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.

Amazing Songs To Listen To!

I've thought about some songs or artists that I really like, and my taste is pretty diverse, so I think anyone could appreciate the music.

*Jim Brickman- an artist who plays the most beautiful piano music with vocals I've ever heard. Seriously.
His best songs: "Love of My Life," "The Love I Found in You," "Angel Eyes" and "Circles."

*Secondhand Serenade- more than just the popular "Fall for You," although I like that song.
Best songs: "Awake," "Why," and "Your Call."

*Sequoyah Prep School- pretty unknown but very good- similar to Secondhand Serenade but more upbeat.
Their best songs: "Nobody But You," "Holy City" and "I'll Find You."

*Glee- best covers of songs ever, the end. They have no best songs, they're all good.

*Wicked- a modern musical, but don't let the term "musical" scare you.
Best songs: "Defying Gravity," "Popular," "I'm Not That Girl" "As Long As You're Mine"

To Sing or Not To Sing...that is the question

Don't you love it when God throws you a curveball? Today's Ning came at an opportune moment. (Oh yeah, vocab word!) Since high school began I truly thought I knew God's plan for me; I'd be part of an advertising company, something I've dreamed of doing and I'd be very successful. Never mind that music is my entire life, it doesn't have to be part of my career right? Well, for some time I've had this thought of being a high school or middle school choir teacher. I've always thought I'd be a fun teacher, and I love choir and musicals more than just about anything. But I have no idea if I should actually pursue it as a career or if it's just a dumb, passing idea. :/

Grease is the Word...hopefully

Can I just take a minute to say how much I love Grease practice? I mean really, what can be better than singing, acting and dancing with your best friends? Okay, maybe that's not the idea of fun for everyone, but for me, it's incredible! With Shelby Miller playing the "fat" Pink Lady (Jan), Michaela Jarvis as the pretentious boy-crazy Marty, Kim Hampton as the pink-haired, beauty school dropout (Frenchy), Madison Wathen as the rough, maybe-pregnant Rizzo, you just can't have a bad time. Plus, playing the good girl gone bad is always a fun role.  I haven't laughed in a long time as hard as I did at the last practice. I really can't wait to get into more practices. The problem? This goshdang snow! I can't tell you how many rehearsals have already been cancelled; I just hope we don't have to postpone the show. Music rehearsal tonight! :)

What the heck is on our radio today?

Let me take a moment to complain about the "music" selections of 2010-2011. I'm sorry to those whom this might offend, but the majority of the music that is played on the radio today isn't music at all. Yes, certain songs have a great beat and are fun to dance to. To some extent we need songs like that--prom certainly wouldn't be any fun without them. But really? When I'm listening to a song and the lyrics are similar to "Yeah man, your *bleep* is so fine, I gotta *bleep* your *bleep* all the *bleep*ing time, foreal, dawg," I can't even figure out what the song is about. Whatever happened to music that actually had a meaning, not to mention a melody? Personally, some of my favorite artists are: Jim Brickman, Coldplay, Chicago, Josh Groban, and have you even heard of Idina Menzel?! Now that girl can sing, unlike most people on the radio. I realize that not everyone is listening to "Italian in Algiers" by Rossini or "Popular" from Wicked on their iPod, but I just find selections much more meaningful than anything Lil' Wayne is rapping/bleeping.

My Daily Life of Music

My week starts out with very busy Mondays...I might as well start calling them Musical Mondays. When I arrive at school, where do I go? The band room. Afterwards, I go to first block....the music portion of Arts and Humanities. Next is second block...Exploring Musical Theatre. Then, of course, is English, and 4th block is Concert Band. That might sound normal to most people, but it doesn't stop there. After school is Grease practice, which I always love, then Chamber Singers (Honors Choir), and THEN oboe lessons. When I finally arrive home at 9'o'clock, it's time to either finish homework or go to bed. However, I find myself either listening to my ipod (as if I don't get enough music in a day) or playing piano to relax. Now don't worry, most of my blogs will be about interesting occurences during the day, involving music, not my daily schedule.  Sometimes, I might blog about songs and artists that I like or don't like. But first, I thought it was beneficial to establish just how big of a role music plays in my life. Events like Wind Ensemble, singing in my church band, and pep band games take place the rest of the week. Honestly, I love every second of it; trust me, there's never a dull moment in Grease practice.