I was asked today whether I'd be willing to provide musical entertainment at a yearly swim meet held by a rather exclusive country club in this area. The responsibility to run the event cycles through various clubs in a 10-year rotation. This year, one of my parent's accounts is running it. You might remember my mother is injured. Well, one of the times I assisted her at work I had a few minutes to sit down at this woman's piano and play a bit. Apparently that piano doesn't get much use, so she began fawning over my 'prowess'. Trust me - I might have some ability, but it's an overall gift for music, not for the piano in particular. I've only had three years of lessons, and that was roughly a decade ago. Once I hit junior high, my focus went to violin. Only within the last six months or so have I really started playing piano again.
So anyway, this woman, Judi, (a very nice and friendly lady who's had to deal with far too much crap from her children) tells me all kinds of complimentary things, all the while I'm feeling more and more uncomfortable. She ends saying she'd love to have me come every week and simply play for her.
Jump forward to today. Judi was making preparations for this swim meet in July and it hit her that there's a baby grand in the lobby of the main club house, the lobby that all the hundreds of people in attendance will walk through every time they want to go from the dining room or the restrooms to the site for the meet. So, she thought, "Hey! It would be wonderful if that girl would play for us!"
*twitches anxiously*
I'm not so much into the whole "playing-in-front-of-people" thing. I derive plenty of satisfaction simply playing for myself. But, (and this is a big 'but') when I manage to play in front of people without choking, I absolutely love it. It's simply that that's quite the rare occurrence. I typically play at about half the level I'm capable of when in front of an audience. I've been like this for years. I've always done terribly at competitions, but only when I do solos. Put me with anyone besides your standard piano accompanist and I do perfectly fine. It's only when all eyes are focused purely on me that I get so nervous I'd rather die than make a sound with my instrument, be it piano, violin, guitar, whatever.
But I told Judi yes. I simply have to get over this. I want to be able to share the music I love with people and have it really sound like it should, like I want it to. There's a chance something won't work out on her end and this 'opportunity' will disappear, but if it doesn't, this could be a huge stepping stone for me. Not only will I be being forced to provide some form of background music for three full hours, but I will also have exposed my abilities to hundreds of disgustingly rich people who have plenty of money to blow and parties to throw. This is a Country Club that someone of my status would never be allowed membership to, nor could I ever afford or even justify that kind of expense. However, in compensation, since there is no budget allotted for the event and everyone involved is a volunteer, I may somehow be granted a temporary membership that would carry me through the summer. I would not complain about that. Having somewhere with truly decent tennis courts that I could exploit all summer-long... That'd be nice.
If all of this works out, Shika will be accompanying me, providing her skills, not only as a page-turner, but as a vocalist and cellist. I ran through the piano pieces I already have down, and they clock in at just shy of 30 minutes. With breaks and running through everything twice, I see myself needing at least two times that amount of material to fill the three hours. So, I'll whip out my lovely Sofia (violin btw) and alongside Shika on cello, we'll do some short pieces we've semi-worked up in the past for parties and talent shows. We could also fill probably 10 minutes or so with a few songs we've performed a cappella before, with me providing harmony because Shika couldn't sing anything besides melody if her life depended on it. She has the lower voice but can't seem to wrap her mind around harmony parts. Definitely not someone to try and sing a round with.
*I love you, Shika* ^^
So, this all boils down to a possible opportunity for me to *maybe* overcome my fear of public performance and for me to perhaps find a bit of supplemental income. It'll also hopefully get Shika to do something musical with me for once. She loves listening to music. Maybe she'll actually love playing it someday.
