The swimming improvement class finished on Thursday. I'm not sure that I got that much out of it, but my body has remembered how to swim crawl. Whilst warming up, I swam a length of crawl, infinitely more than the past 45 years put together. I have to work on my breathing, though; whilst I am exhaling properly, I am not closing my mouth fast enough after inhaling and so during that length I frequently took water into my mouth (not that I swallowed).
I went swimming as usual on Friday morning but found it very difficult to achieve a rhythm. My back ached a little and I simply wasn't in the mood - or lacking the strength - for swimming.
After walking slowly back home, I had the weekly conversation with the Occupational Psychologist then spent some time working on the song in 7/4 time and nearly finishing it. Over the past few days, I have improved the harmonic structure of the song, changed the links between verses, added a middle eight and generally improved the song. I was improving the oboe solo in the coda when it was time to go and start the final rehearsal for the musical group's show!
Outside was brutally hot, maybe 38°C, so it was with great relief when I arrived at the air-raid shelter where we rehearse. This is about 10 feet below street level and much cooler there, even without the air-conditioner. Everyone arrived on time and we proceeded to play our set, almost without having to repeat anything. I played the entire set standing up, in order to get used to the weight of the guitar - it's quite heavy.
After dragging myself home for a cold shower and change of shirt, we reconvened at about 6:30pm when a picnic supper was held on the grass. At 7:30pm, someone made the Friday evening blessing, complete with wine and challa, and then we were off (or rather, on)!
Despite the sound check, I couldn't hear the other guitarist very well; this is ironic in that most of the time I complained that he was all I could hear, but this time I heard myself clearly and him only faintly - slightly problematic as there were a few places where I rely on his musical cues. Apparently the PA team said that his sound was far too dirty and maybe purposely reduced his volume in the mix. The recordings that I've heard clearly feature my playing but not so much his - or maybe I'm just used to listening to myself. It was like hearing only one channel of a song recorded in stereo.
The gig itself went well: no serious mistakes that I could hear, except for one song where for some inexplicable reason I suddenly thought that the introduction had been cut in half. Probably no one except the drummer (the female drummer, cue Steeleye Span) and myself caught this. At first there wasn't much audience reaction, except for the small children at the front who were running around - out of time - and somewhat annoying. After a song or two, I put them out of mind. At around the halfway mark I could see that young adults, say 35 years old, were joining in with some of the songs and generally enjoying themselves.
It was hot on stage, because of the lights, and humid, because of the swimming pool, so I found myself frequently towelling down with the small hand towel that I brought with me from home; very professional, as were the swigs from my water bottle, barely visible by my little amplifier. The heat and humidity didn't seem to affect anyone else.
After we finished our set, we were asked to play half of the opening medley again - this was composed of two 'Mediterranean' songs that we joined together, despite one being in Bb and the other in F#m. We played the second half, and many adults jigged and sang along.
Many of the audience came up and said how much they enjoyed the show, possibly not expecting something so good. The OP asked me in the morning whether the musical director of the harvest festival was involved; I said that no, we played 'head arrangements' where everyone figures out their own part and very little is written down. Thinking about this later, I realised that the MD writes arrangements so that everyone can learn their part and play together with very little rehearsal, whereas we played together many times over the course of the past few months. I heard someone say something about us playing as a real group and not as an impromptu gathering.
By the time we had finished, I had sweated through the second shirt and I could already feel great tiredness. Despite this, we had to 'strike the set' and return the drum kit to its home. Eventually I dragged myself home, suffering from hiccups and some digestion problems, although I still had to walk the dog. I had problems falling asleep as I was both too tired and had the songs running though my head.
This morning [Saturday] when I eventually arose, I was exhausted and barely managed to take the dog for a long walk around the kibbutz. When I came home, I lay down for a few hours - my calf muscles hurt so much that I couldn't sit or do anything. There was no way that I was going to swim today! The pains wore off by about lunchtime. Checking my walking app, it's not surprising that my legs hurt so much as I walked 13.5 km yesterday, easily closing the weekly target.
Today were posted various films and remarks; we are requested to play at the New Year festivities, whatever these might be. Now we have to decide upon some new songs and whip up some arrangements.
|
|
|
Title | Tags |
|---|---|---|---|
| 44 |
|
Holiday | Holiday, Joni Mitchell |
| 187 |
|
Speed, speed, speed/2 | Programming, Office automation |
| 614 |
|
Transferring more cassettes | Personal, Old recordings |
| 744 |
|
Research proposal accepted | DBA |
| 965 |
|
The night manager | TV series, John Le Carre |
| 1410 |
|
My father's eyes (song) | Song writing, Father |
No comments:
Post a Comment