ONE-TRACK LONGING

It takes me so absurdly long to write those short episodes of La Vie en Rosé and to draw some illustrations for it, plus the normal daily routines, that I've rarely got enough energy left over for a blog post. Maybe I'm just getting less multi-faceted than I used to be. Now I desperately long for one-track mindedness. But which track? Which platform? Which train? What time does it leave and where is it going? 

Next week is my last singing class of the series - can't believe it's been ten weeks already. I've learned a bit about breathing in and out at irregular intervals, such as: out for 4, in for 4, hold for 8 and so on. The out breath always comes before the in breath in these exercises - I don't know why. I've learned that my voice is a Contralto, sort of. I've learned to look at the audience while singing and not somewhere above their heads. 

We've only had two solo sessions and next Friday will be the third. For my first solo I did Piaf's Je Ne Regrette Rien . My second was 99 Miles from L.A. (Albert Hammond's version) and on Friday I'll do the Bryan Ferry version of Smoke Gets in Your Eyes. I know - my choices aren't hip but I don't care - I love those songs and they're in a vocal range I can more or less manage. Everyone brings a CD or iPod to use as a backing track for their chosen number so it's not as scary as it would be without accompaniment. 

If you spend most of your time at activities which make use of your eyes and hands and brain but leave the rest of your faculties idle, it's very refreshing to go out and open your mouth and throat and chest and make musical sounds, along with a group of other people doing the same and, occasionally, to sing all by yourself in front of them. So I've signed up for another series starting late next month, a Singing Improvers class. 

UPDATE at 7:30 pm

Due to popular request (well...one request ) here is a video rehearsal of my number for Friday's class. Not my fault if Bryan Ferry can't get the timing right. Embarassing, isn't it?

 

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