Lovely Sunday lunch with all the family today. However, with only a week to go until the wedding, I was coerced, ahem, I mean coaxed, into a dress rehearsal. As well as playing/singing The Shining at my brother's wedding I'm also doing a brief intro featuring 'I Can Sing A Rainbow' for the benefit of my new 3 year old nephew. It's an interesting combination, one that I suspect Badly Drawn Boy didn't consider, and makes for a challenge as I attempt to seague from one to the other.
Anyway, it was a good practice run since I'm quite happy singing to my heart's content when alone; but put me in a room where people can hear me and my hands shake, my fingers slip and my voice wobbles all over the place. So it was helpful to get a serious bout of stage fright before the big day - at least I know what I'm up against. Fortunately my family really aren't all that scary and by the time I got to the end of the song (yes, I made it all the way through) it was starting to sound ok. Of course the trick will be starting off that way. Helpful relatives pointed out that I'll have plenty of time for quite a long instrumental intro, to get me over the initial panic, until I feel confident enough to start singing.
My uncle is an actor and an amazing singer and the fact that I played in front of him without falling over was a small personal victory. He was actually very encourging about it all and had a useful thespian tip:
Him: The song is a story, right?
Me: Yeah.
Him: So concentrate on telling the story and then you won't be nervous. And if you do start getting nervous then you'll know it's because you're not telling the story. Tell the story, you'll be fine.
Which was an interesting way to look at it. Hope it works.
Luckily I think it's going to be such a great day and a beautiful ceremony that, short of setting fire to my guitar, it won't matter much how it goes. Glad I've still got 6 days to practice though...
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