Yesterday, I was at Tampere Hall listening to the Gala concert of "International Leevi Madetoja Male Voice Choir Competition".
The International Leevi Madetoja Male Voice Choir Competition was held for the
sixth time in April 2015 in Tampere, Finland. It is the only choir competition
in the Nordic countries which is solely for male voices.
I started to get ready early and took a bus to downtown and went to my
dad’s to watch the rest of a Finnish hockey game, while drinking a glass of sparkling
wine. After that we took a taxi to the Tampere Hall and arrived there in good time.
We found good seats and the concert started right on time. Before the main
performances there was a boy choir “Pirkanpojat” singing.
At the beginning there were 35 men’s choirs around Finland – that’s 1200
singers. There were nine men’s choirs left in the Gala concert. Really all
except one male choir were performing a cappella – it was a nice change,
because without music you really hear the singing!
After all the performances, there was a prize ceremony and after that,
all of the male singers rose up and sang two songs, and the last song was “Finlandia”
hymn which, to me, crowned the whole Gala concert perfectly!
After the concert I looked behind my back and saw the Tampere Hall in
the light of a setting sun. The concert was really excellent! I love a bit of
culture in my life every now and then...
Today I was at TV show shooting with my dad.
It was a music game show thing called “Tartu Mikkiin” (or “Grab the Mic”
in English)... The concept is that there are four Finnish singers and they are
competing for points and who wins by trying to recognize a song from a karaoke
clip.
It was really fun to watch it live. The filming process was kind of dull
between the takes and I noticed it is not a one-take-thing. I had always
thought it was a live show but they shot this for the beginning of next year!
This was the last episode ever of the show so it was kind of historical as they
said... But they have been doing the show from 2006 so it’s understandable that
they wrapped it up.
Most of the guests were actually good ones! They were Pate Mustajärvi
(from “Popeda”), Vesku Jokinen (from “Klamydia”), Olli Lindholm (from “Yö”) and
Costello Hautamäki.
After the game show there was an aftershow where the host interviewed
the artists asking about their career, albums, songs, how they came up with
their band’s name, etc. It was really interesting... Between interviews the
artists performed songs either alone or mainly in duet. I personally think the
aftershow was better than the actual game show, but that’s just me...
After the show was over, everyone were swarming on the stage trying to get a
picture with the artists... Me too, heh. I managed to track down Vesku Jokinen
and Pate Mustajärvi.
Filming the show took about four hours plus the breaks, which lasted
about an hour... So we were there about five hours – a lot longer than I first
imagined. But the time was well spent at least from my point of view and I had
a really nice day!
So, I got the "5 Weekday Challenge" on
Facebook from my friend. The idea is to photograph your daily life for 5 days and put the
photos on the internet and challenge a friend every day. Since most of my
Facebook messages shows only to my friends, I decided to post my pictures in
here also.
Weekday Challenge 1/5
In a library, choosing a bleach and having a beauty sleep with my cat.
Weekday Challenge 2/5
Afternoon Tea (Cherry-Rooibos), lazy evening’s ready-made-pizza and a movie (Now
You See Me).
Weekday Challenge 3/5
Celebrating May Day, enjoying and vegan doughnuts!
Weekday Challenge 4/5
Feasting and shopping with my friend! What a wonderful day… :)
Weekday Challenge 5/5
A creative day. Drawing, writing and listening to music.
I had so much fun doing this challenge!
Therefore I challenge all of you to do this challenge as well (on your Facebook
page, on your Instagram, in your blog, etc.)...
First off, off the topic, there’s snow!! I have
been waiting for snow for months and now it finally came... but so did the
freeze... Today it suddenly was -17 Celsius outside even through the whole
“winter” so far it has been from - 2 – +10 Celsius and no snow! And the sun has
been clouded for such a long time – but the colder the weather, the more
beautiful day it is and the sun will shine...
If I would have had time today I would have gone
outside to photograph (the reason will become clear on the text below...) but
if tomorrow will be as beautiful as this day, I will sure to grab my camera and
go outside!
I have been concentrating on writing so much and my current life situation has
kept me a lot of home, inside four walls. I have tried to get out of there
every day so I won’t get cabin fever... But to be honest, in between writing, I
have had a lot of free time I haven’t know what to do with. Even I have tried
to change my lifestyle and see people more I sometimes feel... what’s the
word... lonely, isolated, etc. My parents have told me to find something nice
to do, a hobby or a class or something, anything.
Tampere's community college's booklet about their classes comes in every spring
and autumn. The only problem is that it is only distributed in the area of
Tampere (obviously) but since I now live in Pirkkala (still right next to
Tampere) I will not get it – sure there’s a similar booklet of our area but the
classes in it sucks and they are in the middle of nowhere (or more like in the
places I don’t know). Luckily my dad always calls me when the booklet comes. He
told he got the booklet and brought it to me, asking me to pick the classes I’m
interested.
