An actual pre-concert quote from an actual member of the Windward Choral Society: “My wife likes me better when I’m singing in the choir. Best therapy ever.” Amen to that, brother. I don’t know about the rest of you but the Christmas music playing in the background EVERYWHERE takes all of about a nanosecond to […]
Susie has been saying it for 10 years…make eye contact with your audience. Make a connection with your audience. Also, look up from your music and watch the conductor (a subject for another day). That connection is one of the reasons that I sing in the Windward Choral Society. There are actually two: the one […]
Ah, concert night. A nice case of the butterflies, singing with the your friends, the crowd goes wild and all is right with the world. Our (always appreciative) audience came for a great show and weren’t disappointed and went back to their cars (in the rain) with big smiles on their faces. They saw and […]
A couple of stories to make a point… Mrs. Blogmeister and I were sitting on the lanai at Buzz’s Original Steakhouse (best Mai Tai on the planet) just hours after we had signed the papers to buy a house and move to Hawaii. Yeah, we were a little excited. We shared the space with a […]
There are a lot of things that seem to “plateau”. Progress seems to stop and then there are these little leaps of success. It’s weird. Any experienced golfer will tell you that breaking 100 the first time seems IMPOSSIBLE…right up until you do it the first time (Shoreline Golf Links, Mountain View, CA; thanks for […]
Things you absolutely can NOT do if your non-auditioned community choir is only 10 years old: Perform effectively with a choir of nearly (or more than) 1oo members. Too many humans, too many logistics challenges, no way to get that many voices aimed in the same direction at the same time to make music of […]
Mrs. Blogmeister and I recently welcomed a mainland relative for a visit to paradise (not one of the New Englanders, they only come in the winter). It was grand fun, much tourist-type things were enjoyed and Mai Tai sampling was a regular activity. I bet we’re not the only ones who NEVER do the typical […]
It can’t always be puppies and rainbows and flowers and unicorns (except in those irritating “My Little Pony” ads), some days you’re just not at the top of your game. The same can be true about rehearsals; most of the time it’s good fun, hard work, a few funny moments and a sense of accomplishment […]
You never think about how bright the lights are at a sporting event. Not the ones where you’re sitting up in the stands but the ones pointing at the field/court/rink/whatever. It’s all lit up so you can see what’s going on and, if there’s a camera or two, it’s probably even more so. Heck, we […]
When I was living in Connecticut attending the Navy Nuclear Power Prototype School I got a letter from my mother in Vermont (email was still light years away) that had a quarter taped to it in the upper right hand corner and a blurry postmark on top of that. It was truly odd and prompted […]