Thursday, October 25, 2012

That Sweet Ringing Chord

I just recently had my "audition" for the a'capella group I was interested in joining. I found the meeting place inside the Wayland Baptist University here in Anchorage and there was quite a happy little crowd of women getting ready to sing--setting purses and jackets on chairs, milling on the risers, collecting around a podium, flipping music pages, ahahah-ing up and down scales, etc. I met the woman I had been corresponding through e-mail with and she introduced me to the director who I didn't know was the director who took me into the shower and made me sing!
Does anyone but me think the Happy Birthday song is hard to sing? I had to do it twice, for Pete's sake. Started off in the wrong key the first time. Even the damned shower didn't help. Good thing we didn't stop there.
I ended up in the "lead" section. (This is a Sweet Adelines chorus with tenor, lead, baritone and base sections, in case you didn't know and were wondering.) I'm happy about that because I think melody is the easiest to sing. Unless the song happens to be the Happy Birthday song.

 
Fortunately, most of the songs we're working on are some that I have at least a little familiarity with which fact encouraged me a bit.  I have always liked singing in choirs and since moving here to Anchorage, I have missed being able to go to shape-note singings. The director didn't know what the FA SO LA singing was that I put on my application, but recognized "shape note/Sacred Harp" when we talked and she said there was a woman in the chorus who wanted to do a Sacred Harp workshop. She was going to introduce us, but we got really busy. Next time, I guess.
Now,  the next hurdle is understanding that I don't have to love sequins on red blazers or to even feel comfortable wearing sparkly clothes in order to get up and sing and dance (?) in them. Well, psuedo-dance. Move my arms, kick a toe here and there, flash jazz hands, raise my eyebrows and make expressive faces. Barber Shop dancing. All that stuff I've always considered to be embarrassing for anyone to do, and smack dab in the middle of "never-no-never" for me!
Laugh if you must, but this group just won the regional Sweet Adelines competion this year securing them a place in the national competition in Hawaii next November. I have already come up against some scheduling difficulties with my work travel and I got a late start with rehearsals, but I love singing, so practicing will be an easy thing for me to do. I've never been to Hawaii.

6 comments:

Gorges Smythe said...

"Break a leg," as they say!

Penny said...

Thanks Gorges!

Penny said...

Thanks Gorges!

Tammie said...

:) i hope you have tons of fun!

DeEtta said...

Sounds like FUN!

baby said...

Would newcomers be going on the Hawaii trip? That'd be great.