The title of this entry is a lie…a figment…because in actuality, it’s snowing!

And that just stinks.

We haven’t had any real winter to speak of, it’s been sort of warm for months (if 40’s can be considered warm – which it is for a New England winter). So what happens on the first day of spring? Well, so far it’s about three inches of snow.

This is not a good thing.

The crocuses had started coming up, there were buds on the trees, there had even been a robin sighting. That means spring, winter be gone!

Mother Nature is not co-operating! I guess it’s supposed to go up to the 50’s tomorrow, and then we’re getting a Canadian cold front for the weekend.

Not good. I’m going to NYC this weekend – I don’t want it to be cold, I want warmth and sunshine and my leather coat. Not my snow parka, warm socks and mittens!

Not that I can control any of this, so I might just as well get over it.

I’v been busy, busy, busy with chorus stuff these last couple of weeks. This past weekend we had our retreat, which was a wonderful time.

I’ve been pretty concerned that our wound hand vocal production has been deteriorating, but our coach has really managed to get everything back on track and into working order.

We sang and sang and danced and danced all weekend, but I think we’re going to be fine. The interpretation of the music has changed and been spiffed up – making it less draggy. This lead to changes in choreography, which was fine with me. Even though I’ve dedicated countless hours to its design and have spent I don’t know how long in front of the chorus trying to teach it all, the changes were all necessary and made sense.

I think the members feel like I’m being insulted when things are tossed out or changed, but that’s not the case. I’d rather have someone with an unbiased eye who knows what the judges are looking for tell me what needs to be done to make it all work better.

And I really trust this coach.

I even came out of voice placement feeling good about myself (for a change). Voice placement is really scary but truly amazing to witness. It involves each section(lead, tenor, baritone, bass) singing together and then having each person sing alone, then perhaps duet with some other people. What the coach then does is start placing each member on the risers in a spot where her voice will be balanced with the rest of the chorus.

This process can be really nerve racking, because it can be a bit scary to sing in front of the coach (What if she hates my voice????) and in front of the rest of the chorus (What if I hit a wrong note???). This time it was fine. I think it has more to do with this coach than it does with who I am and how I feel about my singing.

First she had all the leads sing together. (I think there are about 11 of us) Then, she had Dee, Laura, Cindy and I sing together and started playing with our positions on the risers. Usually Dee, Laura and I are on the back row, and Cindy is mixed in somewhere. Suddenly she had me on the floor in the front row (My reaction was "Holy, shit! Talk about revenge on the choreographer!"). It was weird to be there – and it’s a bit of a nerve-racking place to be, as your choreo has to be totally perfect there.

So she kept shifting us around, and I eventually ended up in my old spot, Laura a couple of places away from me,and Dee on the other end of the same riser row. Cindy was down on the floor in front of me. She had just the four of us sing from those spots and she said "This is all the lead sound you need. With these power voices that blend as one you can just play with all the other leads and use them to fill in spots on the risers."

I came close to bursting with pride.

I have never received that kind of a compliment before and it’s just enough to keep me floating for a few weeks.

It’s also given me a new sense of being responsible for my vocal production and sound, and that I have to practice and sing smart. I have to really remember all the breathing stuff and raised soft pallet stuff that makes acapella singing sound right.

From there she went on to place each individual voice, shifting people back and forth and doing little things that made the sound of the group change totally. It’s a fascinating process to watch and listen to.

We sound like a chorus of 50, not 25. It was great!

I didn’t get any sleep to speak of either Friday or Saturday night, as I kept running the songs in my head, trying to figure out what choreo or note changes had been made, and trying to remember all that we had done. I hate it when that happens. It’s like I have a continuous music loop in my head and when I do fall asleep it keeps running, so it’s still going whenever I wake up.

It can be really annoying.

We really worked hard on the competition songs, but took time to laugh and do silly stuff. We had crazy skits on Saturday night – all things that were parodies of something to do with chorus life, and they were very funny.

Then we put on some Irish tunes and sang along and danced and acted stilly.

It was a great time to get to know each other, to let down our hair, and just enjoy being part of the group.

By the time I got home on Sunday I was ready to collapse.

But I had to go and see my mom and give her some flowers for St. Patrick’s Day. Then I had to go to the store, and then go home and figure out what school stuff had to get done.

I finally got to bed at 10, and was ready to collapse.

I had a 7:30 meeting Monday morning, so I got up fifteen minutes earlier than normal. Wanna guess what happened when I got to school? Yep the parent didn’t show.

Typical.

Monday night I went to bed at 7, and fell asleep right away. I even missed the new show that I like, "The American Embassy". But I was flat out exhausted.

Yesterday was another parent meeting and a full day of chaos. Or just a normal day.

Last night was rehearsal and more jumping up and down off the risers, reviewing choreo and running the business meeting. By the time I got home at 11 I had had enough of everything, but couldn’t fall asleep because my legs and feet – especially my injured foot- were aching so terribly. It was as if I could feel every pulse and the muscles were throbbing and throbbing.

Once I fell asleep I was out cold.

So competition is in three weeks, and I’ll be out straight until that is over. Now all I have to do is pray that we do well and don’t forget all the good stuff that we know how to do.