The Rehearsals

Behind the scenes of a concert, there is rehearsing. That word conjures up lots of other words describing my experiences practicing together...painful, fun, energetic, slow, distracted, focused, effective, arrangement-building, even relationship-building...the list goes on. :) Although there was a time when I didn't enjoy practicing together, I'm happy to say that in more recent years I've grown to enjoy and appreciate it more and more.

Unless it's a before-breakfast-instrumental-only rehearsal, we typically gather in the living room for vocal warm-ups. Of course there was yesterday when Janna, multitasking, was still on the computer upstairs and so she warmed up her voice from there, (apparently not taking into consideration the delay between the sound downstairs and her sound upstairs). After warm-up and transitioning into the rehearsal by running through a song a few times, we prioritize what we want to spend time working on. We practice various parts of a song various ways, listening for a tight, beautiful blend. There are decisions that have to be made about details; precisely when should we finish singing a word? All four of us need to pronounce the ending consonant at the same time!  Exactly how do we want to sense that ritard? Sometimes we get intense, and we've found that breaking it up with a good laugh and then focusing again is quite helpful. Other times Mom dances in and gives encouragement. Still other times I get extremely excited about making a new arrangement, or remembering a forgotten one, that I jump up and down. And there are always times when I'm coming up with a new harmony part, and have to have the other girls play a section over and over and over. At least the end result is gorgeous and fresh. Sometimes we stay focused, and sometimes we start out focused and stay so only until something is interesting enough to distract us. For example, yesterday Janna randomly said, "If we ever get a clear player, I think we should watch Seabiscuit". Sarah asked why and Janna explained...part way through the discussion we suddenly remembered we were supposed to be practicing, but we finished the discussion anyway. ;) That's all for now; Sarah is calling me to come rehearse!

~Kathrina