Music Theory Degrees ARE Useful!

Tonight, I finally put some of my education to use. The story requires a bit of explanation, though...

First, I meant to post this part a couple of days ago, but didn't get around to it. B's birthday was in April, but her birthday party (at Spun Sugar) is not happening until tomorrow. Why the delay? Well, we stopped by in early April, after she'd settled on a venue, and found that they only do birthday parties on Saturday afternoons. The rest of April and first part of May, B had ballet rehearsals scheduled on Saturdays. Then came Memorial Day weekend. So, we ended up with tomorrow, which looked pretty good. Until we started sending out invitations. It turns out that this is the weekend of the big Brownie campout. And also the auditions for the local version of American Idol. We lost several kids to those events, plus some to family stuff (graduations, etc.)

Now, on to the usefulness of a music degree. In addition to her friends not being able to attend her party, tomorrow's date meant that B & her best friend L weren't going to be able to audition for Idol, because the only remaining audition slots were during the party (and it's not really a birthday party if the birthday girl leaves). Today, around 5:00 pm, L's mom was able to secure them a late audition slot tomorrow, with just enough time to get there from the party. Since I didn't think they were auditioning, I hadn't read the rules, but I did so tonight. They are auditioning as a group, and groups singing harmony are allowed to perform a capella. However, they are not singing harmony--they are singing "The Bear in Tennis Shoes," a classic campfire song. Soooo, here's where I put all those harmony and voice-leading skills to work. I composed a cheesy piano accompaniment, recorded it on my iPod, and transferred it to a CD for the karaoke machine at auditions tomorrow. I went with the first take, and it came out okay (I don't think you can hear me muttering verse numbers under my breath).