![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Things I'm doing: Singing
May. 27th, 2023 11:08 pmTuesday this week was the yearly outdoor performance of eight small choirs of the city. It's a small event in the park, there's no stage and the seating is beer benches or folding chairs. It's free, and people can just walk in, find a seat or sit on the grass, and listen for as long as they like. Which is nice.
The performers stand with their backs to a 300 year old orangery, singing towards the garden, unplugged, and while it's a lovely place, it's not a great setup for small amateur choirs. The sound just gets lost, and you hardly hear what the person next to you is singing. Plus, if the day has been warm, the evenings are quite damp.
We did OK, but I many of the other choirs were struggling (as they do every year). It's a bit sad.
At least this time it was a cool, dry, windy day, turning to a cool, dry, windy, not-damp evening, which was something. And afterwards we went for pizza.
--
Which completed a week of too much pizza, but that's another story.
--
I've been singing in this choir for 23 years come November, and while I generally like it, it forms some habits, and one of the worst is anxiety, which leads to drama. I won't bore you with it, I'm boring more than enough people with it already. It's not grand opera.
So I decided some time ago that I need more music in my life, and Thursday last week I showed up at the rehersal of one of the large (still amateur) choirs in the city. Ceridwen and Gwydion have been members for years and had talked to the orga, so a heap of sheet music (and a bunch of compliments for our performance in the park) was waiting for me when I showed up, and ... goodness. I'm scared.
What we will be performing (in November) is Mendelsson's "Lobgesang", which is a) hard to sing (not difficult musically, but physically), b) long, and c) a bit beyond my comfortable range (which is high mezzo). I'll have to do everyhing right with that one, or it will end in pain.
And something by John Rutter, which spends even more time on Bb5
OK. I wanted a challenge. I can do this (I think), it's going to be interesting, and it's damn beautiful music.
--
What I still cannot do well is singing with a micro. I don't know *what* I'm doing wrong, but last band practise ten days ago killed my talking voice for hours. One should think that it'd be easier with a PA system, but it's easier the same way that sailing is easier than swimming, I guess: You have to know how to do it.
The performers stand with their backs to a 300 year old orangery, singing towards the garden, unplugged, and while it's a lovely place, it's not a great setup for small amateur choirs. The sound just gets lost, and you hardly hear what the person next to you is singing. Plus, if the day has been warm, the evenings are quite damp.
We did OK, but I many of the other choirs were struggling (as they do every year). It's a bit sad.
At least this time it was a cool, dry, windy day, turning to a cool, dry, windy, not-damp evening, which was something. And afterwards we went for pizza.
--
Which completed a week of too much pizza, but that's another story.
--
I've been singing in this choir for 23 years come November, and while I generally like it, it forms some habits, and one of the worst is anxiety, which leads to drama. I won't bore you with it, I'm boring more than enough people with it already. It's not grand opera.
So I decided some time ago that I need more music in my life, and Thursday last week I showed up at the rehersal of one of the large (still amateur) choirs in the city. Ceridwen and Gwydion have been members for years and had talked to the orga, so a heap of sheet music (and a bunch of compliments for our performance in the park) was waiting for me when I showed up, and ... goodness. I'm scared.
What we will be performing (in November) is Mendelsson's "Lobgesang", which is a) hard to sing (not difficult musically, but physically), b) long, and c) a bit beyond my comfortable range (which is high mezzo). I'll have to do everyhing right with that one, or it will end in pain.
And something by John Rutter, which spends even more time on Bb5
OK. I wanted a challenge. I can do this (I think), it's going to be interesting, and it's damn beautiful music.
--
What I still cannot do well is singing with a micro. I don't know *what* I'm doing wrong, but last band practise ten days ago killed my talking voice for hours. One should think that it'd be easier with a PA system, but it's easier the same way that sailing is easier than swimming, I guess: You have to know how to do it.