draco @draco@sonomu.club

In other news, I may have suggested to give singing lessons to a loved one. They are insecure about their vocal abilities, but I have known them long enough to suspect there's a lovely baritone hiding in there.

Now I have to find some fun classical pieces to study with them.

Concert went well! I had a small timing issue in my solo, but hey, for only one week of preparation and a FREAKING HARD piece this went VERY well.

Also, the majority of the school choir kids were awesome. Some very talented soloists. Two young sopranos who gave me goosebumps.

I learned a lot during the last week, and I suppose I grew as a singer. Now I hunger to do more solo stuff.

Also, my wife caught a bad cold. Cross your fingers that I don't catch it, or that the incubation period goes well longer than tomorrow night.

Tried the solo in the dress rehearsal, and I haven't had real stage fright like this in a while. Like, heart beating hard, extra vibrato in my voice.

Later, in the shower, I realized that probably means I am challenged to a level where I get to stretch my skills - musically and technically - and that's really worth it, and also that I haven't had to use *all my skills* in a while.

For clarification: I don't mind anyone who practices Christianity as a meaningful part of their lives, as long as they leave me alone and don't judge me.

I begin to long for this Dvorak Mass project being over because I hate having earworms of what is basically the central rite of a religion that eradicated the practices on whose memory my practice draws on.

I have complex feelings about Christianity's cultural position in my region, and yet, my musical tradition - Western classical music - is so incredibly tangled up with it, especially vocal music, that avoiding it is impossible.

OK, several practice sessions later, it's coming together and I'm figuring out how to sing it without going full-on Verdi. But boy, do I need to pay attention.

Oddly enough, that makes me want to sing some really over the top late romantic opera.

And the director of the project just asked me to support the school choir in a few more places. I'll be sight-reading most of it tomorrow and hope for the best.

Also, let's hope she can recruit a few more tenors.

Practiced the Dvořák solo. Oh dear, this is also a tough exercise in breath management. #classicalsinging

Song idea: Rail Replacement Blues. #fawm #travelgripe

#fawm things: I tried to record a simple 4-part piece with #nontimeline and it's an absolute disaster. I couldn't get anything musically synchronous. The lack of a click/built-in metronome turns out to be a dealbreaker. Also, no export functionality and (in the version from the KXStudio website) no support for lv2 plugins = major bummers.

I'll be trying to record the song from scratch with my H4N only some time next week, when I've got the mindboggling work stress off my shoulders.

Who just spent three hours brushing up their #lilypond skills, and typing 75 measures of vocal music with very repetitive text (it's a mass) into Frescobaldi, and copying all the dynamics from their score edition?

On the bright side, now I have very nice sheet music of this last minute arrangement, and it's *one* page instead of two. Which will be handy during performance.

#dracoandthelastminutesolo

OK, it looks like there was a major hiccup ("the church choir has done this piece 4 years ago, they'll just need to brush this up... oh, wait, they *haven't* sung this and we're one week from the performance, no way can they learn this within a week") - and the organist *arranged* the piece for solo soprano now, and I'm their singer superhero who has to come swooping in.

OK. Challenge accepted. I'm a little nervous, though.

tfw you get very kindly asked to sing a solo you have never done before a week from now and you already have a lot on your plate and you're probably the last resort. Ugh yeah... bring it on.

I feel like I'm finally getting into the #fawm groove. I came up with a song idea as I lay sleepless this night - now I only have to flesh out those verses...

In other news, I spent a lot of the evening getting to know #nontimeline, #nonmixer and Non Session Manager. Seems to work well on my Eee if I don't use ambitious Jack settings. But the modularity is something I still have to wrap my head around. Also, I haven't figured out how to export stuff yet.

Fucking migraine has been an asshole lately. Thinking about cancelling tonight's choir rehearsal - but then, singing usually doesn't make it worse and sometimes even helps.

But then, I don't have to push myself all the time. I don't have to be the perpetual straight A student all the time either.

Let's see if some yoga and a hot shower can help.

Lazily browsing audio equipment. Wondering if a USB audio interface makes a difference versus USB microphone, cheapo USB MIDI cable (attached to an antique LKM master keyboard) and/or using my H4N as an audio interface. What's your experience, dear Fediverse?
Also, which ones do work well with Linux (UbuntuStudio/Ubuntu/possibly KXStudio)?

#audiogear #linuxaudio

Main enemy today: Frozen hands. #guitaristproblems #winter