Oldies, Movies, and Recent Performances

Recently, I've been listening to a lot of old music. Essentially no modern music. Mainly music from 60's through 80's, but it's really great stuff. They are classics!
I also saw the musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat about a month ago for the first time, and I'm in love with it. I can't get the songs out of my head! My favorite song from it is Close Every Door. It gives me chills every time!
Other than that, I've been doing some performing lately. I was Galinda (from Wicked) in Comedy Shortz, and then my church band and I sang at the BBQ festival. Chamber Singers has been pretty busy lately too. Actually though, I haven't been enjoying it all that much because performing makes me really nervous these days for some reason. Hmm.

GSA Auditions

So, I auditioned for GSA this weekend under the caption of musical theatre. We had to prepare a fast song, a ballad, a one minute memorized monologue, a quickly taught and difficult dance portion and an interview. Let me say, this audition did not go the way I hoped it would.

For one, there was a really talented girl in there (but she didn't hit any difficult notes!) who the judges loved. She was so ridiculously happy and bubbly and excited that everyone paled in comparison. It was SO annoying. I mean, she was nice and all but I looked lame.

My songs didn't go quite as well as I hoped, but they were okay. I forgot half of my monologue so I just improvised. I'm also not a dancer, so that never goes well. As for the interview, I had tons of answers prepared and they were perfect. Seriously. What did they ask me? One question. "Why are you going WKU?" That is a terrible question because I'm not going there for any music related reason. Fail? I think so.

The Lessons I Learned From Grease....

Lesson 1: BE CAREFUL WHEN YOU DO A STAGE PUNCH. 'Nuff said.

Lesson 2: I think the moral of Grease is that if you change yourself and wear tight leather pants, you will get your man. Wait, what?

Lesson 3: Five girls working together for an extended period of time CAN get along. We defied the odds. Go Pink Ladies :)

Is It Show Week Already??

Oh my goodness, people!!! Grease is this weekend. *hyperventilating*
I feel like we should have several weeks left of practice, but nope, it's in 2 days!!
I'm super excited for it, but also extremely nervous at the same time. I don't feel like we are ready. But then again, it always feels this way during show week. I'm so scared that I'm going to crack a note, or be sick, or something. Lots of prayer is going into this one! I guess I should just stop worrying, because God's going to take care of it anyway. I just can't believe that it's already here! Practice today and tomorrow....and then....*insert Beethoven's 5th symphony* we begin!

Really? I mean REALLY?

So, it's old news that I had surgery a week and a half ago, whatever, no big deal. What really stinks is that I haven't been able to play in band for a week and a half and I can't do all of my choreography for Grease. That makes my life really difficult. I'm starting to get better when...my voice goes away. All of a sudden, bam, I can't sing anything. SERIOUSLY?! My ways of making music are gone. For someone who uses music as much as I do, this is torture. But, thankfully, all of this is beginning to improve.

Now, I'm beginning to realize that Grease is in 2 weeks. Holy cow. I feel like we should have a month to go before opening night and I'm already starting to get nervous. I mean, I'm super excited, but also really worried! If you're reading this, please please pray that the musical goes well and that everyone will have all of their health back!
On a much happier note, we have practice and choreography all week for Grease. It makes me really happyyyy :)

The Perfect Way To Relieve Stress

When I'm stressed, which is 99.9% of my life, I relieve stress like every other teenager: I listen to music. However, in the past year or so I've found an even better way to de-stress that involves music. I compose music! Now, don't get the wrong impression. I'm no Bach or Handel by any stretch of the imagination. I've only written 2 compositions that are only piano music. I mainly write songs that you might imagine hearing out of people like Taylor Swift, Secondhand Serenade, Colbie Calliat, etc. I just mainly stick to block chords paired with a melody and lyrics that reflect what is going on in my life. It's the perfect way to write about the good and bad of my life, play piano and listen to music all at the same time.

Learning Guitar--and other instruments

Not much music news this week, because Grease practice for Monday was cancelled (grr) and so were oboe lessons and chamber singers, which is kind of relieving. However, I am having lots of fun learning guitar. My goal is to learn how to play pretty much every instrument in the world, so my friend Wesley is teaching me to play. I know the chords: G, E minor, C, D, A, and A minor. Even though that's not a lot, they are the most commonly played, so I can (badly) play a lot of Taylor Swift songs because her chords aren't very original! I'm pretty terrible at guitar, but it's so much fun! I've been playing for maybe 2 weeks now? My fingers hurt and I can't play barre chords to save my life. Tonight, after I finish this English project thing, I'll probably learn B minor, E, and D minor.  I think I want to tackle flute and bassoon next. Hmm.