The journey begins

I traveled east on the 10 freeway towards Palm Springs and pulled up at the Spa Casino. I called Steve the keyboardist. They were playing gig in the lounge and on the break he came out to greet me. He seemed to mirror my own excitement. He had a sweet happy smile as he greeted me cheerfully. I sensed his excitement and I immediately felt at ease as I parked my truck and walked into the lounge. Though the club was crowded. the whole band looked at me. It's funny how a band has a dynamic all of its own, a certain group energy. Hard to explain but nevertheless is there. I sat down and watched the rest of the show. I met the band and as I chatted with their singer, I got the sense that I was going to be doing this for awhile. The next morning I drove with their bassist and headed for Nevada. It was like jumping on a moving train. The day after we headed out for Laughlin, a small casino town an hour south of Las Vegas. I checked into my room after unloading the van. After setup and sound check, I had just enough time to get ready to go to the gig to play. I was in for a surprise. No one had mentioned the choreography to the show and I found myself stumbling over my guitar cable in my attempts to follow along as I was expected to. Steve the keyboardist shouted "Hey!" at me and pointed to the other girls as they did their side to side dancing. I thought I was only going to play guitar first and learn some steps eventually and instead trying to follow dance steps as I was reading my charts of 5 sets of music. Steve had mentioned over the phone something about having to dance during the gig. I had somehow got the idea that I would be taught the steps at a rehearsal. It was never mentioned at rehearsal the day before. I was trying to keep up and not trip over my guitar cable. As I write this, I am reminded of how I once took a ballet class as a child. I vaguely remember running out of breath while trying to to catch up with the others as the teacher banged on a large bass drum while leading the class in a ring formation. It was a real challenge to stay in formation and I threw up after class. Needless to say I decided not to attend dance class again and only danced for fun. So here I was with a road gig and trying to dance while playing guitar and probably looking the way I did when I had that first dance class in kindergarten. No wonder a musician has to practice alot. That way it's all second nature while learning how to shake your booty so to speak while on stage. Well somehow my old piano teacher who often reminded me of the critical importance of practicing daily never mentioned it to me.