So that’s how I spent the rest of my day. Working my butt off in my room, not stopping my practice other than to eat and use the restroom. It was a little hard to practice when the song was a duet, and there was only one me. But hey, if I wanted to be on this show, I was gonna have to figure my way through challenges much tougher than this, probably. So, I rotated between playing the song on the computer, singing over PINK’s part to hear Nate Ruess singing, and just playing the background music and singing by myself.
That being said, I was even more exhausted than before by the time I needed to go eat dinner. I wanted to see some of my fellow teammates anyways, after being cooped up in my room for most of the day. I tried not to let my eyes droop as I treaded along to dinner. Perhaps a nice meal would help energize me some. All in a day’s work, I thought to myself as I finally arrived at my destination.
However, at dinner, everyone seemed just as tired or even more worn out than I was. We still talked, as there was plenty to be said, but all carried a weary air as we talked, mostly about our practices today. I was beginning to feel some tension rise between me and Peter, as one of us would soon be defeating the other.
I couldn’t decide if I was more nervous about battling Peter or the possibility of letting Adam down. I had practiced so hard earlier, I couldn’t see how I could have possibly done something wrong, but I wasn’t a professional, so there could potentially be flaws I just wasn’t detecting.
I wanted to chat with the others after eating, but knew I should probably get back to my room and keep practicing. If I went further into the competition, I wouldn’t always be so socially awkward and never talk unless forced, but with the competition so heated right now, I needed to get in everything I could. If I made it forward, all of this practice would be worth it.
Once back in my room, I turned the song back on and jumped right back into practice. About an hour into it, I could feel my eyes drooping as my energy drained out of me. I had been up for so long without any rest. I needed sleep. Once I got through this song one more time, I would go to bed. A feeling of guilt washed over me. Was I dropping my practice to sleep? You practiced all afternoon, I reminded myself.
The moment the music stopped playing, I shut my laptop off and nearly fell into bed. I didn’t even bother to change. I just buried myself deep in the blankets and decided to enjoy the sleep while I could.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ugh, what time was it? I felt my hand slam down on the snooze button as my alarm clock began making obnoxious noises. 7:45. Well crap, I had fifteen minutes until breakfast.
I pulled on jeans, a tee shirt, and tennis shoes. I quickly brushed my hair and sent it up into a messy bun, not having the time to make it look too nice. Unfortunately, since I was going to have to look like crap in front of Adam. Since it took about five minutes to get to breakfast, I made myself a mental note to get up thirty minutes before breakfast was supposed to start from now on. And that was if I wasn’t getting a shower. Even though I was a night shower sort of girl, I would probably have to start taking morning showers so I was nice and clean during practices. The last thing I needed was to look or smell dirty around my favorite celebrity.
I halfway walked, halfway jogged to breakfast. Me and Peter were right after breakfast again today as well. He was acting a bit edgy, but that wasn’t big news. I mean, I had been expecting that. As for me, I would try my best to be friendly. I planned to try and stay on everyone’s good side.
The room we were practicing in had a stage with two microphones on it, and two stools not far from the front of the stage. The rest of the room was filled with equipment and instruments for The Voice Band. However, since our song was just piano music, just a single member of The Voice Band was in the room, sitting at the piano bench.
On the two stools were my two favorite artists, Adam Levine and Hayley Williams. Both had smiles on their faces, and Hayley was spinning around on her stool. Hallelujah, they were in good moods.
We hopped on stage and took our places at our microphones. “Good morning,” Hayley chirped as she stopped spinning. She had to steady herself by putting a hand on Adam’s shoulder. My eyes narrowed ever so slightly.
“‘Mornin,” Peter said. It was evident that he was trying to lighten up. His shoulders slumped.
“So guys, I’m guessing you two practiced?” Adam asked.
“Yep,” we replied at the same time.
“So, just out of curiosity, how long did you two practice?” Hayley ventured.
“Five hours,” Peter told her.
So, he was obviously putting his share of effort into this. But I had practiced more. I didn’t want to sound like I was flaunting anything when I said my time, but at the same time, I wanted both Adam and Hayley to know that I was willing to put as much time as needed into this.
“Eight hours,” I said confidently. Both Adam and Hayley raised their eyebrows. Yeah, I sang a PINK song for eight hours. Funny, cause the song isn’t even extremely difficult, other than the big notes I needed to hit. The verses were pretty easy.
“O-kay,” Adam said, emphasizing the o. “That being said, I think I have the right to expect a lot out of you two today.” His tone was light, but I knew that he was putting a load of high expectations on us now.
The pianist began the opening notes of the song, and I began singing when it was my turn. It was both a good and a bad thing that I had a good chunk of the song where I was the only one singing. Of course, if I screwed up my high notes none of that would really matter.
Peter started the second verse, the whole song going uninterrupted by neither coach so far. I figured they were just letting us get through the song once before they started giving suggestions.
When we were done, Hayley clapped. “Much better than yesterday,” she grinned.
“Definitely,” Adam agreed. “But there is one thing I want to stress on you two.”
Well, I should’ve been expecting that. On this show, there would certainly be plenty of “but’s.” I was just so afraid that I was going to take Adam’s criticism so personally and it was going to hurt me more than help.
