September 7th, 2006

September 7^th, 2006:

• Stand for Peace: Oscar Howe elementary school
• Kids’ enthusiasm: This was a great group of kids to do the Stand for Peace curriculum with. They just ate it up. Rafa, Raol and I just had a blast playing with these kids.
• Best show yet: As if having a fun group for our educational component wasn’t good enough, they were our best audience yet. When we did out brief show, they hooted, they screamed, they cheered. I’ll take an auditorium full of children anytime over paying adults. Their energy gives us energy to perform. If only we didn’t have to worry about the fund raising factor. Ah well, the kids loved the show and that’s all that mattered.
• Recording with Jen
• I had a once-in-a lifetime opportunity this evening. Our musical director and his host father took Jen and me to a recording studio to record “We’ll Be There” for the Dakota Bowl. What an amazing process!? I felt like I was in a music video. We each had time in the booth, singing to the solitary microphone. The producer (?) was sitting at the computer and mixer, tweaking things as we sang.

Jen did an amazing job. She sang strong and clear and it didn’t take her too long to get through her tracks. I was so thankful that she went first. She had experience with recording and knew what was needed.

Me, however, I took considerably longer to record my tracks. For me, it was a completely different way of thinking and singing. I tried to remember all that our director had been telling me, “less nice, more rock”…but I was completely out of my environment. Before UWP, I hadn’t sung in years. When I had, I was in a choir. I was supposed to blend my voice, not become Bon Jovi. It really struck me how much control and attention must be paid by a musical artist to cut a quality track. I could sing an entire verse perfectly, but then lose strength, tone, attitude….whatever for one word and I’d have to record it again. Maybe recording artists don’t need multiple million dollars for recording in a studio, but they at least deserve for us to download their songs legally for a buck a piece.

Life goal #something….Accomplished.