the history of male singing groups...

Jan 18, 2007 23:54

andy noticed today, how excited i am about special music tomorrow...

frankly, it's because, for as long as i could remember, i've dreamed about getting together with a group of guys and make great music... and not have to worry about every single person, stressing over whether or not they could hold their own...

history time: male singing groups in the life of john osio...

- - - - - - -
in church, during the awkward early teenage years, there was eric, scott, matthew, ken, and i... i always had to teach every single one of them their parts, make sure they memorized it so they wouldn't mess up, and hope that someone doesn't screw up... our first and only serious performance was for sabbath school... "Dear God," by Boyz II Men... since all of us were going through voice changes, the highest note anyone sang was an E above middle C... i even had to rearrange the vocal parts to make sure no one couldn't sing notes they couldn't reach...

rearrange pretty much the same group: eric, scott, and i, but add mark, and we had our second attempt: "Living Water" by bob carlisle... what made that performance awkward was that we were relying on a transposing keyboard to lower the key of the song, and on the day of the performance, for yet another sabbath school, the keyboard wasn't there! poor scott was basically whining out a high A... regardless, i still found all the harmonies for everyone, and sang their parts to them, in order for them to learn...

throw in those random moments with the same guys + adam, in singing the infamous "in the still of the night," messing around with Blackstreet's "In a Rush" and Boyz II Men's "I Do," and all church-related guy-group stories are complete...

- - - - - - -
high school... it wasn't until senior year until we got something going... much drama going on though, behind the scenes... we tried to form a group junior year, but certain people hated other people in the group, so it ended up being just LA, james, and i, from a group of originally six members... only performed a "happy birthday" to monica, which didn't even sound that great...

james, travis, ara, and i finally got together senior year, and i listened for hours to a song by commissioned: "Draw Me Nearer..." it had the intricate harmonies, and the performance appeal to impress... i had to teach everyone their parts still, and had to write my part all around james' part, since he could only single melody, as long as it didn't go high... and when it did, i'd have to catch the high part of the melody, jumping all around his semi-stagnant part... our first performance went well, with kristen backing us up on the piano... thus, GTS was formed (Guys That Sing... yes, it was ara's clever idea)...

we sang the same song for travis' baptism, and then we performed another song, "Lift Up Your Hands," by Drop 'N Harmony, for a central filipino gospelite service... didn't go so hot... james had the solo, and travis, ara, and i backed him up with pure chords... the tendency to go flat was there, though, and the incapability to hear the problem and fix it was there as well...

our last performance together was graduation... man, drama galore... i found the song: "My Friend" by Plus One... i spent hours writing out a piano part, writing out all parts for everyone else, teaching everyone their parts at james' house... gave everyone a solo that wanted one... since i did all the work, i wanted the closing line of the song... james did, too... for some reason, we got heated over the topic, and only agreed to do the song for travis and ara's sake, and go our separate ways after graduation... we performed it for several music faculty members, who gave me personal advice about what would make everything sound better... the personal advice was to take the solos away from travis, since he didn't sound very good... i refused to do that to travis, so i just tweaked the parts of the solos he would sing, so they would stay in a better range... didn't get emotional during the performance on commencement, but travis and ara did... it went alright...

so ends GTS...

- - - - - - -
PUC... first two years here, i was a nobody musically... never went on stage once, for anything other than choir or wind ensemble... suddenly, there was an explosion last year, and it seemed like there wasn't a week that would pass that i wouldn't be involved somehow...

josh, andy, and i have been joking about forming a quartet for the longest time... pretty much since josh and andy knew each other, and shared the same passion of their overwhelming love of vocal music... we kept trying to draw either lauren or jonny garza, but they were never seriously into the idea, so nothing ever happened...

this year however, when darrin mentioned how awesome it would be just to sing a cappella with other guys, and how he just wanted informally to make music, non-choir related, i sprung at the opportunity to tell josh and andy... we had a potential quartet, and a possible gig for winter revival, since andy had the hookups for special music... the two immediately jumped for the opportunity, i told darrin that we had a group, and he was excited...

cory then mentions over break that he had some quartet music passed down to him, that andy, josh, him, and i should put to good use... rather than trying to get josh and andy to be quiet during our random board game nights, he looked into having organized jamming sessions... so the gears started working in my head, to get cory in on the plan... when he found out that we were singing for special music the monday before performance, he was a bit surprised, but hesitantly accepted...

and this is where the past meets the present... BAQ... yes, i'm excited... i didn't even have to teach anyone their parts... i just wrote them down, and we read through it... sure, there comes the occasional mistakes, or the flatting, but everyone's so receptive from my advice and coaching, but overall everything's just falling into place... and practices have been nothing but fun... especially when you see darrin kick the window blinds out of frustration...

frankly, i'm glad that i've had something positive to look forward to this week, b/c it seems like i've been getting a lot of indirect heat lately, even from friends, so it seems... practice today was excellent... we pretty much memorized our parts; we just need to get the words down... hopefully, there's more of this to come, before darrin graduates...

::exhale:: a sigh of relief... a sigh of anticipation... a sigh of butterflies... so many reasons one can sigh... and right now, at this point in my life, i have every reason to sigh, for all reasons attached...

nostalgia, baq

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