I remember being at Alma Choir rehearsals and Doc asking me to hit some low note, and being just barely able to do it (as in it sounded awful, but it was there). He told me that my voice would eventually grow into it, and by the time I was 30, I could probably hit all of those.
Well, as a nominal bass, I think the idea was that I would expand DOWNward. I could always hit those Fs below the staff, and occasionally an E, but NEVER a D...and I always felt so inadequate. :-P
The voice teacher with whom I audited two semesters of voice lessons (she hated me because I'd never practice) thought I was a second tenor for some reason, and I couldn't convince her otherwise--which led me to conclude that she was nuts, and reduced my confidence in anything she told me. I was a bass, dangit!
It seems perhaps she has been vindicated by time. Hehehe...oops!
My buddy R.L. and I got to talking over Christmas about how much we missed singing in a choir, and how much of a pity it was that our church doesn't have a vocal ensemble to do some occasional sacred music, spirituals, etc. He got fired up about it and started one up, and we've met a few times to practice. Overall it's pretty rough, because we've involved a bunch of people who've never sung before, can't read music, etc.--and no major criticisms here, 'cause that was me when I first arrived at Alma, and I didn't really become functionally useful as a music reader until my third year singing under Doc)--so we'll be at this stuff for a while.
The cool thing is that we've got a couple of older guys (70s-90s) who have been singing their whole lives, so we've got this little group of men that's working on some other music separately. We needed a baritone, and the part was given to me because I just didn't have that 70 year-old man rumble richness that the other dudes did, and I was pleased to note that I was able to hit an E sharp above the clef without going into my head voice, which I couldn't do before...
Well, to get back to walking Kala, last night I felt like singing along to my iPod (I know, big tool...but it was nearly 11pm! There was NObody out there!), and I suddenly found I could sing all sorts of stuff in my chest voice that I could never hit before! Mac Powell, Cliff Young, Juan Luis Guerra, Rich Mullins: all vocalists I could never match, and always needed to mirror down an octave. Now I can sing right along with them in the right register! w00000t!
Speaking of Rich Mullins, here's a song of his I particularly love that I heard on my way to the library this morning:
Hold Me Jesus
Sometimes my life just don't make sense at all
When the mountains look so big
And my faith just seems so small
So hold me Jesus,
'Cause I'm shakin' like a leaf
You have been King of my glory,
Won't you be my Prince of Peace?
And I wake up in the night and feel the dark
It's so hot inside my soul
I swear there must be blisters on my heart
So hold me Jesus,
'Cause I'm shakin' like a leaf
You have been King of my glory,
Won't you be my Prince of Peace?
Surrender don't come natural to me
I'd rather fight you for something
I don't really want
Than take what you give that I need
And I've beat my head against so many walls
Now I'm fallin' down,
I'm fallin' on my knees
And the Salvation Army band is playing this hymn
And your Grace rings out so deep
It makes my resistance seem so thin
So hold me Jesus,
'Cause I'm shakin' like a leaf
You have been King of my glory,
Won't you be my Prince of Peace?
I'm singin'hold me Jesus,
'Cause I'm shakin' like a leaf
You have been King of my glory,
Won't you be my Prince of Peace?
Here's the vid:
Rich Mullins: "Hold me Jesus"
[via FoxyTunes / Rich Mullins]
Take 2:10 and watch it--I've found it to be particularly moving on occasions when I'm feeling really vulnerable emotionally ("broken" in the churchspeak I detest so strongly), but it always strikes a chord with me.
* * * * * *
In other range-expanding news, climbing recently has been sa-WEET. Very little top-roping and just a tish of leading, but I've been bouldering like a mo-fo. I used to HATE bouldering. It wasn't bad at Alma, where all our bouldering routes were essentially traverses and we didn't have any massively-overhanging stuff to work with, or any of those gigantic sloping holds that make life so much fun...but in the rest of the world, I'd NEVER do it.
So I've been at TRC for a while now, and would never hop on anything outside of the V0- to V1+ range, 'cause I just didn't think it was accessible. Well, I started throwing myself against a few harder routes over the last two weeks, and last night was amazing. I've climbed 4 V2+s, a pair of 3s of various degrees, a pair of 4s of various degrees (including two SUPER bad-@$$ 4+s) and pieced together all the segments of a slope-y/dyno-ey V5 that I'm hoping to link up on Sat. Aww, yeah!!
* * * * * *
I don't know if this is related to my newfound climbing prowess, but it's a range thing also. Unfortunately, we aren't expanding. The weight loss campaign is going relatively poorly. When I started about a month ago, I was in the 188-190 range, and I'm currently plateaued at about 183-184.5, depending on how dehydrated I am. Booo! Now, I've not really incorporated cardio into the effort like I did over the summer--I was RUNNING 4-6 mis./day with Kala back then, and I am currently WALKING her 2-3.5 miles every other day or so--but I've been eating much better, and doing push-ups, etc. every day.
It's not all bad news, though. My jeans are fitting like they ought (instead of like they did), and I've gone from being able to do EITHER 3 sets of 10 pushups in the morning OR the evening to now doing 3 sets of 20 morning AND evening, so I'm getting stronger. I'm just such a numbers-oriented person when it comes to working out that not seeing those numbers drop is frustrating. Worse, I know what it'll take, I just can't seem to find the time. :-P Maybe that'll change now that Anna's got the new job and is home with Cae a little more.
I'd LIKE to claim that the loss of belt sizes and increase in push-up and climbing prowess while remaining relatively static in weight is due to replacing fat with denser lean muscle, but I'm reasonably certain it doesn't happen that quickly...plus, that sort of thinking (in my case) leads to dangerous slippery-slope neglect of either fitness or diet. Oh, well. I just gotta get out there with the doggie more often...I guess that's the blessing AND curse of doggie parks. If you're lazy/sick/injured/busy they're awesome, but if you're trying to get yourself into shape, they're the devil.
Anyway, off to do Arabic.
Bonus vid: I just saw this clip of Rich Mullins' "Screen Door." It's a quirky little fun song, but what I love about the vid is that I loved the clapping rhythm and never knew where it came from...how cool! LOVE the timing of the piece:
Rich Mullins: "Screen Door"
[via FoxyTunes / Rich Mullins]
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