital. So I set myself a different musical challenge. I wasn't able to relenquish all my interpretive freedom, but for the most part I synched myself up with the tempo and rhythm she played; otherwise we just would have sounded bad. I exercised my ensemble muscle instead of my solo muscle. That's OK. In that way, I felt like my old musical experience came to bear.

I had my first rehearsal for the improv-student performing teams on Saturday. The goals are different from those we aim for in class. In class, we go for characters, relationships, and solid scene structure, and rely on humor growing from that. In the performing teams, because we have so little time, we go more for the jokes. So it's a change in mindset, but that's OK. It's all about learning. I'm not thrilled with how I did in rehearsal, but that's also OK, ultimately. It would be weird if I never had a bad class or a bad show. It would be like those couples that never argue-- an indication that there are no risks being taken, and who you really are as a person is being hidden. So, there's a triumph for me: I risked enough to screw up :-).

The other team members are really nice. First performance is tomorrow. Eek! Each rehearsal, each performance -- they all scare me a little. But I hope that pushing through each time results in progress, and isn't just me pushing the same stone up the hill each time.

Yeah, it's gotta have a cumulative effect.