What a great weekend.

Oh my gosh. What a weekend this has been. I'll walk you through it, so you don't get lost among the GREATNESS of it all.

It started on Friday evening, where I began packing to leave for the Far Western District Convention of the Barbershop Harmony Society. My ride was supposed to pick me up at 5:15...he wasn't there 'till 6:30. :O Just shows how traffic can REALLY throw a plan off kilter. But it wasn't a big deal, for he DID come, better late than never, and then we were off to good ol' Bako. We stopped at an In and Out before the "grapevine" to nourish ourselves with some high class cuisine, also known as double doubles and shakes. Perfect. Now, chorus contest, which we were going up to compete in, wasn't until Saturday, but we wanted to see our hometown chorus rehearse on Friday night so that was our reason for leaving that evening. We got there around 10:50, just in time to see Voices in Harmony rehearse at 11 at The Hotel Marriot, which was headquarters for the convention. 

They really sounded much better since that last time I sang with them in San Jose, but it wasn't much of a surprise for they were under the direction of Dr. Greg Lyne. He works wonders. At the end of their rehearsal, I bummed a stay in a room with one of my friends, because I was basically homeless in Bakersfield. He was happy to have me though, so I was happy to be there. In the morning, I woke up, got registered, and jumped risers for Masters of Harmony's 10:00 warm-up and rehearsal.

The rehearsal was mainly focused on developing the perfect sound we had at Wednesday's rehearsal, at running the set through and making sure the choreo and facial expression was enhancing the performance. It went well. The excitement was building up inside me.

As we neared our performance, all the guys who'd performed with Masters in the past kept asking me, "You excited?" or, "You ready to begin your first performance as a Master?" or, "How you doing, ready  to sing your heart out?" Every single one I answered yes to. The chorus began getting dressed in their tuxes, and soon enough, we were walking to the stage. What a feeling that was, surrounded by all these great guys who'd done this all over the USA with the Masters of Harmony...and I was brand new, walking among them. Talk about a rush, I felt as much nervousness as I did excitement. 

Then just like that, it was over. When the guys said it goes by in an instant, I believed them! However, I didn't know it was going to be that fast. We got up there, sang our two songs the best we could,  received the uproarious applause (goosebumps from the amazing emotion I was feeling overcame my body), then we walked off stage. I knew we had it in the bag, the stage was ours and I think the audience knew it too. 

It's times like those that I live to sing for, those times that you can feel the chord ringing throughout your body and the contribution of everyone's voice in the chorus going forth to create this powerful wall of sound. It was so great. 

The Masters of Harmony won the convention and at the end of the awards show, the whole audience joined MoH and the Westminster chorus, an international champion chorus from Westminster, in singing "Keep the Whole World Singing." And that's what we aim to do. What a great weekend it's been.