The start of something

Yeah, I was a tad nervous. Nervous in that, well, I'm really in charge here, with people whom I barely knew. I guess I knew the siblings of 2 of them, and apart from the auditions, that was it. That's all I knew. Furthermore, it wasn't like down in Seattle, where we were a group of peers; I was in charge. It's been a while since I ran a music group, but it's all there still.

Sweet Surrender. That's the focus of the day. I introduced myself some more, got to know them (I remembered all their names anyway, but always good to do introductions), and started warm-ups. I was missing a couple of people due to sickness (I'm sure I got sick from doing auditions, but it's worth it), and off we went.

Did some basic warm-ups, and did the 12345678 7 5 4 2 -> resolve warmup, which I particulalrly like. Then on to a sample of the songs we're doing:
- Sweet Surrender (+ midi)
- Stacy's Mom
- California Dreamin'
- Accidentally in Love

Some good responses, some blahs. Ah well.

Then we tackled the pieces. It was slower going than I anticipated, and perhaps it's what my expectations of a first run should go. It took a while to get going, and I'm going to guess that this is quite different from the other stuff they've done, since it's very... rhythm and background based, unlike regular choral music, which meshes in a different way.

After a bit, we got the main phrase going. The sopranos were very strong, and I pulled a couple to the Alto side. I ended up with an army of altos, vs. 3 sopranos. And the S's are still stronger than any other group. Blending will come. Blending will come.

Next thing we knew, it was 4pm. Finally got a a long enough stretch of music, so we took a break.

After the break, I informed them that, as callbacks, I need to see how well they can hold a part, especially with the deluge of altos; I need to make cuts, unfortunately. If I had more time remaining till the end of the year, mebbe I can take them all and work on them. Right now, I can only afford the well established singers. Potential, even very strong potential, isn't my game plan at this stage; I need the MJ's out there, not the rookies (LBJ aside, of course).

Even though we spent longer than I expected on about 24 bars (I guess we were a new group, and it was the first rehearsal. And, pop songs just repeat endlessly anyway, so the rest should fall into place more easily come next Friday), the time was well spent. Went on to octets, then quartets. And you know what? They started sounding better in smaller groups. Sure, they know the stuff fairly well by now (and they need to, in order to do 4/8-tets), but they know that there's fewer people singing, each of their individual contributions are that much more important. And they sang out. Well.

After octets, we all sang what we knew, the 24 or so bars, and I piped in on Vocal Percussion (VP). And, it's the start of something.

At the end of the day, it will be tough to make cuts. But I'm pretty sure I'll need to, for balance sake.

Indeed, it's the start of something.