First Band Practice

First of all, I would like to apologize to my faithful blog followers. I failed to update my experiences yesterday because I ended up going to bed shortly after getting home from practice. Luckily, yesterday was a very uneventful day. We spent most of our time in logistical seminars, as well as an afternoon "tour band meeting."

Today was a very new experience for me. I spent my seven hours of tour practice sitting in one chair rehearsing three songs that will be a part of this semester's show. Since there are many students trying out for the Up With People Band and no one competing with me for the position of the guitar player, I was expected to play the guitar part for each audition rotation. One would think that I would have mastered the guitar part in each song because I had to play them all day, but for some reason I found it very difficult to maintain consistency as each drummer, bass player, and keyboardist changed every half hour.

I found myself on edge all day because there is a boy flying in from China on Monday who has auditioned as a drummer but can also play guitar. I am sure he will be an excellent addition to this semester’s cast, but we already have Ryan and Javi who are already excellent drummers. This has been somewhat of a concern for me because he may turn his interests towards the guitar. We are in need of two guitar players, but if he turns out to be really good, I may get placed on the back burner. Let me take this time to remind you that everything is always "all about Russ," so hopefully everything will turn out just fine and I can continue my efforts of transforming "Up With People" into "Up With Russ and Us." (A note to those of importance: what you have just read is simply a cast joke; please don't allow it to taint your image of me). On a lighter note, practice has gotten off to a smooth start and tomorrow I will have completed my first week of practice. Three more weeks left until we leave for the road.