Chapter Fourty Four: Baby's First BHS International

Tomorrow I will depart for Philly with my trusty Lead and Partner-In-Crime, Sabrina. We will be taking part in our very first Men's International Convention and we couldn't be more excited. Thanks to the loving sponsorship of several ladies in our chorus we won't have to sleep on lobby couches. And in true Theatre Kid style, not only are we attending our first BHS Convention, but we're crewing an event - The World Harmony Jamboree.

I do, of course, plan to fully cover what are sure to be my fun-tastic experiences through the art of blogging. And will also be Tweeting like a fiend through as much of the convention as I can - because in my mind this is the kind of event that Twitter should really be used for. So to all you twittering barbershoppers, I'll see you at #bbshop :)

Philly Here I Come!

Chapter Fourty Three: Reality Bites

I have come to realize that I lack the solid skill set needed to be a supremely excellent quartet bass. I do not lack the enthusiasm or drive to get those skills and make them an all-the-time part of my bbshop performing life. But I have some work to do before I become actually as good as I sometimes think I am. So I made a list. Some of these I have begun to work on and some need some more serious work and attention. Here is my current list:

Cool Bass Thing........................................What I Need to do to make this better
Bass pick ups ...........................................better breath support
Counter rhythms........................................check. check. double check.
Crazy magic carpet/wall of sound.....................need more consistent vocal production & breath support
Fearless, pin-point accuracy...........................working on it
Love of the part and the style.........................check
Belief that I sing the melody...........................who else would be singing it?

I am Alexis, Bass-in-Progress :) hear me roar!
(and by roar of course I mean, take an accurate pitch, sing with forward resonance and tall full space, lift the ends of phrases into the next phrase, take an in-tempo breath, smile with my eyes, and sell the message of the song!)