Battle of the Band Classes

Chapter 6

(For best experience play song where * is placed)
After class, Mr. C said to meet up after lunch and come back for a lab, and the five of them headed off to lunch. TJ, Nina, and Peter all walked together and Cam and Leah walked together.

"Look at you, Mr. Leader guy in there." Leah said jokingly

"What? What do you mean?"

"You took the reigns in there faster than I've seen anyone do."

"Really? I was just trying to get things going."

"To be honest, I didn't really even know what i was doing. I was just kinda doing whatever popped into my head." He laughed nervously.

"Well, you seemed like you knew what you were doing to me."

Cam laughed, "How? I'm just about as scatter-brained as a cat on crack. I'm surprised I didn't get sidetracked."

Leah couldn't help but laugh at that. "a cat on crack? That's one of the weirdest things I've ever heard."

.  .  .

After lunch, Cam and Leah made their way back to the Sports Complex, fooling around by Cam playing the drums on his thighs as he walked and Leah singing Vagabonds  by The Misterwivers. The walk to the Sports Complex seemed a lot shorter than it was before, and they were the first ones there.

After about three minutes, TJ and Peter walked in, but without Nina. "Wh-where's Nina?" Leah asked

"Leah, that's one of the reasons why we're here." Mr. C said solemnly "Nina has decided to switch classes."

"Wha- on the first day?!" Cam said, shocked. "We haven't even started anything yet!" Cam had gone from surprised to angry in two seconds flat. He sighed angrily. "What the hell."

"This isn't the first time this has happened. TJ it happened both of your years, right?"

"Yep, Ricky, and Kevin left."

"Yeah, but this just gives you more drive to work hard, for Nina right?"

"Yeah." Everyone muttered.

"So, your also here because I picked a song off of your list and I couldn't wait to start it, so we're going to start it now, okay?"

"Alright, which song did you pick?" Cam asked.

"Bohemian Rapsody. You all know it was originally by Queen right?"

There was a chorus of "yes"es and nodds. "Okay good. Now Cam, since Nina isn't here anymore your going to have to play piano for this one."

"Okay."

"But I'd you can switch from a piano to a guitar fast enough than you can play both in the same song and it also occurred to me that we never checked your singing voices so this is the perfect way to do that."

Leah cracked her knuckles nervously and walked up to the mic where she grabbed her guitar, switched the amp on and put the guitar on so it was resting on her shoulder by the strap.

Cam sat down at the piano and stretched his back so it cracked in three places and then cracked his neck. Mr. C  gave him the cord sequence for the piano, and the lyrics and then gave Leah the tabs and lyrics as well.

"Okay, so anywhere it sounds like there's multiple voices, Cam, Leah and TJ are going to sing that part and initially when there's one voice, it's just gonna be Cam and then we can work it out from there okay? Do we need to listen to it?"

"Can we?" Cam said "that would probably help a lot."

Mr. C walked over to his I pad and played the song*. The four of them concentrated on the parts they would play or sing. Leah was following along with the lyrics, and she was mouthing the words as she went along. As the song went on, Mr. C gave TJ a sheet for the bass notes. Leah looked at the solo tabs in amazement, she had no idea how she was going to figure it all out.

When the song ended Mr. C looked at the four kids. "Does that give you a better idea of what you need to do?" The kids nodded. Leah looked over at Cam, and when she did he could see the look of panic on her face, she was a more than a little overwhelmed.

"You guys ready to start?" Can asked TJ and Leah. TJ nodded, and Leah didn't really respond. "Okay. On three. One, two, three." The three of them started singing the first part of the song with out the piano, and then Cam began to play the piano part. When Leah and TJ finished, Cam started singing the first part of the verse. Leah stood and listened to Cam singing, it sounded perfect with the song. About a minute in, Mr. C stopped them.

"Cam," he said "can you belt?"

"Yeah, but only on a good voice day, and not right off the bat in a song, my voice needs to adjust."

"Is today a good voice day?"

"No."

"Leah, how about you can you belt?"

"Yeah, but the notes have to be in the middle of my vocal range."

"And are you an alto?"

Leah nodded.

"You'll be fine then. After Cam sings that "but now I've gone and thrown it all away" I want you to come in and kill those notes okay?"

"Alright." Leah answered nervously.

"We're kinda, out of time, uh, we'll pick up from there tomorrow okay guys?"

"Alright, Mr. C." TJ said.

"Have a good day." Mr. C said.

Everyone then answered "you too." And left the Sports Complex.