Good morning!
Wow! I actually made it in to the "morning" - well, just barely, by the time I hit "Post" it will most likely be the afternoon here on the East Coast.
First Kiss - Hmmm... I, too, was a late bloomer... very late. I'm sure I had a few pecks and "busses" in high school and college, but my first real kiss wasn't until I was... umm... 30... almost six year ago. Like I said, I was a late bloomer. However, it was very much worth the wait.
-Oh, there was one cast party in college... wait, was there?
Well, it's a gloomy and gray day here in Richmond. Rain, some snow, sleet, etc... I believe DR Matt H may have more frozen precip to deal with than me.
DR Noel - and other interested DRs - Since you sort of brought it up - and reminded me - the two overdone songs from this past weekend in Memphis were "Gimme, Gimme" and "The Girl In 14 G". The typical exchange went like this:
"Umm... I'm starting here... It goes this fast... Then it picks up here for a few measures... Then I made a cut...Then when I get here, it slows down... Oh, but since I'm short on time, I'm gonna take it a little faster than on the recording... Then it slows back down here, and be sure to go a little slower leading into it since I need time for the breath... Then it gradually starts to speed back up here, and you can feel free to push the tempo since I won't be holding that note out all the way...Then it ends there."
On your Mark! Get Set! GO!
Again, I like both songs, but when you have to give more than two or three tempo indications for a song - especially in a situation where we try to keep the day "flowing" - then maybe you should consider doing a different song. For a callback, yes. For an initial audition, maybe to no. A few of the young ladies ended up rushing themselves since they had to spend a good chunk of seconds explaining their tempos and cues to me before they stepped center stage to start their audition. Now, they didn't have to rush themselves, but there was a sense of trying to keep the "dead time" between people down to a minimum. Make sense?
*If anything, a bunch of the company reps commented that a lot of the auditioners probably only brought in certain songs because they knew I would be playing the auditions. It was very much a compliment. -And more than one singer told me that would have never brought in their particular song had I not been playing again this year. Some of those
Wild Party songs - either version - have, as my teacher would say, "a lot of black on the page".
Oh - and Ladies - If you can't belt and/or mix, PLEASE do not sing "I'm Not Afraid". Mainly because I like the song, I like playing the song... and then my "hopes" are immediately deflated when a whisper of a voice comes out of your body. Sing! -Or don't sing!
Ooohhh... was that a little "vent-y"....
