Desultory Thoughts

Choir practice is in 20 minutes, but I’m procrastinating because I’m getting tired of it. I tried to turn over a new leaf in this ward and decided to participate in the ward choir. It’s been 7 months now and I’ve just about had it. I’m singing tenor (even though bass/baritone is my range) because there is only one other person that sings tenor, and sometimes I play piano. Today is one of those days where I have to play the piano.

We have to bring our two children with us and try to keep them quiet. That includes performances such as a couple of weeks ago when we performed. I brought Griffin up by me because Heather is by the piano, a temptation that he can’t resist. During the practices he was fine, but it was a different story during the performance. He started a slow whine “Where’s mommy, where’s mommy?” and wound it up to near full sirens when the Bishop came up to try and save the day. That of course made it worse and I did nothing! I figured he’d run over to where his mom was. Instead, if found the stairs and noticed people were watching him and proceeded to do what he considered funny stuff on the stairs during the rest of the performance. I’m sure plenty of people judged us on our lack of control over our children. That was the day that I decided choir was starting to be a pain.

Nevermind the Christmas incident where I was singing in a cortet with another guy and my wife and the other guys wife. We were singing “Silent Night” in German. The men started in German and the women echoed in English. It was acapella and we got our first note from the piano. In past practices the other guy had a tendency to start flat, so I had it in my head that I was going to make sure we started on pitch. I guess I was nervous about it because I started on a note that was completely off and nearly an octave higher! The guy tried to stop me, but I didn’t flinch and kept on singing. I pulled off the first part and the other guy even joined me, deciding that we must be going for it. It was the women’s turn to echo. WHOA! That’s when I realized how high I started. It was at that point that I agreed that we needed to start over, despite the embarrassment it would cause. But it was too late. The women switched an octave lower and we kept on singing in ultra-tenor. Amazingly enough, I stuck with it and perhaps even pulled it off. The training my brother Dave gave me when I was in 9th grade to switch from my full voice to falsetto really paid off. It was embarrassing for me, though. That’s actually when I started to think I might be done with choir.

So now there are only 8 minutes until I need to be at choir practice. Since I committed to fill in on the piano today, I guess I’ll go. Obviously I’ll be late.