Sing, sing a song....

Last week, Grin, my very tall and lovely 15 year old was informed by her Musical Theater teacher, Mrs. Cant Do So Will Teach, that they (the class) needed to pick a song that had 32 cords and sing it in front of the class. Grin came home, not grinning... She does not like to sing in front of anyone, including me. And unfortunately, I believe she is slightly tone deaf... She has never been taught keys nor does she know any notes. I dont either so I am of little help. I can only sing the songs like I know them but cannot read sheet music. Grin is only in musical theater because she has to be in order to be in SOSCA (the South Orange County School of the Arts, think FAME in public school). She wants to learn about acting, not star in a Broadway musical, but these teachers think everyone should and does know about music. As I was not really sure what a 32 cord song was, we decided to call the most musical person we know. Grandpa Guffaw! And as usual he was a great help! Thank you Grandpa!

So we tried to look for a song. I suggested anything from the Sound of Music, as it is easy and fun. But no, Grin said that those songs were overdone. I tried thinking of songs that were sung with a funny accent or mostly spoken, so that she didnt have to try to hit notes. But we couldnt come up with any... So she went and asked the teacher for assistance. The teacher gave her a very large book filled with Broadway bound songs from the last 50 years. I tried suggesting so many from this book... Songs that I love, but little Miss Prim & Proper was not going to have any of it... Songs like Dont Rain on My Parade and Tomorrow were immediately rejected on the basis of hitting the notes... I whole heartedly agreed... But I do not understand what was wrong with 10 Cents a Dance... I love that song! But no, I finally convinced her that she should do I'll Never Fall in Love Again. Another favorite of mine. She wanted to be assured that my singing was actually how the song went so we had to look it up on YouTube and found a version sung by the Carpenters. Ah the memories!!!

Soothed by the fact that I really did know this song and was very sure in my singing of it. She had me sing it over and over again until she was exactly sure of how it was supposed to go. But being Grin, she still wont sing it in front of me. So she went off to take a shower and sung it in there. But was having great difficulty with one of the "again" notes near the ending of the song lines. It was just coming out flat. After 12 more times of singing this song to her, I now have it stuck in my head. It was stuck in my dream... And I still have one more day of practicing with her.

But back to the big issues. Grin is petrified. She is so scared of having to sing in front of her class that I had to fall back on another Carpenter's hit to try to give her confidence a boost and to get the other song out of my head. As her confidence was waning I stood up on the bed and belted "Dont worry that its not good enough for anyone else to hear, just sing, sing a song".. This brought a very large grin to her face but she is still scared to death.... I am going to have to keep singing the Carpenters song book all night long....