Last week I signed in for Tampere's community college's classes. I was late for
signing in for the classes and first I thought it was all over for the spring.
But then I found that signing in for the classes continues through the whole
spring! Some of the classes I had been watching were already full (such as
violin or piano lessons, but that was no surprise) but I managed to find
classes that I found just right for me: singing lessons and music theory. I
immediately called to the office of the Tampere's community college and they
said I can only sign in advance for the music theory class but to sign in for
the singing class I must go to the first lesson. The classes happened to be on
the same day - the singing class was at noon and lasted two and a half hours
while the music theory class was after seven on the evening and lasted for an
hour and a half.
Today, my dad was kind enough to pick me up so I saved time. He dropped me at
the community college and I went inside and found the right classroom. I went
in and we waited for the rest of the students. There were about 7 or 8 students,
me included. The teacher immediately spotted me and that I was a new face and
asked my name. She is one of the few who didn’t have to ask how to spell my
last name for many people don’t know how it’s spelled after first hearing.
The singing class started by stretching a little and opening our voices. It
felt that the teacher assumed that everyone knew what we were supposed be doing
next and I had to watch at first a little how the thing are done there because
some of the students were “old” so they had been on the class before. The
teacher gave us each pointers how to do the exercises better – to me she said
immediately that I was doing the breathing exercise correctly. It was because I
still did remember what my old singing teacher had told me when I had gone to
singing lessons some years ago. The class’ name was “solo singing” and I had
asked from the office, when I had called there to sign in for the classes, will
it be one on one lesson with a teacher like violin lessons I had been on a few
years back and she said it will be in group. I was of course nervous for that
do I really have to sing in front of a group of people I have never seen
before.
After warming up ourselves and our voices we sang a few songs together and then
was a time to sing solo... But yes, in front of the whole group. At first I was
so nervous and thought could I do it for I haven’t sang in many years in front
of a teacher or anyone else – me singing in the shower doesn’t count! Everyone
went to pick a song for them to sing solo and I couldn’t find anything but a
children’s bed time song we already sang as a group. I was determined that I
would not want to be the last one singing but I didn’t wanted to be the
first... I watched how the teacher gave pointers to each students before me,
stopping between the verses and singing along with some of the students to show
how to do it properly - she was very nice and professional, not mean. I could
only imagine what she would say to me for I didn’t even know did I even
remember how to sing anymore properly and everything came into my head; what if
my voice breaks, what if some of the students laughs at me, what if I’m not
good enough?
After every student, the other students and the teacher applauded. When another
student went sitting I just decided to rise from my chair and go in front of
the class. I gave the sheet music to the teacher and started to sing. She
didn’t stop between the verses, she didn’t give me pointers, she just played to
the end of the song. I was nervous, why didn’t she said anything? And then it
came... “You have a very good voice. Have you sang before?” I was stunned.
“Yes, some years ago”, I answered a bit shy. She said I sing correctly and that
my voice is strong, good and firm, which she meant it doesn’t “leak”. The only
pointer she could think of was that I should put more emotion to the lyrics I’m
singing and while the other students used their 10 minutes of solo singing
working with their singing technique I was working to put more emotion to the
lyrics instead of the technique. At first when I listened the other sing it
felt that ten minutes was so very long time to be up there in front of
everyone, but when I was there myself, the time seemed to fly... When my time
was up, everyone applauded and I was so happy I had done it and faced my fears.
I hide my big smile with taking the sheet music back to the teacher’s desk and
turning my back when I did, smiling.
I kind of hoped the teacher would have given me more critique about my singing
technique but maybe next time. I will be choosing something more challenging
than just a children’s bed time song for next time, that’s for sure. I think of
choosing the Finnish version of the song “Walking In The Air” called “Avaruus”
(if I can find my old sheet music for it) for I have sang it solo in a church,
full of people when I was 17. I’d like to see can I still sing it... It was
interesting to see the feedback everyone got and learn from it too. I first
thought two and a half hours would go by painfully slowly but it felt more like
an hour.
We had admired the ice crystallizing to the window before the class started.
Everyone were like “we need to take a picture!” and I said I had a camera with
me (I always do). I tried to take a decent picture even though I prefer my single-lens
reflex camera but my tiny (but surprisingly good) digital camera was all I had
to work with at the time...
