LEADING AND FOLLOWING
I much prefer taking the lead! I mean, given the opportunity to choose between leading and following, leading is the choice I’d make.
I got a role in another play. It’s a much smaller role than the one I had in “Oklahoma!”, but it’s with a long standing local theater company that has a good reputation. So, the trade-off of getting exposure in this venue at the cost of performing only a small role seems like a good deal. The role is Edsel Mackey in the musical, “Best Little Whorehouse In Texas.”
It’s another musical, so obviously the play involves a lot of singing. In my role as Ali Hakim in “Oklahoma!”, I sang lead in one song and the ensemble supported me. But since I have such a small part in this play, I’ll double as part of the choral ensemble. I’ll support the main characters by singing harmony parts when I don’t have dialogue onstage.
I never sang harmony before. Even before I started acting, when I just sang in bands, I was always the lead singer. I found it much easier to sing the lead and have the backup singers follow me than it is now to learn the harmony parts as written in the score. It’s true what they say, “Rank hath its privilege.”
We had our first rehearsal yesterday. I found out what my singing classification is. Before I just sang, but now I needed to know whether I was a tenor, baritone, or bass. I always suspected I was a tenor, but now I know, though occasionally I slip into the baritone range. It seems like nothing in life is black and white, there are always gray areas.
I struggled with following the other tenors also singing harmony. It’s not like singing the lead, which naturally follows the melody of the song. In harmony you go up or down to produce a fullness to the song. It’s not always intuitive to me in which direction I’m supposed to go.
On several occasions I went up when they expected me to go down and trailed down when I should have slid up. My errant notes stuck out like a screaming baby in church. I guess it was okay during the first rehearsal, but I fear what will happen when my voice “wanders through the park” during actual performances. It’s in my best interest to figure out the correct notes before then.
Peer pressure exerts powerful influence on people’s behavior. It can be a problem when peer pressure mindlessly coerces people to stray from their value system and do something against their better judgment, but for singing harmony, following along with others is advantageous. Picking and choosing when to lead and when to follow requires making a conscious decision. Free will makes choosing a gift, but exercising discretion transforms that gift into a blessing.
I do prefer taking the lead, except at times when following best serves the common good. The key is making a conscious decision after weighing the consequences. Choose wisely!
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