Blue Ridge
Vocal Connection
Finally I sing!
Yesterday for the first time, probably, well, ever, I sang in front of an audience. Sort of.
Blue Ridge Vocal Connection had a concert yesterday and for the first time, I participated. There was only one other held since I joined and I didn’t feel ready. I didn’t feel ready yesterday either, but it was time to come out from my shell and actually let my voice be heard.
Performance is certainly part of the gig for the Choir and I knew it when I joined. But it has not been a motivator for me. I want to get better and not bring down the overall quality of the group. From those standpoints, it’s been successful.
We gathered under threatening skies outside the Alexander Black House in Blacksburg where microphones and speakers had already been placed. But the weather had other plans as the rains began. We moved inside where we bided our time, hoping for some clearing. Finally, we decided to continue but inside, which was all for the best.
Our conductor Thomas was absent, suffering a cold. So my mentor Joe directed for us. We sang our way through our repertoire and sounded good, I thought. I heard some pleasant things come from my vocal chords, and where things didn’t sound so pleasant, I was able to quickly reduce my volume. The good news is that while I’m often not on track or on key at least I can hear myself, unlike Barney in that episode of the Andy Griffith Show, “Barney and the choir,” when he proves himself quite tone-deaf, but oblivious to it.
Apparently our event had little in the way of publicity, and between that and the poor weather, our audience amounted to only one or two people. So the low voices in the choir applauded the high voice songs and vice versa. Maybe it was for the best that we were largely our own audience. Or at least best for me.
Afterwards, many members of the choir came over to my home for a pot-luck dinner. We sat inside my sun-room and outside under the trees on a cool, clear evening, enjoying great food and great craic.
We look forward to more good music and good fun together.
Stay tuned.