Wee Small Hours

Awakened by a teething toddler at 3am - two hours later, I can't go back to sleep.

 

The next 8 days will be packed with CHOIR. Choir, choir, choir. I'm not sure what I was thinking in imposing this schedule on my students. Oh, well, what's done is done. We shall all survive.

 

Here's the breakdown -

Monday -  get 3 of 4 choirs on text; check in clinician to hotel

Tuesday - Kendra Lipman - all day clinician, working with Men's Choir, Intermediate & Advanced Treble Choirs plus 4-6pm rehearsal w/Choir Director Q&A at the end

Wednesday - 8am Sectional; 4-5pm Intermediate Choir Rehearsal

Thursday - 8am Sectional; 4-5pm 6th Grade Girls Choir Rehearsal

Friday - 8am Sectional; 4-7pm TMEA Rehearsal

Saturday - 8-10am Group Pictures; 10am-3pm TMEA Rehearsal

Monday - 7pm Concert; 8pm TMEA Parent Meeting

 

When the concert is over, we'll jump head first into Solo & Ensemble Contest.

 

I've been sick all week with sinus congestion - didn't feel run down, but my body has been yakking all this stuff out.

 

I am pleased with where we are, but thought we would be further along with all 4 pieces. We started school a week later than usual, so with 1 more week - I wouldn't be worrying. Well, I would be, but not as much as I am right now.

 

The girls have begun to have intonation issues that I am very concerned about as we move from solfege to neutral syllables. It requires finding the right consonant to begin with.

 

I'm proud of myself - I gave the Advanced Treble Choir Officers the job of creating and leading icebreaker/team building games for our rehearsals this weekend. Normally, I wouldn't trust anyone to do this, but honestly, I severely dislike this job. I don't mind games, but I would rather focus on the music. REAL honesty - I have always believed that rehearsal is team building enough for a choir, but I understand that in this situation, middle school girls need something fun along the way. I'm not always going to be fun b/c I am so task-oriented. But I let go of my trust issues and have enjoyed watching this group of girls get excited about creative play.

 

The downside of this week is all of the parent emails that I will field trying to get their daughter out of this weekend's rehearsal b/c of things that come up/require attention/emergencies. I published this TMEA schedule in May for these very reasons.

 

I am most excited about Tuesday w/Kendra Lipman and this weekend's rehearsals - polish the old and introduce the new! That's FUN for me!