I left from the singing class so happy! I still
had music theory later on that evening but I had time to go home after the
singing class to relax a little and to get myself ready for the next class. I
now waited the music theory class anticipated because the singing class had
gone so well. When we left from home to walk to the bus stop, we saw this odd light
appearance on the sky – it was like aurora but without moving:
I changed bus in the city center and drove near
the Tampere's community college and walked rest of the way. I found the
classroom and I was the first one in there. The teacher asked my name and then
she asked what was my relationship towards music. I told her that I used to go to
violin lessons and I have sang since I was a child and that I’m listening all
kind of music from classical to rock, heavy metal and movie soundtracks. The
teacher asked me why had I came to the class and I said to her that I would
like to refresh my memory of that when time I was still going to music theory
class as a part of my violin lessons and that I would like to learn the theory
behind the music. The teacher had time to talk with me so she asked why did I
gave up playing violin. I said I didn’t gave up, but my financial situation at
that time forced me to stop going to the violin lessons but since then I have
been searching for a teacher...
As the other students started to get there, there seemed to be “old” students
from last autumn, but from every new student the teacher asked about the same
question; “what is your relationship with music?” The teacher called everyone’s
names – not all students were present but the class started anyway. It seemed
to start where the rest of the “old” students had left of from last autumn.
Still the new students said they didn’t know what the teacher was talking about
so we started at the absolute basics again – from major scale to minor scale,
time signature, octaves, intervals, etc. The music theory class was so
interesting! The teacher was funny, told a lot about the history of music and
said we could ask anything at any time so everyone would understand everything.
The music theory class had only one problem, the same problem with singing
class: the time went by too fast! I was like “oh, is it over so soon?” when the
class ended.
I’m nervous every time there’s something new and exciting and something to do
with new people I don’t already know - I had been very nervous since yesterday
and thought would I go to the classes at all. But my parents have talked to me
about facing my fears and to conquer them. So I decided to put my nervousness
aside and go to the classes, no matter what... It has been one of my best
decisions I’ve made lately. And I had to admit to my parents that this was a
great thing for me! My dad has been telling me to take these classes for years
and now I finally done it (more than just one class in some random year). I was
so excited after today’s classes – now after my Tuesday is full I’m playing
with ideas what to do with my other days... maybe more classes, if that’s still
possible..?
This day has been so awesome and I can’t wait until next Tuesday!
p.s. I already found many songs and sheet music to choose from for the next
singing lessons...
I found this tiny tea pot for half a price. It
makes just one cup of tea, which in some mornings, is all I need. Today my day
started with this:
A cup (or a whole pot) of tea is my kind of
remedy for the cold outside. Today was a cold day and the show was whirling
into the balcony. Cats asked to go there but the other one stopped at the sill
and the other one tried to go outside but ran back inside before I could close
the door.
Tonight we went to see Samuli Edelmann’s
Christmas concert to Tampere’s church “Tuomiokirkko” with my mom. She had
bought the tickets right when they had came available, for last year we missed
Samuli Edelmann’s Christmas concert – we heard later that there was still
tickets for sale at the doors, but we didn’t know it at the time...
The doors opened 6:15 p.m. and we decided to go
there 6:30, thinking that would be early enough to get good places. We were wrong!
The line was so long it went through the whole church’s courtyard and around
the corner of the hedge and to the sidewalk. We hurried to the end of the line
for there was people gathering in the line behind us all the time.
The line went on quite fast considering how long
it was. We went inside the church from the side door and after seeing the
downstairs was full we went upstairs, but after seeing the benches were almost
full we were standing next to the handrail, seeing well down to the stage.
The concert was supposed to start at 7 o’clock but it started 10 minutes late.
The concert was opened with “Ave Maria”. Samuli first sang Christmas songs
including “Avaruus” (Finnish version of the song “Walking In The Air”),
“Hiljaisuuden valo”, “Sielläkin on joulu” and “Joulun rauhaa”. I liked
“Sielläkin on joulu” and “Avaruus” very much.
The songs were so well performed they gave me
chills. Samuli was singing with a female vocalist and violinist and introduced
the members of the band between the songs.
Then he started to sing psalms including “Ken tahtoo käydä Herran
askelissa” and “Suutari ja vieras”. In between psalms he sang ”Varpunen jouluaamuna”
which I was waiting.
They left the stage after an hour of playing and
people started to get up and leave from upstairs, but they didn’t realize that
of course they will come back and play more. They did and everyone took their
places again. They played about half an hour, bowed while people clapped their
hands standing up and left. We waited with my mom until people had left the
church so we would not get caught in the mass of people who were all trying to
leave at the same time.
I love live music. It gives you a whole different experience entirely than just listening a CD. I have to say that Samuli Edelmann's songs were so much better live than on his album (even they are good too). There’s nothing wrong with psalms and they do belong in Christmas, but I was
kind of hoping that there would have been more Christmas songs. Never mind, the
concert was so great and tuned me into the Christmas even more! I’m so glad we
went there!
After we got out of the church we were starving so we got pizzas on our way
home.
Now I’m listening Samuli Edelmann’s Christmas album
“Hiljaisuuden valo - Joululauluja” thinking back to the concert and the whole
day which has been so great. I love Christmas time...
