Kat Tingey

What I have been doing...

2011-05-31T19:07:00.000-07:00

This post is dedicated to my cute sister-in-law Stacie, who wants to see more pictures of me in my blogs and less words. :) ha ha

Toga Party at my friend Cara's house.

Yes, he kept the hat/towel on his head all night! Ha ha...

Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point

I've decided I have a thing for what I like to call "Audrey Hepburn" hats!

I know I can count on Tricia to do a good pose with me!

I think mom looks stylin in this pic!

Wicked in Boise!! Beginning of May 2011!!

(All the good pics were taken by Candice, they are on facebook if you want to see more about our trip!)

So distinguished!

The only picture I got in San Diego before my camera battery died!

At least I got a picture of my birthday kiss in San Diego! :) May 2011

So far that is all I have to show for myself, I am sure there will be more fun to come, and I will try to document it more often! :)

Stacie! I hope you enjoyed my post today! I will try to do better posting pictures so you and the kids can see what I am up to! :) Love you!

Can I

2011-04-06T18:58:00.000-07:00

I wonder if my creative juices freeze up during the winter time? It has been a while since I have written anything new and it was probably around last June or July that I wrote the song I am going to blog about today. I feel like I go through song writing droughts every year and I would be willing to bet that it is the winter season every time! Just a thought... I'll have to go through my songs and check out all the dates!

Anyway, this entry is not about how often I write songs. It is about one of my newer songs that I just recorded. The recording is just the raw version with me and my guitar, but I liked how it turned out!

The song is called Can I. You can listen to it at http://www.kattingey.com/music/unreleased.html.

It all started when I was messing around with a *Travis style pick pattern. I wanted to do some kind of *hammer-on that followed the vocal line. While I was playing around with chords and hammer-on's I ended up creating a really cool little guitar solo. This gave me motivation to actually get a song written out because I wanted to use this guitar solo so badly!

As I practiced my solo over and over... and over again, I tried to think of some lyrics that would go with my chord progression and melody. I didn't want this song to be a break up song, or a love song, or a dramatic relationship song of any kind. So I started thinking about life and what else there could possibly be to write about! ha ha ha... jokes jokes... :)

We all go through times when we analyze ourselves. Asking ourselves what we want in life, how we want to be, how we want to act and/or what we want to stand up for. I wrote this song at a time when I had not stood up for some things that I wished I had of stood up for. I cared too much about what other people were thinking. Honestly, I wrote the lyrics to this song at a time when I was disappointed in myself. I started to ask myself if I could be strong...if I could stand up for the things that I believed. This prompted me to think about what I did want to stand up for and what I did believe in. It also prompted me to ask my self if I could.

We all make mistakes. We all do things or say things we wish we hadn't. Sometimes when we have made the same mistake more than once we can get down on ourselves, wondering if we will ever be able to get it right. The important thing is that we always get back up and keep trying!

These were some of my thoughts and feelings as I wrote the lyrics to this song. I was questioning myself a lot and really trying to analyze myself!

Something I have decided as my life keeps moving forward is this... I am very capable of doing hard things! I have my weak moments, but I am strong too! I have been through some tough times and I always come out on top! I will continue to get back up whenever I fall and try again, and that is something that I know I will always do! How awesome is that! :) I hope you feel inspired now...whoever is reading this! ha ha

To listen to Can I again and again...(because I know you are going to want to put it on repeat all day long!) ;) Go to this link http://www.kattingey.com/music/unreleased.html

* Travis Picking involves playing a steady bass pattern with the thumb and filling out some syncopated rhythms with the fingers

* Hammer-on is a stringed instrument playing technique performed (especially on guitar) by sharply bringing a fretting-hand finger down on the fingerboard behind a fret, causing a note to sound.

Sometimes Love

2011-02-22T22:11:00.000-08:00

So I played at Velour last Friday, and Sometimes Love was one of the songs that I played. As I was practicing and getting it ready for the show I found myself remembering why I wrote it and where it came from. So here it is:

(Here is the link, if you want to hear it before you read the rest... http://www.kattingey.com/stranger/2-sometimes_love.html) (If that doesn't work go to www.kattingey.com and click on Music)

It was 2003, I wanna say August or something like that, can't quite remember...

I was dating a guy...isn't that how most songs are written? Dating and breaking up with guys? ;)

We had been dating a while and it kind of got to the point that we either get married or we break things off. This was the first real relationship that I had been in since High School (just don't bother counting how many years were in my boyfriend drout, k) and so I didn't really know what to do. So we decided to start heading in the marriage direction. Well, as things kept going I just had this bad feeling about it, but I kept moving forward anyway. We went ring shopping and talked about some stuff, I even tried on some wedding dresses with my mom! That felt really weird, when I think it should have been fun and exciting! ha ha... Looking back is really funny because I can see, so clearly, how naive I was!! (Still a bit naive, but I have learned a lot since 2003!)

Very soon after the ring shopping day I found myself visiting my parents house. I was chatting with my mom when she told me that she had shot out of bed at 4 in the morning thinking about me, and just feeling nervous, like something was wrong. Right after she told me this the words, "thats because I am getting married to a guy I don't love" casually fell out of my mouth. As soon as said it I realized how true those words were and I actually felt a little relieved after saying it out loud! That was what was wrong...I didn't love him, he wasn't going to be able to make me happy, we weren't a good match for each other! SCARY!

