I had a BLAST at armoring night on Tuesday.  One of those "SCAdians are the Best People" experiences.

First, Jac took my empty plate away and put a sword in my hand.  Then when I declared that arm numb, she moved it to the other hand.  I like whacking a pell.

Then I went inside and danced with baby Brooke (8 mos.) to the salsa music for a while – Brooke likes to dance in front of the mirror.  The cook noticed that "hey, you've got rhythm"…and then I had salsa dancing lessons in the kitchen.

Finally Bastion got out his guitar, and I was warbling descants to Brooke in the background.  "Hey, you've got a nice voice, sing something."  "Uh…"  I have always been an instrumentalist (piano for a limited time, then a lot of flute) so thinking of songs, and then doing more than carrying a tune in a bucket are new skills for me.  I couldn't even come up with any "girly" songs.

They all ganged up on me; I got breathing lessons, lessons about "push through"; even Gunnar pegged a song from King Arthur for me, and he's right on pitch – great choice.   I wish it was more than a fragment in the movie, but perhaps we can flesh it out.

 It goes:

I have Homework to find "more songs that I like to sing"…which is a Project, because I haven't listened to nearly enough.  I'm interested in both historical and modern songs, and my voice seems to be a mezzo, though part of my homework is to concentrate on the lower end of the range.  This is to avoid one of my 'cheats' – to bounce up into falsetto.

I know I want "La Llorona" (Lila Downs is good), Helen Reddy and Carole King are good places to look, though when I actually go through the lists, they're not quite what I hope.  "Candle On The Water" is my fav Reddy right now.  That "Always A Hero Comes Home" harp song in the CGI Beowulf is poignant, too.  I know most of "Mary Hamilton", though that might need a lower key to get me into lower range.  They wanted "Greensleeves", so I'll have to learn the words to that.

I'm really pleased about this…it's been a secret wish of mine to sing better, and I've also wanted to understand more about how to speak more loudly without exhausting my voicebox.