After all the surgeries and recuperation of the past year, I decided I wanted to do something fun and challenging for myself. I had been reading about the Master Chorale of Ventura County for years when I worked at the newspaper. I had always wanted to join, but because I worked nights, it seemed out of the question. I was assigned a story about the Children's Choir, which is part of the Master Chorale. I remembered how I'd always wanted to join so I auditioned and they let me in on the spot, which was really cool, since none of the other people I was with made it.
I'm really out of shape vocally after having not sung in over 10 years, and it's been hard. This is a pretty rigorous group with high musicianship demands. Part of my problem is that I've been made a soprano. I'm actually a mezzo soprano and have always felt more comfortable as an alto.
The higher notes are a real struggle for me and it's been hard to expand my range. I've often ended up losing my voice by the end of rehearsals, although that's getting better. But I still need to have throat lozenges available to keep me from getting all chocked up in my throat when I sing too high.
Tonight is our first concert. I've been working really hard on the music, but last night when I was singing, reaching really hard for a high note, one of the other choir members came over and said. "You might want to sing that note" -- and she pointed to the high G-sharp "an octave lower because it really isn't ..." and she trailed off and made a face like she smelled something bad.
My confidence shot, I avoided all high notes for the rest of practice and my throat started to tighten, which it does when I try not to sing loud because I think I suck. Sigh. I'll update this after the concert.
Update: The concert went really well. I was able to calm down the more I realized that I was in a choir and so my chances of messing up were greatly decreased. One a side note, I had chili for dinner and note to self: chili isn't really good pre-singing food, what with all the ensuring burping.
On a more serious note, Ryan was hurt last night when he was attacked outside a bar. He, Lindsay and a couple of friends were out and as they left some random guys started yelling at them and followed them out. Then one of them punched Ryan, who went down, he got up and was hit again and the guys kicked Ryan in the head. Lindsay called the police.
She said the 911 call wasn't one of the high points of her life, but I think most of us would be freaked out if someone came and randomly attacked us. The police showed up really fast, which was great and Lindsay says one of the guys ran away and she doesn't know what happened with him. the other guy attacked the police and was, needless to say, arrested. Poor Ryan has a badly broken nose and will require surgery tomorrow.
This just happened a week after Ryan's truck, which was parked on the side of the road was hit and totaled by some drunk driver at 2 a.m., who then tried to flee the scene on foot. As someone who's just been through a karmic black hole, I can only extend my greatest sympathies and hope he gets through all of this crap OK. On the bright side, they seem to have caught two of the guys, and they'll both likely have their entire lives ruined for having done this to Ryan. We can only hope.
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