Keith (finally!) back at Spectrum -- 28Aug2010

It's been 10 weeks since my voice mysteriously quit working right (I'm beginning to suspect foul play), but it's been getting slowly better, despite the help of modern medicine.

When you're young and you hurt your knee, you "walk it out" to get back in the game. As you get older, you reach a point where you do the opposite -- immobilize it. Since the doctors were no help, I've been trying to figure out if I should "work out" my voice (by singing at home a lot and/or playing a gig) or if I should take a vow of silence for a couple of months.

I guess I've decided on the former. Most of the warbling/lack of control is gone now, so the main remaining symptom is loss of the high end of my range. Unfortunately, it's not accompanied by a corresponding increase of range at the low end, but the only way I could come close to singing my usual songs was to play them lower by tuning my guitar a whole step down, and hoping for the best with the low notes.

Naturally, this makes my guitar sound growly, and takes away a lot of the "sparkle", but I didn't have much choice. It also makes me sound a lot more profundo -- not a very "pop" sound. Most pop songs are sung by tenors, and I've already transposed them down for my baritone voice. This further-drop takes them into scary-low range, down in Caiaphas territory.

I was hoping that, as my voice warmed up, I would regain some of the high range, but it really didn't happen. Usually I gain about 3 half-steps in the first hour or so, but last night it may have been only one. This is somewhat distressing, 'cuz it may mean that the "work it out" method isn't working.

But it sure was nice to be back up there again, and people didn't seem to notice much. The mostly-high songs sounded OK, 'cuz they weren't too low in the tuned-down state. The medium-range ones sounded pretty funny to me, but nobody threw any tomatoes...

I had forgotten how much *stuff* have to set up, and take down. Or maybe it just seemed like more hassle 'cuz I'd lost the routine of what goes where. I'd also forgotten how much 4 hours of playing trashes my back and knees...

The good news was that they've moved the stage again, almost back to where it started. The little candle/jewelry shop in the middle of the food court went under, so the stage is now right in front of it, using its front doors as a backdrop. This puts the stage "front and center", and it's nice to have a wall behind me, ever since the "hat stealer" incident (q.v.).

Had some nice people there, and got some good reactions (and 66 bucks), especially during the last half hour. I'm starting to wonder if they'd let me play from 7-11, instead of 6-10. I keep having to quit just when it's getting good -- all the 7:00 movies let out around 9:30, and some folks are looking for something to keep the evening going.

But I finally got to play the song I was working (and working and working) on when my voice quit: "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes". The "suite" part indicates that it's really 4 movements, strung together. I'm hoping that my dazzling Spanish (born of Two Whole Years of high school classes) in Part 4 keeps people from noticing that I'm entirely skipping Part 3, just 'cuz I can't make it sound like anything on guitar. (Besides, canaries are yellow, not "chestnut brown" anyway, right?) Unfortunately, it's one of the "low, so now even lower" ones, so, kinda not OK until my voice catches up.

I also played my new Obsession Song of the Week, which I'd just really worked out earlier in the day: "Nature Boy". It's from 1947 and very jazz-chord-y, but I worked out a way to play it that sounds pretty good to me. It's OK, I waited until nobody was listening, but it seemed to "work".

Had a young couple come up and ask me if I used to play at the Borders in Santa Margarita. Absolutely -- it was my favorite place to play. But they shut it down, like, 5 years ago. It was flattering that they remembered me -- and Geneva. They asked if she still played with me, but I had to tell them that she's 18 now, and wouldn't be caught dead...

Another couple came up as they were leaving and said that they'd missed me (during my 10-week absence). Also flattering. And a guy asked if I knew "Still Crazy", which, why yes, I do! It's not on the list, but it's in The Book. It's great when that happens. But what's with little kids waving at me during songs? Can't they see that my hands are busy?

Anyway, I'm up again next week, and we'll see if my upper range comes back over time. The "exercise" doesn't seem to have helped, but at least it doesn't seem to have done any damage, either. But I don't want to have to play/sing so low forever...