What The Heart Wants (Stereo Kicks/ James Graham)

Chapter 6

"Right. So what are we thinking?" Tom asked. We were all currently sitting in his living room trying to figure out what song we wanted to sing at the six chair challenge. "Well when we were jamming out by the fire, mirrors sounded pretty good. We could maybe try that one?" Charlie suggested. There were a few noncommittal replies from the group. "How about Run, by Leona Lewis? I think we could show off our vocals really well with that song." James added. The boys were silent for a few moments while they thought it over, but eventually everyone agreed that we should sing that song. "How about you Aria? Are you okay with the song choice?" James asked after he noticed that I didn't say anything. "Well I have never heard the song, but if all you guys agree that its the right choice then lets do it." I answered. "So now that we have our song, we need to assign parts." Casey said. "Yeah, but maybe we should listen to the song first so we can hear who sounds better at certain parts." Barclay countered. The boys and I agreed with Barclay. I definitely needed to hear the song. "Here, let me play it." Tom said as he got up and replaced the One Direction CD that was In the DVD player, with the Leona Lewis CD. We decided we would listen to the song once all the way through and then the second time we could give suggestions on who should sing what part, and how we want to shorten the song. As I was listening to it I was trying to pick out specific parts that the boys could sing. Since Leona has a vast vocal range, the boys should be able to sing this song with no issues. Me, Tom,  Reece, Barclay and James can all hit high notes and Jake, Casey, Charlie and Chris can hit the low notes. Actually, James can sing practically anything now that I think about it. After the song ended, Tom played it again and I specifically remembered a section that I wanted to hear James sing. It was basically the climax of the song. It had the most build and the highest note. "Pause it." I told Tom as we were approaching the part. "James, I think your voice is perfect for this next section coming up." I looked at him and nodded for Tom to continue the song. He pushed play and we all listened to the section I told James about. Once that specific verse was over, Tom paused the music. "Alright James, you wanna go ahead and give it a go?" He asked. We all looked at James as he gathered himself. He sat up straight and then began to sing. Once he finished I looked around at all the boys who looked dumbfounded. "Dude. That gave me goosebumps." I said as I extended my arm to show him all the little bumps on my skin that he caused. He smiled and played it off like what he just did wasn't completely amazing. "Good ear Aria. James, that's definitely your section." Jake confirmed. "Any other ideas?" Jake looked at me, and so did the other boys. "Well, I was thinking we could start with you," I nodded my head at Jake, "and we can begin where she's talking about not being able to look at him. I don't remember the specific lyrics." I said. "And then we can go into the first chorus where I think Barclay's voice would fit really well." I told them. They were all nodding so I went on. "And then half way through the chorus, Reece could take over cause she hits that really high note on the word 'hear' which Reeces voice is best suited for." I said. After I finished telling them all of my ideas they looked at me. "Aria, you didn't give yourself a solo." James looked at me questioningly. "I know. I don't think my voice is suited for this song so I'm just gonna sing the chorus with everyone after all the solos are done." I stated. "Yeah but don't you want them to hear your voice?" Charlie asked me. I nooded my head yes and said, "they will. At judges houses we'll be able to meet with the vocal coach and they will assign the parts. But we need to make it to judges houses before that can happen, and I think our best chance at accomplishing that is if you guys take the solos for this performance." I could tell they still didn't agree, but they didn't press the issue any further. So after all the parts were assigned, we rehearsed the solos, which didn't take too long, and then we got to work on the harmonies. Now THAT was where we had some issues. We had been practicing the same part for about twenty minutes and we weren't making any progress. "Casey, you're overpowering everyone else's vocals." Jake said, sounding a bit annoyed. I don't blame him, I'm getting frustrated too. "No I'm not, you guys just need to sing louder." Casey rebutted. Jake rolled his eyes at Casey's comment. "Guys this isn't helping anything." I said trying to defuse the tension. "Here, listen to how it should sound. James, sing the chorus with me?" I looked at James and he nodded. I tapped four times on my leg to give both of us the tempo and then we started singing. After we finished the chorus I looked at Casey. "Did you hear that? There was two of us singing and neither one of us was fighting to be heard. There are nine of us all together, if we sing at our normal tone, we won't overpower one another and the judges will easily be able to hear us." I said looking around at everyone. James was smiling at me like a fool. "What are you smiling about?" I asked him. "Oh nothing. I'm just picturing how much of a train wreck this would be if we didn't have you." He chuckled. I smiled and shook my head. "Alright, let's try it again." I said. After giving us all the same tempo I gave James and I, we began singing and I was seriously impressed. They actually listened to me. They were all singing at a normal volume and we sounded like a cohesive band. Finally. After we finished the chorus we all looked around and smiled. "See boys. We can do this." I smiled.

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