I'm Done Singing

Apparently every year at this time Invercargill puts on a big vocal/speech/dance competition. My voice teacher signed me up to compete in four divisions. I had no idea what to expect. It was crazy enough that I was the very first competitor of the competition, so I had no one to watch beforehand. But when I walked in last night for my first song someone said immediately, "You've won some money already." It turned out that there were only two people in the category and the other person pulled out. I performed anyway and fortunately the adjudicator awarded me first place. (I'm finally in a league of my own!) I would have been really embarrassed if she had opted to reserve her right to not award a prize if there's only one person in a category. What a nice way to break the ice!

My second performance last night went a bit differently. I sang an old Irish tune that is a lot of fun and a bit corny but I can be a character. Right before going on I was chatting with my accompanist about page turning. The song is very long and she was trying to work out how she'd deal with the pages. In the middle of my performance I had a split second thought that she had lost the accompaniment. Oops! That split second was enough to make me skip a beat and miss a verse. I realized it immediately but what could I do? I just went on to the next verse and hoped no one would notice. Apparently no one did and I was pleasantly surprised to receive a "very high commendation" by the judge. (I was disappointed to miss the verse, though. It was a good one.)

My third piece, which I performed this morning, was very odd. I sang an old Scottish tune with my sweet 80-something (at least) accompanist, Hazel. Hazel has a tendency to play V E R Y , V E R Y S L O W L Y. Despite asking her in advance to please play it quickly, Hazel played the piece slower than I'd ever done it before. I tried to speed it up but she wouldn't follow. I felt very frustrated afterwards. But I guess it wasn't as bad as I'd thought because I got third place! I'm not usually that competetive of a person, but this placement thing (with a bit of money attached even) was getting a bit addictive!

Then I had to wait all day long in order to sing one more song in tonight's last category. This was the musical theater category and I knew that several really great singers would be singing. I didn't expect to place at all, I just wanted to feel comfortable with the performance and have a good time. Hazel played way too slowly again but I managed and went with it and had fun. I have a bit of scratchy throat still, things weren't perfect, but I was pleased. So it was extra exciting to gain another "very high commendation" mark from the judge as a bonus!

The whole reason I entered this competition was to gain some more public singing experience and to get some feedback. I'm so pleased I did so. Mishaps are always a part of performing and it's good practice in itself to learn to deal with anything that comes up. I managed that and managed to feel good about my performances. Now I want to do more!