Crushing Krisis

Comic Books, Drag Race, & Life in New Zealand

singing

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Petland did indeed make it into our Battle of the Bands, somewhat due to the fact that i dragged Amy along with me to judge the bands knowing full well that her eyes would pop out of her head when she heard them. Yes – i’m a manipulative little bastard, and yes – i plan to love every second of their live set. Also confirmed were two local favourites: jazz hip-hop trio Fresh Batch and the hard-edged Dead Susan. Interestingly, both bands are fronted by members of the Drexel male a capella group Eight to the Bar, which seems to have no shortage of golden voiced guys to lend out to local bands. Their most recently acquired member was my fellow male lead in Good Woman of Setzuan, who plays guitars and drums after the fact of having an amazing tenor voice that i’ve been jealous of for an entire year now. Obviously i should be sucking up for the next spot in the group … but, oh, yeah, i should probably learn to sing first. I knew there was a problem…

https://www.crushingkrisis.com/2001/03/2669721/

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I had to sing in rehearsal today, without my guitar. Scary stuff. Another tuner popped off of it a few days ago in the middle of trying to record a Trio, so i finally gave in and sent the poor thing to the shop for a bit of maintenance. Afterwords, Gina and I went on a mad guitar shopping spree where nothing was actually bought but lots of things were touched and ‘ooohed’ at. But, i might not spend money on a new guitar, because i want to go here.

For those not in the know, the South by Southwest Conference is sortof a point of convergence for all sorts of hip folks in the realms of internet and music, and, as it turns out, ten or more SurvivorBloggers of past and present are planning on attending and throwing some wicked hotel parties. Yeah. So, aside from the fact that i’m gonna get hit on more than a 5-year old boy at a MAMBA convention, it seems like it’d be a nice break before finals. Of course… to go to the music & internet portions of the festival i’d have to stay straight through my finals week, which would be a little iffy to plan now seeing as i don’t know when my finals will be. But, either way, i might be going to Texas! Yee-haw!

https://www.crushingkrisis.com/2001/01/2126036/

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So, yeah, theatre. First i bitched about it, and then i got sucked into it, and here i am bitching about it again. I don’t like to act. Maybe i’m good at it, and maybe i’m not, but i only really like the attention i get and being able to stand on a stage above everyone else. That’s it, though. And, yet, somehow i’ve managed to have rehearsal every night and a song i have to arrange and sing and now i’ve got to learn how to method-act my hand being crippled for half of the show. And i have to learn how to scream.

I’m thinking that last bit won’t be to hard. In the show i get struck hard with a hot curling iron, and it both breaks the bones in my hand and burns me badly. My director keeps trying to give me suggestions on how i could perfect this prolonged scream of anguish and despair, some of which were: “Haven’t you ever put your hand into a fire before?” “Go home and try pouring hot wax on yourself. I can give you some pointers on sensitive spots to try.” “Stick your head into an oven later! And make sure to vocalize through the pain.”


Good direction, isn’t it. It’s like in high school … i had to play these two brief minutes of being drunk, and i just didn’t know how to do it. I was straightedge, i was innocent, and i had no idea what alchohol did to human body. My director coaxed and fixed and pointed and when it came time for performance i still looked like some foolish kid who was a little bit dizzy. In retrospect, he should’ve just bought me a bottle of vodka and let me learn the easy way. So, i’m off to find some hot wax… yum.

https://www.crushingkrisis.com/2001/01/2110463/

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Tonight, rather than blogging, i sat down and hammered out harmony vocals for “Never Say Goodbye” in midi (which involved me correctly writing it out as sheet music first, which is really freakin’ hard). They sound nice enough, but for them to get recorded i have to actually be able to sing them, which is a different problem entirely. I can sing well enough, but when i sing while listening to anything else my range tends to be restricted to notes matching the sounds around me. As such, almost all of my songs have melodies that are directly derived from their chord structure, and visa versa. To dub harmony vocals onto a song i have to hit all of the notes perfectly in regards to length and pitch. Then i have to go back and sing something totally different overtop of myself! I’ve never tried to do anything that provides the same sort of distracting sensation as attempting to vocalize something new while hearing myself sing something old. I have to disagree with what i already sang! Anyhow, i began working all that out tonight, and as you can see it’s not going to get any easier.

https://www.crushingkrisis.com/2001/01/1926813/

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I just had my first rehearsal for Good Woman of Setzuan, but it was more of an exercise in movement than a practice. We did a lot of walking… i must have walked for nearly twenty minutes, just examining the way i use my weight and how i can shift it to change the look of my character. During the walking our director Bill actually singled out my character as an example of someone who moves in a specific way (not that i was moving that way), so at once i was psyched and a bit intimidated. After the walking we paired off and moved somewhat interpretively to music. My two favourite motions were: 1 – with a new person where i was sort of courting her and we conducted almost the whole thing with eye contact and the tips of our fingers, 2 – with Laurel, where i was tiptoeing around the stage and she was mimicking me carefully, after which we switched roles. The other interesting tid-bit of information came as we discussed some of the production numbers… i innocently asked if Laurel or Ben would be joining into my song and Bill turned to me and said matter-of-factly “No, it’s a solo,” which shut me up pretty fast. I’m not entirely sure if i want to be playing guitar for it or not… as playing guitar tends to lock me into to certain vocal inflections more than singing without it. Either way, i thought it would be nice to combine my voice with that of Ben and/or Laurel (who are the other two characters in the scene), but apparently i have to go it alone.

https://www.crushingkrisis.com/2001/01/1851038/