We can fly! She can fly! We can Fly!

We had a good rehearsal last night! Many of you have probably seen our first shameful rehearsal; obviously we don't sound that good (don't worry, we know it too). But last night's rehearsal went really well, in fact so well, that everyone is feeling a lot less discouraged and is excited again about our potential Summer plans.

Unfortunately, we didn't take a video last night. I think we were all so shamed by the first one, that no one could stomach putting up another one.

Some reasons why last night went so well though, Aspen rocked it on the tambourine! No seriously, Aspen kept the beat for us (becoming our own personal metronome) and really figured out some good beats. She managed to even coax a few different tones from a one tone instrument. Even though she's only been playing a little while she's picking it up quickly and seems to have found a niche as a drummer. We're looking into finding some bongo drums or something for her, to borrow, rent or buy, so if anyone knows of a place or person who has a bongo drum and might be interested in one of the above three, please let us know!

With the added beat everyone kept with each other so much better. We also incorporated some left hand rolled chords. (Rolled chords are basically a chord, you just play each note individually, one after the other.) Adding these smoothed out the sound of the harp, really giving our music some body. Before we had noticed that just playing the melody only produced a plinky sort of sound; adding the rolled chords really produced some continuity to the piece and made the songs sound absolutely gorgeous. My goal for the next few days is to arrange my own left hand to the songs, since so far I've been really dissatisfied with the ones from the arrangements we've been using.

I also happened upon some really beautiful notes that transition between the verses of some our songs really well. Janelle had the great idea to add small harp solos in between the verses, so I'll be working on developing those as well.

The last reason why things went so well last night is also the singing. Janelle has a really beautiful voice, especially for the folksy, Celtic music we've been playing so far, but for the song "Danny Boy" we've decided to all sing it. I'm not sure how it came about, but we realized that the three of us singing and harmonizing on that song really sounded great. Now for those of you familiar with Aspen and myself, you should know, we don't sing. Ever. We don't sing in choirs, I know I don't sing in the shower and I barely sing in my car (for the last two you'll have to ask Aspen about that). For some reason though, our three voices blended really well, especially since Aspen and I have more alto based voices and Janelle is a strong soprano. Now, we won't be singing loudly, but adding some background vocals really spiced up the song.

For those of you who know us, you should realize that us singing is a big deal. It's incredible we even sang during rehearsal, doubly more impressive that we agreed to sing in public. I feel  like the kids in the Disney version of Peter Pan when they realize they can fly. Imagine that scene happening in my small apartment bedroom...


So anyone, this is a positive post. One filled with hope for our future as a band. Things had been pretty dicey the past few weeks, what with little time to rehearse, and bad rehearsals when we did manage to get together. However, I think we're here to stay guys!