The Furrow

Wow! Thursday was something. I played guitar in my biggest performance to date. In fact, aside from fumbling through some chords in the background of some camp songs with my friend, Chris, and a time I did the same for my guitar teacher (all about a dozen years ago), it was my only performance to date.

Three of us performed a rockin' version of "Bye-Bye Love" by the Everly Brothers (A 50's theme was chosen for the night). My buddy and fellow second grade teacher, Nick Glab, played saxophone. Kesley Morgan, a third grade teacher, sang. Yours truly played guitar, of course. Nick and Kesley have both been playing since their youth, and are quite talented. Kesley gets paid up to $500/night to sing. I knew I could count on them to do well, which helped. I hoped that I wouldn't let them down, either.

I had originally thought the turnout for Thursday night's performance would be over a thousand. Fewer teachers participated than I thought, and we only had an audience of about 500. But 500 is a lot of people! From the front, where we were staged, we could see the crowd stretched out across the grass field, settled atop blankets and lawn chairs. Temperatures neared triple-digit in Fontana on Thursday, and the heat lingered into the early evening (we went on at about 6:45 P.M.)

Set up for our song began following a reading of a Shel Silverstien poem by a fourth grade class--Most of the performances were done by classes, and ours was the only rock number done with instruments. At first, we had trouble connecting my guitar and effects pedal into the amp. I was afraid we wouldn't get it to work. After a few minutes, the right adjustment was made, and the sound of a chord blasted through the amp. It sounded so loud to me! I've never played that amped up before. But the crowd cheered. It was pretty cool.

We had decided to start the number with sort of a slow bluesy feel. Nick did a little sax intro. Kesley belted out the vocals, and I moseyed through the chords in a leisurely way. To this point, I felt relatively relaxed. I was even grooving and kind of looking cool. Then came time for the song to rock. Before the second verse and chorus, I had to pump out a rockin' little guitar strum. I got so nervous, everything went white. All the little tricks I had for keeping my head straight disappeared. Fortunately, I'd practiced the song hundreds of times, and my hands did everything they were supposed to do. It rocked!

The whole song sounded great. My favorite part was when my buddy Nick took a sax solo. He sounded awesome, and I tried to help him out by really jamming on the rhythm on that part (played it really vigorously, with lots of cool scratching). It was fun while it lasted, but a tremendous relief when it was over.

So I survived my first performance. I'm sure now that it won't be my last. Mostly I felt nervous. But if you could take away that nervous feeling, all that was left was the sheer joy of what it feels to be a rock star. Certainly the kids around campus thought I was a rock star. Of course, for them I could have done no wrong. Yeah, I got a little taste of what it's like, and it was fun!

Other than the rock song, Mr. Glab and I organized a cute little song and motion performance of "What a Wonderful World It Would Be" by Sam Cooke, performed by our students. We also danced with eight other teachers in a performance of the Grease song "Summer Nights." They all turned out great. It was quite a night!