Monday, November 27, 2006

Check. Check. Check. Is this on?

You musicians out there know what I mean. It's time for the weekly "sound check" and you stare blankly at your beloved techie at the board when it's your turn and say something wise like "check-check... check... one-two" or if you have enough caffeine in you, you might be witty and say "check-cash-credit" or something else much overused.

Well, as a public service, I am compiling a list of things to say or sing when you must produce something for your next sound check. (Note to guitarists: Stairway to Heaven in ANY key is NOT ON THIS LIST! please...)

In no particular order, the Baroness of Sound Checks (that would be me - Baroness because "Queen" sounded presumptuous!) suggests the following:

  1. Cheryl Wheeler's Potato Song (which is set to the tune of the Mexican Hat Dance.)
  2. Dr. Suess's Tweetle Beetles soliloquy which is not set to music but is great inflection and diction practice!
  3. Words to any camp song that your children brought home from camp and you can't quite remember all the words. (And yes, you did pay good money for them to learn "great green gobs of..." Well, you know...)
  4. The Twelve Days of Christmas, with your own words, natch, because who can remember the real ones?
  5. Any bad imitation of the rock star of your choice. Bob Dylan doesn't count unless you want to practice your mumble...
  6. Scripture memory show-off. If you've gotten all those "begats" down from Matthew 1, here's the time to speak 'em.
  7. I should mention some patter song from Gilbert & Sullivan... Perhaps "Modern Major General"?
  8. The Llama Song makes my kids happy...
  9. No opera. No no no.....
Your techies will love you forever if you do this. I promise.

Check. Check. Check. Is this on?

from our home to yours...
Deb

9 comments:

Theresa Coleman said...

How about the "Cat, I'm a kitty cat, and I dance dance dance and I dance dance dance..." It stick in your brain almost as well as the Llama song....

Deb said...

ROFL... yes, that would work too. And I do know that one.

d

Anonymous said...

Speaking of Mexican Hat Dance, have you heard the woman who can sing all (*) the countries of the world set to that tune, in under 2 minutes? I heard it on "The World" (a radio show) recently; apparently she'd also been on David Letterman a few days earlier.

(Turns out the song is not entirely accurate, the song lists some places that aren't independent nations, and was written decades ago so is out of date as well.)

P.S. I started singing the "Potato" refrain on the way home from school the other day, and my son countered with yet a different song about potatoes!

zorra said...

Um...does the Llama Song ever end? I gave up before it did. Did I miss some big boffo finish by not hanging in there?

Trish said...

How about the Chiquita Banana song!? "I'm a Chiquita Banana and I've come to say Bananas have to ripen in a certain way!..." You can listen to it online. Just do a search. It's a fun little ditty.

Deb said...

NO no no no... the llama song never ends (it just goes on and on my friends...)

d

Revem said...

I like to still count but do it Sesame Street syle. You know the pinball machine 1 2 3, 4 5, 6 7 8 9 10, 11 twelllllllllve, 12.

And if they still aren't done you can just change the key and start again.

PS The Dr Seus Tweedle Beetle monologue is my favourite passage of any book of all time

DogBlogger said...

Um, your what-nows will love you forever? We don't have these things you call "techies."

Of course, we are our own roadies, too, so it's not surprising.

Deb said...

Well, dogblogger - to be honest, I help set up, take down and do everything except make it sound good. And THOSE folks are the ones that need the thanks. As their Tshirt says "tech crew - we'll make our own feedback"...

:)
deb