My New Nickname

Yesterday ended with a true Cinderella moment. But first...

Voice lesson in the morning. My teacher was a bit out of sorts. She had just had a death in the family and was leaving that afternoon on a 3 hour drive for the funeral. So she was a bit out of it. But we pressed on. She was very excited to hear about the rehearsal last week. I told her about the lesson. She was pleased and said that when I'm ready to switch teachers I know have someone to switch to. I was like, wait! Are you trying to tell me something? Like, was she moving or something? She laughed at that and said that it's perfectly normal for singers to switch teachers every few years or so, for a fresh perspective on things, and that no, she'll be around for the long haul. Whew.

Unfortunately she can't make it to the recital because it's her mother's 80th or 85th birthday, I forget which but some birthday milestone, and the party that was scheduled for this weekend got moved to next weekend because of the funeral.

Then, rehearsal. It was fun. I was nervous because I was afraid I wouldn't be able to produce the sound we had practiced during the week. But I did fine. The rehearsal was in the preschool classroom and the piano area is set apart from the rest of the room. It wasn't like a rehearsal where we practiced going up and down on stage. It was more like, practice with the accompanist to make sure he/she knows what you want. I spoke with the woman who's accompanying me. She's so so sweet. She explained that my job is to sing. Her job is to pay attention to me and play to how I sing. I never thought of it like that but that's good - I don't have to worry at all, really, what she's doing. And she's good - she really does listen and change according to what I sing. I told her how I have little experience singing with a real life accompanist and I really like the organic nature of it - it's so much more satisfying then singing along with the CD accompaniment.

After I sang I hung around and chatted a little. And then when I was getting ready to leave, I changed from my heels back into my hiking shoes, like I always do. Then when I get home I always put my shoes away in their box with the paper stuffed into them. Neurotic, maybe, but I like my nice shoes to stay nice. So yesterday I got home and there was just one shoe in my bag. OOPS!! I called and luckily some people were still hanging about, so someone is taking care of my shoe for me until next week. "Don't worry, Cinderella, we'll keep your shoe safe," is what they said. Yeah. My new nickname, no doubt.

Today we got an electric keyboard and stand. 88 keys, piano action, the whole deal. I love it. Alex loves it. Husband loves it. And the music store had a promotion going on - 10% off if you bring in a can of food to donate to the local food bank. I ran to the store next door and for under a dollar I got $45 off my purchase. Nice!

I have another mid-week rehearsal with my "new" teacher this week, then one more voice lesson on Saturday morning, before the real performance. A bunch of my neighbors and coworkers are coming!!! Wow!! I'm sure I'll fret more about that later in a post closer to the date.