| Singing |
| I like to sing, and I like to think I'm purty darn good at it. I'm a mezzo between second alto and second soprano. Really, it amounts to just being an improved first alto. Which means, I'm right in the range that most tenor parts are written. Lucky, lucky me. But on the good side, I can sing most of the stuff Tori Amos sings, and I have a great telephone voice. Heinlein described that voice as dulcet. I've been singing as long as I can recall. There's a particular memory that's pretty clear in my mind. I think I was in kindergarden. I was on a swingset, swinging back and forth and singing to myself. It was a really clear and bright day, and I was very happy. I sang some of the songs from Annie. I also recall a preschool memory, where I was in a tire swing, singing as I was swinging belly down. But that one is really hazy. I was also Santa Claus in my kindergarden Christmas Pagent, but I think that was because my gramma made all the costumes. Strange, a female Santa. I felt wierd, but it was a singing part, so I played it up. My debut (if you can call it that) was playing in a Talent Show in eighth grade. I played 'Memory' on the piano, and sang along with it in front of the entire K-8 student body during the daytime and a bunch of parents and more kids during the night. I had the jitters. But it was my first real taste of singing, and I liked it. Even if I was unsure about my piano playing, which was never on par with Rickmond Wong (another student), I still had the time of my life. By the way, did I mention that Rickmond could freakin play? Bastard. So I decided to become involved in acting and singing. My freshman year I tried out for the high school play Grease. I got the part of Miss Lynch, the school teacher. I played that part to pieces and again had a great time. I received the Unsung Hero award for singing a duet off stage with the girl who played Sandy. I also helped out the tech crew as well as the actors. In my high school, the auditorium was actually really cool. There were 2000 seats, and it even had its own scene shop. Granted, the scene shop was barely large enough to paint flats, and we had to construct on stage. But still, that's over and above a lot of high schools. Didn't know that at the time. Well, over the course of the next four years, I acted or took part in a number of productions. Let's see. The productions were: Grease, A Gap in Generations (an Italian comedia del arte), Abazaba (a children's play about palindromes), and Little Shop of Horrors. In Gap, I played a renaissance scullery maid. Funny that eventually I would go on to play a similar role in ren faires. In Abazaba, I scored my first lead role. I wanted to be the Magic Tree, but I landed the role for The Boogy Monster. I loved that part. My introduction was a series of cartwheels and tumbles out onto center stage yelling "Boogyboogyboogy!" My costume was a scary, shaggy thing with pieces of multicolored material hanging off of me. I even got my own song. Aba was performed for several groups of kids that were in our school district, and all of them screamed when I went on stage. That was the best. In my senior year, I did Little Shop. I didn't do too much in that production, however, because that year two events were happening that required my attention more. First was the Moore Singers. The Moore Singers were basically a glee club with a stupid name, comprised of all girls. But the thing about it was that every girl had to audition. It wasn't this singing group where just anyone that wanted to sing could be a part of it. It was the only real training I ever got for my voice, but the techniques I learned there I still use today. It was totally cool, other than the fact that we had to meet at 6:30 in the morning (Ik!). But I was hooked. We performed for a few small venues, some Christmas Pagents and a Kiwanis club. I had a blast. Second was the Talent Show. This was a new venue for our Drama Department. This was something you also had to audition for, and it's just what it sounded like. Everyone doing the talent show had to do an opening number where we all had to sing and dance. Then, we all did our individual acts. Luckily, I got a strong dance lead. He couldn't sing very well but he could dance like a dream. I was the singer, and he was the dancer. We trained eachother, and sweated it out. By showtime, we were great. For my talent, I sang Wind Beneath My Wings. Yeah, okay, corney. But I sang it and had everyone crying both nights. It was my fifteen minutes and I enjoyed it. Sound crew screwed up partway in the song on the second night. They cut the music off, and then cut the track back in as I continued to sing. I ignored the music until I could hold one note eeeeextra, super long so I could get back in sync with the music. I held that baby and retracked and brought the house down. Well, after that I started doing some open mic nights at coffeehouses, and I'm still known for bursting into fits of song. I still sing occasionally at faire, but I've never joined any group. I'll play with the Seadogs again when they have an open sing. I did that last year at the Santa Barbara Faire, and it was fun. What I'd really like to do is sing with the Poxy Boggards, but they are an all-male singing group. I've toyed with the idea of singing with the Washer Women. We'll see. |
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