Noli Me Tangere

life goin' nowhere, somebody help me

This is the time of year the everybody complains about eating too much. If you didn't stuff yourself silly over thanksgiving, the weeks following offer an endless stream of leftovers, fatty snacks, and holiday treats.

Some people feel bad about eating too much at thanksgiving dinner. But I'm almost ready to contend that overstuffing can be a catalyst for even greater thanks-giving. This year, after I realized that I put too much on my plate, I knew I must find a way to eat it all, lest I appear ungrateful on thanksgiving. So I did. I ate more than I have in a long time. Afterwards, I walked back into the kitchen and saw how much was left over, that none of us could eat, for sheer lack of space. Of course, that didn't stop my grandmother from trying feed us more.

Thankfulness is not hard to come by on occasions like this, but nothing quite drives the point home like having your stomach stretched and being literally unable to eat what's given to you. My distended-ness was tangible blessed-ness. The Psalmist gave thanks because his cup had runneth over; why shouldn't we when our gut runneth over?

This time of year has become a time of stuffing of another kind. For me, at least, November and December have been like a musical feast, where I try to stuff as much music into my head as will fit in two months. No sooner had I cleared the Clayton State Chorale entrée off my plate when for dessert I had to scarf down about thirty 80's covers and holiday polka songs. Once that's done, there's St. Paul's choral music and the accompanying instrumental parts, then the next week I've got my solo recital for school, which will require some serious stuffing of its own.

It occurs to me that this sounds like complaint, or worse, bragging. But I'll be the first to admit that these times are the fruit of my own decisions, and as stressed out as I get, I relish this time of year. It's good music, and it's a time to be stretched. And I know too much of my own mediocrity to brag; preparing 50 songs in two months makes a busy musician, not a good one.

Ultimately, I'm thankful for this stuffing as well. And the stretching metaphor continues to fit: trying to sing "Another One Bites the Dust" in the original key may, oddly enough, get me an A in voice studio class.

One of my biggest hindrances this semester has been my habitual use of tension, especially in the high register. It's been second nature for so long that I don't even know I'm doing it despite my prof's best efforts to point it out. (this habit can probably be traced back to my early efforts to sing along with Phil Collins) But this "bad tension" hinders consistency, and wears out my voice prematurely.

And so over thanksgiving I listened to my 80's practice tape. In the 80's it was very fashionable for men to sing in very unmanly ways, and my tape included several egregious examples of this phenomenon, courtesy of The Bee Gees, Queen, and Journey. And I knew that I couldn't afford to sing these songs the usual way without doing lasting damage to the instrument on which I would be graded in few days, so I tried a new technique that doesn't sound great, but does let me hit Journey notes with minimal tension.

During my next voice lesson my prof took me into some high scales, then suddenly paused and asked me what I was doing differently. I didn't know, but I did confess, with some embarrassment, that I'd been trying to sing Queen songs without hurting myself. He said it was the best I had sounded yet, and I realized I was onto something.

The irony of this is that a while back I brought up Freddie Mercury's name in a discussion because he's thought to have had a pretty amazing natural instrument and my prof said, tellingly, "Yeah, he probably could have done something with that voice." My thought was, “he did quite a few things with his voice in 'Bohemian Rhapsody'.” So I found great amusement in telling him that Queen was making me a better opera singer.

Anyway, I'll put in a plug in for these events, in case I didn't tell you yet, or you are just bored, or have a fever for which the only prescription is more polka:

47th Annual Holiday Polka Party
Dec. 3rd, 8pm
The Robins Pad (The Biltmore)
Open to anyone who is not afraid to polka the lights out.

Shadows of the Nativity
a service of lessons and carols, featuring shadow puppetry
Dec. 12th, 7pm
Defoor Centre
Open to the public

Abe’s Voice Jury Recital
Dec. 13th, 1 pm
Clayton State College and University
Closed to the everyone except frowning professors

Posted by aokie at December 2, 2004 03:24 PM