good line

[bikeolounger]

My girlfriend's daughter is in her high school choir, and their holly-daze recital was last night. Having spent the day in my office, in jeans (haven't been here long enough to challenge the norm with a kilt), and needing some comfort, I changed to my black UK Original before meeting my girlfriend for a quick dinner before the show.

I was curious to see what girlfriend's daughter's friends would do when confronted with a dude in a kilt. I really don't think some of them even noticed. The daughter had opined that I'm "weird," which coming from a teenager is almost a compliment, and one point she used to prove my weirdness is that I like to wear a kilt. However, she seems to be accepting me as part of her mother's life.

As it happened, the only comment I heard, and that second-hand, was my girlfriend's report that when I went to the restroom, she overheard two boys discussing my kilt. One of them knew it was a kilt, at least. The other asked if "that thing has a zipper or something?"

The program was interesting, to say the least. The choir director has some talented young people. He was showing off how talented they are, using some bold a cappella performances by the freshmen boys, some wonderful works by the freshmen and sophomore girls, and a compelling performance by a string trio. Their program includes some Madrigal singers, who took the stage in period-type outfits. Sadly, the period was Elizabethan English, and didn't include kilts. I did think the conductor would have looked better in a tank and fly plaid than in the white tie and tails he wore, but then I'm not a big fan of tails.

Given that I usually face such performances with a sense of dread (I have an unusual reaction to flat pitch that is best described as pain), I was pleased that I only cringed a few times. It sounds like a backward compliment, I guess, that I was in less pain than I expected, but there it is.

[Ozman1944]

A (Black) singer friend of mine is hysterical to watch; the whole left side of her face automatically scrunches up at the sound of a flat note. I had the malicious glee of seeing her in a local church choir once; the woman next to her was tone deaf.....
(I know, I'm mean; I WILL repent - eventually - when I can stop grinning at the memory. )

[bikeolounger]

My girlfriend was very apologetic as she watched me cringe. I told her that I've come to terms with it--I could have done other things that night instead of attend a concert I knew would make me cringe, and I wasn't in as much discomfort as I'd expected to be.

This certainly wasn't as bad as the time I was eating lunch in a local food court, only to find we were going to be "serenaded" by a bunch of middle-school students playing holiday carols on their string instruments (mostly beginner-level violins and violas, thus very nasal in tone and very off-pitch). >I< would have to be tone-deaf to be able to stay in a room full of such sounds. It almost ruined my lunch, although it did give me a fun story to tell...

[pipesndrumsnun]

Awwww...the school-teacher side of me says, "But you gotta love the ATTEMPT!"!!

[Daaaaang]

I am one of the lucky few who have a really good sense of rhythm and pitch, but not a picky ear (well, not to the point of it actually being painful, anyway. I still know "bad" when I hear it).

[pipesndrumsnun]

I must add that just to get people between grades 5 and 12 up there performing (be it singing, instruments, whatever) is the great thing...they tend to be so self-conscious in that time of life.

I got approximately 50 8th graders to be a gospel choir for a Christmas concert a few years ago,and the year before that, I got all of my grade 8 boys (OK, remember these boys are at that awkward 13, 14, 15 year old stage!) to perform as a giant percussion ensmble playing on ten gallon buckets to the Little Drummer boy tune...they deorated their buckets with Christmas wrapping, strapped them to their belts, and marched down the aisle to the front of the Church...happy memories! (P.S., only the boys because they were not scheduled for choir class the first semester and I was charged with getting them into the Christmas concert "some how"...I was the English, Lit, and religion teacher..I had no connection to the music department...and the gospel choir year was when all of the junior high students had been banned from taking choir class that year because the teacher found them to be too much of a handful). Both years the kids did a great job and had a lot of fun doing it...and gained some needed self-confidence!

When kids are willing to "perform" in any capacity...I say "YOU GO!!"

P.S. I'm glad you wore your kilt!!

[bikeolounger]

Awwww...the school-teacher side of me says, "But you gotta love the ATTEMPT!"!!

Yeah, you have a valid point. In the case of the recital last night, I DID appreciate the efforts and talents of many of the students. One student performed a variation on the "Carol of Bells" (a melody that even played well often brings back bad memories of high school) that showed TONS of talent and finger agility.

And, too, the efforts of the middle school string ensemble were appreciated, sort-of. It took effort for them to pack up their instruments after they were done.

[string]

I personally don't have a good ear for music, nor am I capable of making good music (I sing along anyway) but I have a strange reaction to high notes, my mother and my nephew share this, but high notes are very disconcerting and almost painful to us, long before it is to anyone else. My poor nephew has to sit under the pew at church sometimes because he hasn't learned to block it out yet and that muffles the sound.

[Don Patrick]

Well I love to sing, but fortunately for the rest of you, my singing is confined to my shower room.

[bikeolounger]

I am all about the kids learning to sing (or play) on key and in tune. I fully recognize that it takes training, practice, and some more practice (and then some more training).

I also applaud their willingness to show what they can do. I remember doing such things when I was that age, though, and for me at least it was simply part of the normal routine of being in band--we played in public. We didn't much have to concern ourselves with whether people in the audience had perfect pitch. That was the director's job.

And, as I tried to mention, I was impressed at the skill levels shown. "Only cringed a few times" is really quite a compliment from me--I often avoid such things entirely for fear that I wouldn't be able to "uncringe."