A Musical Wednesday.

“Those who danced were thought to be quite insane by those who could not hear the music.” ~ Angela Monet.
I was sitting here happily breathing, contemplating my navel in the blissful state that so seldom eventuates when there is nothing to do & nowhere to go when my peace was shattered. We have 2 performances in the middle of this month, one at QPAC.

I know the schedules are posted for a reason but looking at them gives me brain melt. *sigh* Why anyone would want to do this for a living beats me but there we have it. Ditz is far from normal!
Anyway we have been door knocking clutching the VM newsletter & pamphlet selling raffle tickets ~ which Ditz is extremely bad at & Liddy is very good at. Liddy doesn't think much of our efforts & tends to take control, concisely pointing out that Ditz belongs to this very elite choir [she says no~one will know what I mean by ensemble; Sorry, Alison.] & having been invited to Singapore they are now fundraising. We did very well only we must look approachable because everywhere we tried people chatted to us for absolute ages & we only did 5 houses in 2 hours. I know, but we only have 3 tickets left & my mother bought one she doesn't know about yet. I figured as the prize is a bunch of CDs she could use them in her radio show. Ditz was scathing & asked if I even knew the artists? [stupid question; of course I don't] Oh, well. It was a good idea.

Anyway after a week with no ensemble Ditz was champing at the bit. Alison was in fine form & I nearly chocked in my corner up the back trying not to die of laughter as Alison was not happy with sight reading results & in an effort to imprint the necessary information in the children's brains had them moving. Alison is a very kinesthetic teacher but having those poor kids pecking like chooks & jiggling like baited worms had the whole room in stitches till not one of them could sing any longer. Ditz was in trouble for cracking on the low G on a song that falls in a difficult place in her range & then I was in trouble for failing to pay attention. I swear, that woman has a 6th sense of when anyone in the room is zoning out because she always waits till I'm deeply immersed in my book to ask me a question & scares the living daylights out of me! Yes, I think the kids are improving! [I think that's what I got asked?] Ditz has done very well by me the last few trips to the library. Finnikin of the Rock [Melina Marchetta] is very good but now Ditz is peeved because I started behind her but read faster so am now well ahead of her but Wednesdays I always do a lot of reading. I'd got to the exciting part & am not so fussed about Ave Maria so had completely submerged & as all my children know, once I'm gone it is rather difficult to get me back again! I actually thought my focus & attention were exceptionally good ~ just not for the music!

I must be a bit odd [please, no comments] because I find the kids singing scales extremely pleasant. There's something about trained voices doing this that is quite beautiful but apparently Alison's neighbours don't agree & are likely to scream about shutting that racket when she has students! Oh my! The things that I don't think about. Our neighbours are mostly older & a fair distance away but flute carries so I'm really pleased none of them have taken to screaming at us!

Encouragement for all the kids, most of whom sing in their school choirs & struggle as the training is nowhere near as thorough & some very odd practises occur. Rightly or wrongly once we started VM I pulled Ditz out of other singing activities because I could see how frustrated she was becoming. Ditz might be off the air in a lot of ways but not when it comes to music & one term with a choir director Ditz didn't get along with up at the school was enough to convince me never, ever again! Ever. Ditz frustrated & angry is no fun to play with & who knows what sort of damage could be happening. Unlike my Ditz I know absolutely nothing about music but I do know a good thing when I see it & Alison is very good for Ditz. She brings her out of the ether into the reality of the business end of the music industry because the arts have their practical, hard~edged business side as well as their creative aspects. Ditz needs to stay grounded. For all our sakes.