Improvements

I was apprehensive about the the voice placement audition, but I appeared relaxed and I did fine. My new range is A2 to D#4, which means I'm a Baritone now. Not surprising: Second Tenor was getting uncomfortable even twenty-five years ago. The "Welcome" email informed me I was a Lower Baritone, but the roster and my name badge say I'm an Upper. (There's probably a top/bottom joke in there that has already been made a thousand times in gay men's chorus settings.)

 A–– texted me: "A little singing and the voice will be as strong as ever, Promise. The muscles need building but the instincts are still top notch." That meant so much, and helped me press on through the social anxiety of interacting with strangers. And it seems A–– was right: I've been singing for less than a month–only two weekly rehearsals plus a bit of practice at home, and I already notice improvement. The other day, I randomly sang a snatch of some commercial jingle, and my tone was solid, not scratched and wavering like it has been. It's good to think a tune and have the notes more reliably come out of my mouth.

The winter storm cancelled the third rehearsal in January, but there are rehearsal tracks to download, and practiced with those yesterday. I surprised myself in a couple places where I was steadier on some tricky pitches and rhythms than the ensemble who recorded the tracks. So yeah: I still have skills.

"Rehearsal tracks to download." I have to talk about the tech changes since I dropped music as a hobby. Of course there's a web platform now to manage chorus membership, communications, calendars, music distribution, etc. Our sheet music is on PDF; nearly everyone uses tablets. They printed music for new members, and even though I bought myself a Pixel Tablet, I've continued to sing from the printed sheets. 

In addition to the tablet, I bought a USI2.0 stylus so I can take notes, and a piano. No, not a real piano; a digital one: Yamaha P-143BTB. For about a year, I'd been thinking it would be fun to get a digital piano and start practicing with the lesson books I used when I was a kid. (I found them on Internet Archive.) It's not top of the line, but it has 88 keys and an acceptable sound. I found room for it in the basement, on top of my grandmother's antique post office desk.

So every couple days I spend about an hour in the basement, perched on a box on a chair, slowly pursuing the musicality of my youth.