One Night

This friday I'll performing in One Night. It's not neccessarily a large variety show like the talent show my highschool does later in the year. It's more of a concert. All of the music is live and there's usually a wide varity of music played. Last year, there was a band that did a Green Day cover, there was a band that played a tribute to the Beatles and also plenty of musicians who played originals.

Even though it's this upcoming friday, I'm not completely prepared. I'll be doing a couple of songs in the show, at most three songs. But that depends on how many people sign up for the show. I still don't have the songs picked out I want to do. I know I'll do at least one original (I just have to pick one that I've already written - it's just so hard to choose!) and one cover. I might learn how to play a new song. It doesn't take me very long to learn something new. I'm thinking about trying to do a cover of "Bad, Bad, Leroy Brown" by Jim Croce. It's one of my favorite musicians and that song is very upbeat and fun - the perfect song to play at a show like this.

The show will be in what we call, the Black Box . It's the school second auditorium. It's not as big and fancy as the actual auditorium, but it's a nice space to perform in. It's a black room where we place fold out chairs and a stage in front of it all. I actually like playing in it better than the auditorium. I peroformed in the actual auditorium last year for the talent show and it wasn't very fun. There was too much distance between myself and the audience. In the Black Box that distance is smaller. It may make others nervous, but it makes me more comfortable.

I'm not too nervous about getting up in front of people, the thing I'm most worried about is picking the right song(s) to play. This is my last year and my last chance to perform in One Night so I want to make the best out of it and do my absolute best.

My father also makes me nervous. Last year when he came to see me perform in One Night, he left halfway through the show and barely congratulated me or anything. When he came to see me at the Talent Show that year, he also made it clear that he was less than proud of me. When I told him about being in One Night again this year, he wasn't happy for me at all. He just lectured me about what I shouldn't play like he expects me fail. I'm surprized he's even coming to the show at all this year. I'd like to do a really great job at whatever songs I decide to play, so I can prove to him how good I really am. So, I can make him proud this time. But even if I don't, I'll be proud of myself. I'm learning how to be proud of myself, even when my mom's not here to see my perform and my father isn't happy to see me perform.

It takes a lot of preparation and a lot of practice, but if I work hard this week to learn a new song and work on an old one too, I think I'll be very satisfied with the product in the end. I'm a little nervous about making my father proud, but in the end it's about the show. It's about contributing something brilliant to the show and I'm just proud to be a part of it.