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!

Rome WAS Built in a Day

Wow. So they say Rome wasn't built in a day, yet it's incredible how fast things are moving on this project. We've already heard back from the Pittsburgh Renaissance Fair, one of the biggest in the United States and they've said that they would love to hear a demo CD from us. This fact really excites me, though maybe just for the pure fact that within the next month I'll be making a demo CD and sending it out to people! Just think, a demo CD, doesn't that just sound legit?

Also, we've (well just me actually) managed to ACCIDENTALLY purchase harp. Yup, that's right accidentally.  Here is some wisdom I acquired yesterday--read everything on ebay before typing in numbers. So apparently there is this thing on ebay where you can either "buy it now" or put in your best offer, meaning that instead of competing against other buyers you simply submit an offer to the company for what you'd like to pay for the item. Unbeknownst to me, if they accept your offer, you've basically just purchased the item.

So I submitted an offer on a small Celtic harp on ebay and the next morning received an email saying, "Congratulations, now pay us our money." Therefore, a harp is now speeding across the 50 states (all the way from Florida I might add) to land at my doorstep in about a week. I've yet to try the harp, so here's hoping it sounds good. It has 22 strings (three octaves) and stands about 3 feet tall.

As is the custom among myself and various members of my family, I'll probably end up naming my new little toy and I'd welcome any suggestions for names anyone might have. I've included a picture of the item in question for your inspiration.

Also, just an update on the blog itself. The girls and I have been overwhelmed by the amount of people who think that our Summer proposal is, simultaneously the most ridiculously awesome thing they've heard about (at least this week), so in the spirit of maintaining that, we'll be doing our best to upload as many interesting things to this site. Soon to come, videos of our music and of us rehearsing (which is sure to be hysterical), pictures of the group, and even images from the playing card-centered theme merchandise that Aspen is creating (I've seen some of it, and it's great).

So basically this post is merely to inform you all that I couldn't be more surprised about how quickly my silly idea has taken off, ergo, our Rome (the band) being built in a day.

Oh and incidentally, in response to some questions we've received about pronunciation of the band name, it goes like this (A-ode). We chose it since Aoide was the Greek muse of song.--Pepper