Four Person Splunge - Comings and Goings

Participants this time included Jason, Sal, Nick, and myself. Jared was a casualty of a scheduling issue and Steph is gone for good, as I'd mentioned in a previous entry.

I'd expected morale to be down a bit with Steph's departure, but Sal's return seemed to more than offset that, and on the whole, things were rather tighter than they've been for most sessions. Vocals obviously lost a lot of zing without that other voice. My own vocal quality was up and down, since I've been battling congestion again recently, though by the end of the session I seemed to be clear enough.

Musical highlights were the exuberant opening "Hotel Yorba" and a blistering version of "Keep on Rockin' in the Free World" with solos from both Nick and Sal. You could tell Sal was really glad to be back.

We had a couple of firsts as well. We finally did our first group jam, which turned out well enough. And Sal requested that I perform one of my own songs at the very end of the session, which I did, though very nervously, since I was caught entirely by surprise. The guys seemed to like it, though, and we'll probably try it as a group at one of the upcoming sessions.

We talked over what we're going to do in terms of a lead singer. The main point of agreement seemed to be that we'd like to find a female singer if possible to give us a better range of options, since Nick and I can cover the male vocals well enough when we need them. An interesting point of conflict came out of this discussion. Basically, I'm the only one in the band who'd like to eventually play out, and even I'm not in a hurry to do it, which means that any prospective singer shouldn't be someone who is in a hurry to get in front of an audience, and limits our options severely. I'll be trying to get Nick to pick up more lead vocals, but it looks as though I'm back to carrying the bulk of the load again for the foreseeable future, and we won't be doing much with harmony.

The main reason most of the group is opposed to playing out is because they don't feel ready, and I'm fine with that. I wouldn't try to force anyone onto a stage if they don't want to be there. In time, either they'll feel ready, I'll give up on the idea, or I'll decide I have the time a more serious band requires and will have to leave this group. Since it'll be a while before I see myself having that kind of time, I'll enjoy what we've got for now and revisit the situation if my circumstances change.