“During that second chorus,” he began. “When you’re both singing. In the original song, their two voices sort of blend together, so it’s a bit hard to pick out one from the other. However, I want to be able to actually tell your two voices apart. Individuality is big in this competition, and I want both of your individual voices to be distinctly heard.”
Okay, that made sense. And he wasn’t bashing either our voices specifically either, so that was good.
“That being said,” Adam continued. “If you are both singing it totally different, than it won’t sound good. Between the two of you, you guys need to find that fine line where you are both different and distinctly heard, but also sounding good together. You need to compliment each other’s parts. Make sense?”
Peter and I both said yes. It actually made tons of sense. I was liking Team Adam so far, as this was the advice we needed. I prayed I wouldn’t get kicked off after such a great start.
“Other than that, there’s not much I can say. You two definitely practiced yesterday,” he concluded.
“Thanks Adam,” I told him.
We ran through the song a few more times, and then were told we could leave. Today’s practice definitely went better than expected, but I knew that I still needed to work some. I wanted to blow Adam away on that stage tomorrow night.
“Beka?” I heard Hayley’s voice call behind me as I was leaving.
I turned around. “Yeah?”
She came over to me, Adam still sitting on his stool, a curious and confused look on his face. That probably meant he had no clue what Hayley was about to tell me. I was going to try to focus on what she was saying, not the fact that I was talking to my favorite female vocalist in the flesh.
“Beka, I was wondering if maybe you wanted to hang out this afternoon once I get through the other practices,” she told me. Holy crap. Hayley Williams wanted to hang out with specifically me.
“That would be awesome, what time will you be done?” I asked.
“Around five,” she told me. “I’ll meet you at your room then.”
“Sounds perfect, thanks Hayley,” I told her.
She smiled. “No problem, I’ll see you later Beka.”
I returned her smile before leaving.
I wasted no time in getting back to my room, knowing that my outing with Hayley would give me about two hours left of practice time. Besides, I needed to figure out how I planned to surprise Adam on that stage. Being original was great, but also dangerous if I messed it up. And I didn’t know if Adam would like it. At this stage in the competition, he might prefer me to stay to the norm of the song instead of giving it my own twist. Maybe I would ask Hayley later. Of course, if I waited until then, I probably wouldn’t have much time to practice whatever I decided on.
Of course, I did have some time tomorrow to practice. We had a service project scheduled for tomorrow, but they had also set apart practice time for us. Still, I didn’t have any time to waste.
Back in my room, I practiced the song the way I had been singing it a few times before deciding to think about how I wanted to execute this. I liked adding my own twists and emphasis to things, but I couldn’t emphasize everything. I knew that was a struggle some Broadway singers had singing normal songs. Their huge voices wanted to project and emphasize every note, which in a song like the one I was singing, just wouldn’t work. I wasn’t going to be like that.
At the same time, since this was a duet and I couldn’t control how Peter sang it, I couldn’t change the type of instruments used or the overall style of the song. I would have to do something that would sound good with what Peter sang like today, and still give this song some uniqueness of my own. This was going to be a struggle.
I was relieved when Hayley showed up at 5, looking perfectly casual, like any other girl her age. “Ready to go?” she asked me.
“Yeah, what are we doing?”
“I figured we could just walk around L.A. You need to see this place. You haven’t been here before this show, have you?”
“No.” For some reason, that made me feel slightly embarrassed.
However, Hayley once more gave me a smile. “This’ll be fun then. C’mon, let’s go!”
I grabbed my purse, which had my wallet, iPod, and a few other things in it. It wasn’t long before we found ourselves at a small cafe. I expressed my concerns about how I wanted to sing the song to Hayley, and she seemed to understand.
“I get where you’re coming from. From what I know about Adam, he likes uniqueness. After all, he’s got a pretty unique voice himself, but he can only go so far with it. He likes an artist who can be unique and hit the big notes at the same time. So don’t let any unique twist you add to it prevent you from getting to those big notes, ‘cause that will really hurt you on Team Adam. Also, don’t try to stress it too much. Keep your focus on singing the song right instead of being original with how you sing it. Originality is great, but you can’t be 100 percent original on every note, and you can’t hold out every note, as much as you want to show off your voice. And whatever you do, don’t let any individuality you give it overpower Peter’s voice, because I don’t think he’s giving it much of a twist. That would be going directly against Adam’s wishes, and probably get you off of his team. Make sense?”
“It does, thanks,” I told her.
She looked right at me. “I think you’ll do great, Beka.”
“Wow, that means alot coming from you. You’ve been one of my favorite artists for a long time,” I admitted a bit sheepishly.
“Aww, I’m flattered.” She sounded genuine. But...
“But why? I mean, what does that mean coming from a person like me?”
“Beka,” she started explaining. “Just because you’re not famous, doesn’t mean you don’t have an incredible vocal talent. Whether or not it means something doesn’t depend on social status, to me it means alot coming from a girl like you with an amazing voice.” I’m pretty sure I was going red. “Besides,” she added. “I wouldn’t be where I am today without fans like you, now would I? And somehow I have a feeling after this performance, you’ll have fans too.”
“Wow,” was all I could say.
We hung out until about 6:00, and then headed back. I was back in my room at 6:30, getting ready for dinner.
Somehow, I had a feeling this day was far from being over.