The Happy Thread IV

[Nurvingiel]

Congrats on the job Tessar!

I'm happy because I saw a Pileated woodpecker out in the forest. Check another off my lifelong bird list!

[Gwaimir Windgem]

Awesome, Tess! So glad to hear you got the job! Moving up in the world!

[Tessar]

I just finished practicing a few of the pieces for the Wednesday rehearsal, and I think I may be okay after all. There are 14 pieces, but tonight I got through about 7 of them in an hour and 15... and I'll be able to practice much more tomorrow. I -think- I only need to know ten of them for the rehearsal, but I figured I better learn the other 4 too just in case.

I can tell I'm going to learn three things from this:

1. How to sight sing much better.
2. How to practice much more efficiently.
3. How to -organize- my efficient practices so that I can pick back up right where I left off without having to double check where I ended. I took some good notes to remind myself what parts were problematic, overall thematic things to work on, and I marked the parts I can sight sing without having to double check... I don't need to work on those again.

The good news is I've been developing the first two of those skills this semester, but this is really going to force me to kick those into high gear .

It's going to be a lot more difficult though to do it during the actual rehearsal. If Sunday was any indication, most of the basses aren't very good sight singers, and they tend to meander off pitch, then fizzle out, then come back in... sometimes on the wrong note. I'm going to have to be super focused on how I -know- the melody goes... which is challenging for me still some times, because I spent so many years following the older guys when they sang in the church choir because I was the one who couldn't sight sing at all.

I'm pleased, though. Hopefully my run of good luck will stick with me .

[sisterandcousinandaunt]

"Luck favors the prepared, darling." ~ Edna Mode

[Mari]

Edna is so cool! I <3 Edna... Ooooh! Now I wanna watch it again o_O

[Tessar]

Luck was definitely with me tonight . We didn't practice the pieces that I didn't have time to properly learn! The solo stuff was skipped completely.

Also my sight singing is already getting way better. O.o He handed us some new pieces tonight we'd never seen before, and I was able to sight sing them relatively easily except for a few weird jumps.


I reeeeeeeeally hope I get to keep this job . Singing for money kicks ass.

[Mari]

I got lots of nice pressies! I'm wearing 'I love Christmas' PJ's while listening to Enya's new winter CD. Woohoo! Got a new schoolbag too, which is very nice because Thursday I discovered that my old one literally fell apart.
RIP dear bag...

[Earniel]

What a coincedence, my mom was listening to the same CD this morning.

I got a new pair of slippers (good timing, too, the old ones were falling apart), the new Queen CD and chocolate, lots of it. (it had to be stored away quickly before Tyrfing found them. Likes chocolate, hm, must be my cat. )

Thanks Sint! Even though technically I forgot to put out my shoe.

[Mari]

Hehe, my shoes are usually all over the house. So though technically I forgot to do it, they were out there. Somewhere.
How did you do it? With poems? Surprises? With a game?
We just handed them all out because we were so tired.

[Earniel]

Traditionally the gifts are just put near the chimney or in the shoes during the night or early morning. No poems, no surprise involved. (I guess we Belgians are just more lazy. ) So that when the kids come down in the morning they immediately find the gifts.

With us, mom who's always up first, just dresses each corner of the low table near the chimney with chocolate, pepernoten or marzipan according to everyone's tastes, with one or two other gifts. When she isn't looking we (me or dad) slip in a gift for her too. We usually joke about how a forgetful Pier forgot to put it out the first time and and to come back, totally out of breath, to put it down when she wasn't looking.

[Tessar]

Ahh... After a noisy day, there is nothing quite like coming back to a blessedly silent home .

[Tessar]

Had a great final voice lesson . We just worked on high-voice stuff, and it showed me a lot of what I need to work on over the break... I have a really difficult time getting up into head voice from chest without sticking my jaw forward and closing my mouth a little...

I can start on high notes in head voice with my jaw nice and open, and he said that my voice has a lot of ring and the note is well placed whether I start on the high note or go up to it, but that the sound will carry further and be warmer if I can get my jaw to drop some more.

