January 16, 2008
How to Crush My Dreams in a Single Word
In my last blog, Got To Be Good Looking Cause I’m So Hard To See, I told the story of how my director flipped out when I sang the Beatles’ Come Together. So I went into the first rehearsal for Fiddler a little more confident than normal. I walked in, sat down, and he pretty much ignored me.
We sang four songs. I sang softly, since I’m not terribly confident (just more confident than before). I was trying to figure out where I fit in the score.
You see, I tend to sing high, but I should sing low, but I hear higher pitches better than lower pitches. It’s all rather complicated and confusing, but essentially, I hear higher pitches than I should be singing. All this boils down to is: I shouldn’t sing.
Anyway, I tried to fit in as best I could, but I couldn’t hear myself over everyone else, nor could I pick out a single voice near me to compare my pitches. I know a few people around me were in my range, and I was trying to match their pitches. Unfortunately, I kept going high because that’s what I could hear.
I basically sang falsetto all night. Not good.
So I go up to ET after rehearsal.
“Hey,” I say.
“What can I do for ya?” he asks.
“Where do you want me to sing? High? Low? Middle?”
“Whatever.” He smiled and turned around to talk to someone else.
Oh. That helped. Thanks.
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That reminds me of a show I did once. I memorized the score before showing up at rehearsal (trying to impress everybody), and when I met the director, I asked what he wanted from my character’s vocals. I wanted to make sure that I approached it from the right direction (there were several ways to go with it). “Do you want it powerful and scary, or warm and inviting?” He just looked at me, cocked his eyebrow, and said, “Just sing.”
Comment by madmargaret — January 16, 2008 @ 8:05 am