Poor Choice for Wheel Block_*<080>*_
I am feeling a bit of melancholly after attending my 30 year reunion to Memorial High School in Newark, California and a bit of anxiousness after our dress rehearsal tonight for our Saturday garden performance. The band is a group of us who took Rhan Wilson's Uke U class. I really wanted to take this class to build confidence in performing and singing. So this is going to be a real test and I haven't made it very easy on myself. I try to remind myself that by continuing to put myself in front of others I will improve each time.
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The challenge is singing The Girl from Ipanema. It IS a challenging song and I made it more difficult by enthusiastically requesting to sing Garota de Ipanema in Brazilian Portuguese. The song is memorized but not truly "mastered" and those darn Aaaahs:
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Aaaah! porque estou tao sozinho Oh, why am I so alone?
Aaaah! porque tudo a tao triste Ah! why is everything so sad?
Aaaah! a beleza que existe Ah! the beauty that is there.
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I have been torturing my extremely tolerant bandmate's eardrums for quite a while now. There was some talk about eliminating it from the set list. But the band really likes the tune and I have invested so much time preparing and memorizing it would seem a crime to eliminate. After all everything was about improving skills, this is a test along the way.
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That leads me to the next topic. I am still not comfortable with the microphone and there is a much different sound or movement of sound that takes some getting used to. I think I should get a mic and a reasonably-priced quality recorder for home practice. I'll have to ask my research assistant Dougie C. to dig up some (more) info for me.
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Playing in a band is probably the best vehicle for forcing yourself to spend time memorizing all of the songs chords and words.