It's hard though. When I try to let my jaw drop, I end up making the sound too wide and blast-y on the high notes... unless of course I just start right on the high note instead of doing a scale up to it.


So we're not quite sure where my voice will fall. At the moment he thinks I'll have a good F#4 to use in performance, buuuuuuuuuut he's been moving that up slowly all semester. We started with him saying I'd have a good E, then a few weeks ago he said probably an F, and now he's thinking at least the F#. I'm hoping for at least a G or G#. If I can sing a G well, that will pretty much open up any baritone aria I want to sing except a tiny handful.

He said that he's very surprised and pleased at how quickly I'm adapting to head voice, although he's not very happy that I seem to have difficulty retaining in my memory some of the changes we make (i.e. dynamics, breath marks)... so he said that since I intend to be a performer, he's going to really start cracking down on me for that.

I know he doesn't treat all of the students the way he does me... so I'm going to assume that means he thinks I have some potential. I hope so, anyways .

[Earniel]

Yeay Tessar!


I'm feeling oddly creative these days, which isn't bad since I've got a couple of drawings I should reeeeally finish and I haven't drawn anything in ages. Except that the creativeness seems to stem from this sudden, inexplicable urge to create a life-size replica of one of the archer's reliefs from the Palace of Babylon in papier mâché as a Christmas present for my sister. Seriously, this can NOT end well.

If I start to ponder the mushussu from the Ishtar Gate in similar circumstances, please sedate me and cart me off to the nearest mental hospital.

Still... tempting...

[Mari]

Earn... I have no idea what you are talking about, but I'm happy you're happy

I'm happy because I just got a lovely card with candy for Christmas
I'm going to make my doors look pretty with all the cards I'll get. ^_^

[katya]

Exams are over! Yay! No responsibility until next semester! Ha, that's a lie. But I'm done with all my classes anyway. And tonight at midnight, I turn 21. :] You are all cordially invited to my party. But... if you show up, I might be a little creeped out. Lol. Oh yeah, and I get to play Persona 4 now.

Ok, I'm off again. I will stop in again soon. :]

[Tessar]

My jury (where I sing two or three pieces for all of the voice teachers) is today, and I'm pretty excited. I think I feel more confident going into this jury, specifically because of the success I'm having with my new teacher, than I ever have before.

Wish me luck!

[Mari]

Katya, yay!

Tessar, GOOD LUCK! Blast 'em of their socks or however that saying goes. ^_^

[Tessar]

I had a really good, although brief, talk with my mom this afternoon about me being gay. She just kind of brought it up, and I explained some things for her and told her that I was planning to at some point see a psychologist/whoever about it. I explained how it wasn't something I 'wanted', it just kind of was how it was at least for the time being.

So she seems more okay now. I think she was afraid that it was something I was just blundering around blindly about, but I explained (and proved) to her that I've been doing research for years, and that I'm much more calculating and considerate than she thought I was.

Well... she knew. I think she was just afraid I wasn't thinking in this particular case.


So that was definitely a good thing. She understands how I feel now about more things, and I know that she's not just trying to completely suppress the whole thing out of her head like she seemed to be doing earlier. So maybe things will be a little easier from now on .

[Mari]

I finally finished writing all my Christmas cards! (I hope. Might have forgotten someone )
Now I just need to go out, buy lots of stamps and post 'em (and don't forget to write the addresses on the cards I still need to look up ).

Happiness.

[Rían]

*waves weakly*

Hi people! Just had a post-op today, and the doc took off the wrappings - my foot looks like a multi-colored stuffed sausage with railroad tracks, but the doc is quite happy with it. Not up to posting much yet - just wanted to send in a quick update and hello.

And as far as the thread topic - I'm VERY happy that I have such wonderful parents and parents-in-law that are willing to come out and help - I'm very immobile still. I'm down to only one pain pill at night, which also makes me happy.