Nervous about St. Pat's this weekend
So, as most of you know, St. Patrick's Day is this coming Sunday. And I sing in a Celtic band. Which means that our St. Pat's weekends are typically booked.
Things are different this year because I had pneumonia a few months ago. While I seem like an able-bodied person (from a cardiovascular standpoint) USUALLY, that's not the same as being a functional lead singer for a band. Much less the functional lead singer of a band who jumps up and down and has multiple shows booked on a single day. That role requires a lot more breath support, lung space, and technique than my daily 2 mile walk.
Which leads me to: I actually quit this band in January. We had our first show after I should've been "normal" (according to the doctors), and I barely made it through 4 songs at a time. Between sets, I laid down in the staff breakroom and just gasped. My upper chest burned like I'd been pounding bowls of hot soup. By the end of the set break, I could handle... about three songs, sitting down. (I never noticed how much I move during a show until I couldn't.)
So, right, I quit the band. And the band said:
1) Can we just make it a hiatus? (After talking to my various healthcare professionals, I offered to come back in 2014.)
2) Can we get through our remaining scheduled shows?
I didn't want to do the scheduled shows (3 for St. Pat's), but it'd be a pain for them to get a new singers for THREE MEASLEY SHOWS, so I said okay. I shouldn't have. At our last rehearsal, I made it through an hour before having problems, which is serious improvement, but:
1) One hour isn't a three-hour show.
2) My band leader was all, "I know you're just dialing it in for practice, Janine, but you need to be more energetic for the gigs."
WHAT? I told you guys MONTHS ago that I wasn't a functional lead singer anymore. Did you not realize what that meant?
So, yeah. I'm nervous about making it through the weekend. And I'm worried that I'm going to try to find some extra "energy" to please my band. Ugh.
Just gotta get through the weekend.
Things are different this year because I had pneumonia a few months ago. While I seem like an able-bodied person (from a cardiovascular standpoint) USUALLY, that's not the same as being a functional lead singer for a band. Much less the functional lead singer of a band who jumps up and down and has multiple shows booked on a single day. That role requires a lot more breath support, lung space, and technique than my daily 2 mile walk.
Which leads me to: I actually quit this band in January. We had our first show after I should've been "normal" (according to the doctors), and I barely made it through 4 songs at a time. Between sets, I laid down in the staff breakroom and just gasped. My upper chest burned like I'd been pounding bowls of hot soup. By the end of the set break, I could handle... about three songs, sitting down. (I never noticed how much I move during a show until I couldn't.)
So, right, I quit the band. And the band said:
1) Can we just make it a hiatus? (After talking to my various healthcare professionals, I offered to come back in 2014.)
2) Can we get through our remaining scheduled shows?
I didn't want to do the scheduled shows (3 for St. Pat's), but it'd be a pain for them to get a new singers for THREE MEASLEY SHOWS, so I said okay. I shouldn't have. At our last rehearsal, I made it through an hour before having problems, which is serious improvement, but:
1) One hour isn't a three-hour show.
2) My band leader was all, "I know you're just dialing it in for practice, Janine, but you need to be more energetic for the gigs."
WHAT? I told you guys MONTHS ago that I wasn't a functional lead singer anymore. Did you not realize what that meant?
So, yeah. I'm nervous about making it through the weekend. And I'm worried that I'm going to try to find some extra "energy" to please my band. Ugh.
Just gotta get through the weekend.