Action!!!

I honestly have to say I was amazed at how productive we were. We ran the song a bajillion times and the last couple times there few to no mistakes! It was amazing. It was probably due to the fact that we cut about 3 minutes from the song but hey, it still sounds good. Anyway, we didn't get to any harmonizing and we're thinking of cutting the harmony and having Alena and I just sing along with Elise to the melody. "Ours" is a great song and I think we've got a pretty good rendition and it's been really fun.  It's nice to have some time to just dink around and hope something comes out. For us, it sure did. I'm probably forgetting something, like how fun it was to run the song a bajillion times....but all the same. It rocks.

Final Google Day

Alena:
Today was our final Google day, and we started to pull things somewhat together. We decided on a cut to make the song shorter, which will make it easier to have ready and minimize page flipping. I need to practice more. On another note, electric pianos with options like "guitar" and "voice" are hilarious. The one for woodwinds/brass sounded like a whole bunch of incredibly in-tune bumblebees.

Wow, i can't believe that was our last rehearsal day...

Yet another google day today. In fact, it was our final google day before presentations on December 13(coincidentally the same night that Nutcracker opens...). Today was definitely more successful than our past few practices, maybe we're feeling the deadline approach. We cut some of the song because it was just too long (8 pages plus a coda and repeats) and when we went to rehearse those pages, it turned out pretty well. We also learned that Alena isn't very good at counting off: she would count at one tempo and play at another. I, on the other hand, would count the beginning of a bar and taper off when I got distracted. We finally convinced Megan to do all of the counting in because the rest of us couldn't. Although we had a few distractions, for example, Alena was using an electric keyboard and decided to change the sound of the instrument, it was a fairly productive day. I'm feeling a bit more confident in regards to our google day. :)

Hi Again!

Another successful Google day down. Today we managed to get through a few pages with piano, guitar, and singing. Of course, it's way under tempo, but we're getting somewhere. Besides, if we can play a bit together and sing in tune, i think we're getting somewhere. We had our usual resistance when i tried to get Megan and Alena to actually sing, but they did actually do it and sounded really good. Mr. Matthys listened to us and told us that it sounded like a start. He also told us he could see us singing in cafes. That is, if we can get the song worked up in time. It was fun though.

Another day

As surprising as this sounds, we actually did something. We ran the first two pages of the song quite a few times to varying degrees of success. Matthys checked us out and was generally pleased with what he saw which was a major bonus. It's nice to have him around as a critique. Apparently Elise, Alena, and I are the random group playing in a dainty little cafe. Anyway, we took a break from the song after that and practiced more singing. Elise, the master singer, made Alena each sing by ourselves and that was the most nerve-wracking thing I've ever done. I was shaking so bad. I was alright after that and Alena sounded good and Elise was mostly happy with the outcome so all was well. Then we dinked around with the guitars and piano a little longer and that was the day.

Google Day 4 (I think)

Alena:
Today we had our fourth google day, and we actually got something done. The first page of the piece is coming together, and with a ton of practicing soon we can get the second done. We altered the piano part a little bit, which means i'm going to have to practice it more. Yay.