Vocal or Croaking Practice?
After almost a whole day of vocal practice to prepare for the upcoming Christmas song recording, I am back here to square one again, thinking what I am supposed to blog today.
The exception today however is that I will be limiting myself to only 30-minutes to complete this post. If I were to take over an hour every single day just to blog about the progress of my 2014 challenge, I figured it will be very time-inefficient since I can use my time in a more productive way - say... to write more pages for the 10 books that I am supposed to complete in one year! People say practice makes perfect. I sure hope that practicing the art of blogging now will come in handy when I actually start blogging about my progress for challenge that I have set for myself next year.
During the many hours of vocal practice just now, I have finally settled with recording "White Christmas" for the season. Of course I did not sing "White Christmas" a gazillion times in order to perfect the song during practice just now. Not only would the people around me be screaming for help, I probably would have strangled myself too. Having been so busy for the past 2-3 years, I haven't had much chance to really sing my heart out entirely until recently. Thinking about it, I think I hardly ever hummed much either for the past few years.
Watching the videos of my past performances in different contries recently brought back many memories. And being the perfectionist me (though no one is ever perfect, at least I ensure that I give my very best in everything I do), I will always find some 'imperfections' that should be improved should I perform the same piece again.
During the vocal warm-up session, I found myself gasping for air quite often. This is the result of having skipped practice for a long period of time and is obviously a big NO-NO for anyone who takes this singing-business seriously. Anyhow, after several attempts of singing the first repertoire (with a croak or two of course), everything went pretty well. I practiced different styles of singing in those few hours, which included classical Opera pieces, Chinese classical songs, the oldies, Indonesian folk songs and some Cantonese pop. With just 5 days to go before Christmas, I hope my recording for "White Christmas" will be able to evoke just that feeling in every person who listens to it. I sure would not want anyone remembering the song as "Toad Christmas".
We have around 12 more days before the Yoga academy will resume its classes. Both the beginning and end of a term are always a hectic period for all staff members because new registration will start pouring in. Just today, we had someone who appeared outside the academy's doorstep without prior notice. With all the leaflets and registration-related forms strewn all over the academy's floor and tables as though we had just been hit with a tornado, our unexpected visitor was obviously denied entry and was told to return again some other time. Knowing how 'safe' Malaysia is, our visitor had tried to convince our staff member several times that he had no intention of causing anyone any harm:
"Jangan takut. Saya bukan perompak. Saya datang untuk tanya tentang Yoga."
(Don't be afraid. I am not a robber. I am just here to enquire about the Yoga courses)
The person who received him at the door must have shown him a very clear expression of shock for the visitor to throw up both of his hands into the air - a gesture that somewhat signified 'surrender'. His big-built body did not help the scenario either. He would have probably thought that the staff member would all the more be intimidated seeing an oversized man lurking in the dark outside the academy's entrance, and so repeated his words in the above a couple of times to convince her that he is just another potential student. Nonetheless, he was still denied entry, not because we were not convinced about his honesty but because we wanted to spare him the agony of having to battle through all the papers lying around on our document-warzone ground today.
I am still 30-minutes over the time limit. I better brush up my blogging skill fast before I actually start the project on January 1st, 2014.
Signing off now. Have a beautiful last working day tomorrow!
Love and light,
Genevieve
Come on Genevieve! Having attened your concerts in the past, you would have definitely not recorded Toad Christmas.
ReplyDeleteI love you for your operatic performances. You were always so engrossed in your acts. I hope you will inspire more Asians learn to appreciate the dying art. I also notice that your operatic voice has become quite different than the one you had in your teenage years. Much fuller and sexier than ever. All the best in your upcoming album!!
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