Getting Down To the Nitty Gritty

With just two weeks remaining until the Herndon Towne Square Singers’ winter concert—“Lights, Camera, Christmas”—most of us are quite comfortable with the music. We have the notes down pat. The words are something else entirely.

How is it that I can remember every word of a song I last sang at age 16, but I have difficulty remembering the words of the song I worked on yesterday? Fortunately, for my pride, the rest of the group has the same problem, though we all have different plans of attack for dealing with the situation.

The word “watermelon” is a tried-and-true remedy for getting past forgotten words. Passed along from singer to singer and from age to age, the idea is that should you forget the words, you repeat “watermelon” over and over until you get to a point in the song where you can remember them again. But let’s be honest, here, ”I’m dreaming of a white Christmas, watermelon, watermelon,” is not at all likely to go undetected by those in the audience, unless they’re asleep.

So how do we cope with the memorization? Thanks to modern technology that includes recording devices and earphones, we can record our practice sessions and play back the music over and over and over—in the car or the shower, while working on the computer or waiting for a doctor’s appointment—until we have the words committed to memory or drive our families crazy, whichever comes first.

Some like to perfect a single song before moving on to the next. Others prefer running through the entire program from start to finish, then beginning again. But both approaches are built around the idea of repetition, and a LOT of it.

Another singer I know swears by writing the complete lyrics, multiple times, on a legal pad. “Somehow,” he explains, “this seems to load them into the subconscious.”

In the end, each singer has to choose the method that works best for him- or herself. And in the end—on show day—every singer will know the words. Come and hear for yourself.

“Light, Camera, Christmas” will be performed at ArtSpace Herndon, 750 Center Street in Herndon on Saturday, December 7th at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, December 8th at 2:00 p.m. This is a new venue for the Singers and seating capacity is limited to 72 seats, so sell-out crowds are expected.

Purchase tickets online at www.herndon-va.gov/webtrac or drop by the Herndon Community Center at 814 Ferndale Avenue in Herndon. Unsold tickets, if any, will be available at the door on the day of the performance. The price is $12.

For additional information, call the Town of Herndon Parks and Recreation Department at (703) 787-7300.