Just eight people showed up at today’s Palo Alto singing — we had changed from the fourth Sunday to the first Sunday to accommodate the Healdsburg singers moving their date, and it seems not everyone got the word.
It may have been small, but it was a good singing. I like small singings because often you have more time to work on tunes and get them right. I love it when we go over another section’s part, singing it in unison — it’s a good chance to get to hear and see how another section’s part fits in with your section’s part.
At one point today, we had three basses, one tenor, one treble, and one alto. I thought I’d try to sing with the lone tenor, to better balance the parts. I lasted about three tunes (and didn’t sing any of them very well); I found it very tiring to sing constantly at the very upper limit of my range, especially on tunes where I don’t know the tenor part and was sight-singing. I was very happy to get back to the bass section, and grateful that there are many people can sing those higher parts.