I went back to Logan the next day and I broke things off with him. Sad, I know...but it was the right thing to do, as hard as it was.

So a little while after all of that happened, I wrote Sometimes Love.

In the song I talk about meeting someone that I was able to connect with, and enjoy.

Found a sweet face, and let it slip into my life
Found a safe place, where I could run away and fly...

Found a good soul, that I could share with every whisper,
Found a heart full, someone who would always be there...

(ha ha...sometimes I feel cheesy when I read, or write, my lyrics without singing them...)

Those are pieces of the first two verses and that was what it felt like! It felt so good to be find someone who was nice and sweet and he liked me! It felt so good to have someone to share experiences with, someone to rely on...ect ect.

Well, sadly, sometimes love can slip away and it can cause you pain just like I say in the song. But, I can vouch that it will be ok, and it is ok to let go sometimes if things aren't right. Hence the third verse where I talk about leaving:

Left a sweet face, and let it slip out of my life,
Left a safe place, and it was hard to say good-bye
But it's alright, yes its alright...

As the song goes on I write about how it was hard to let go and some days you feel ok, some days you feel stronger, and some days you feel weaker! Sometimes lonely and sometimes full of strength to say that sometimes love can pull you down, but sometimes it just needs to be found again. (That is my favorite line of the song, sometimes love needs to be found again.)

It is scary to let go of love, or even just a relationship where you don't love the person, you just love having someone there! It can be scary to go back to being single again, scarier than staying in a bad relationship, sadly. But I have learned from experience that we do survive. Sometimes it takes longer to get back on track again and sometimes it feels less hard than you thought it would. But I still think that it is important to go for it, no matter how many times you have been hurt, and take those chances (as scary as it may be) and let love find you again.

Hope you enjoy Sometimes Love and maybe even relate to it a little better now that you know a little more about me and about the song! :)

Here is the link again: http://www.kattingey.com/stranger/2-sometimes_love.html

Raining Autumn

2011-01-20T14:36:00.000-08:00

I feel like writing about my song "Raining Autumn" today.

I think it was about 2001 when I wrote "Raining Autumn." I was studying Music at Utah State University in Logan and I lived in an apartment complex called Old Main View Apartments. There was a window in our kitchen that faced West and outside, in the yards around my apartment, were these really tall skinny trees that had a lot of leaves. I don't know what they were called but they were really tall.

It was fall and I was sitting at my kitchen table that was right next to the window. The wind was blowing outside and I notice that there were leaves falling past the window, like rain. I couldn't see the trees from my window so it literally looked like it was raining leaves outside! As I was enjoying the leaves falling past my window the words "Raining Autumn" popped into my head. I grabbed my guitar and notebook and started writing.

I figured out the chords and used a pretty simple pick pattern, but there was something missing in the guitar part. There was a certain note that I kept hearing in my head with the pick pattern but the note was in a weird place, hard to get a finger to while playing the rest of the chord and pick pattern. So I tuned the high E string down to a D, and then I was able to get the note in my head into the pick pattern! This was the first time I had ever changed the tuning on any strings for one of my songs, so I was feeling pretty awesome about it. :)

Thinking about the colors of Autumn, the sky, the trees, the wind and the leaves falling past my window helped to inspire the lyrics for the song. If you would like to read the lyrics you can go to http://www.kattingey.com/raining_autumn/2-raining_autumn.html. I think the song starts playing if you are in that screen, or you can click on the title of the song on the left side of the screen and it should start playing. If you can't get the song to play there you can go to http://www.kattingey.com/music.html. Or, if none of these links are working for you just go to www.kattingey.com and click on music. Raining Autumn is the name of the Album that the song is on.

In the beginning of this entry I mention that I was studying music at Utah State. I was in the Guitar Program studying under Michael Christiansen. In 2005 I had to do my senior recital where I played several songs that I learned throughout the years in the guitar program. As Mike and I were choosing songs for the recital he let me put a few of my own songs in. I chose Raining Autumns as one of my originals. My lessons that semester consisted of playing through and tweaking the songs that were on the recital. When I played Raining Autumn for him he liked it, but he felt like something needed to be added to the climax of the song to make it, well, more of a climax. :) It was good advice and I took it! So I changed a little part at the end of the song to make it a little more climactic, and I really like the way it turned out. Nothing to big and crazy, I just made one part a little more intense so you could feel the climax better.

Sadly I made this change after I recorded the song and put it on my CD. So the version that is available is the old version, which I still think is good, however, if you get the chance to see me play Raining Autumn live, then you will get to hear the small changes that I made because of a good critique from my Guitar Professor at Utah State. :)

When

2010-11-08T21:10:00.000-08:00

I want to start writing about my music! I would like to share with you the writing, creating and recording processes of my songs. And as I record new songs I will be posting the step by step process that I go through. (For example right now I have guitar and vocals recorded for this particular song. I plan on doing more to the song and as I do I will let you know what was added so you can listen and hear the difference from the beginning to the end.)

The first song I am going to write about is the most recent song I have been working on. It is called When. It can be found at http://www.kattingey.com/music/unreleased.html so you can listen to it before or after you learn about it! :)
(If for some reason that link doesn't take you to the right place go to www.kattingey.com, click on music, then click on unreleased tracks, and that should take you to the right place!)

Writing and Creating of When
When I was writing this song, I had a particular progression of chords that I had been messing around with and I really wanted to use them in a song. I was trying a lot of different strumming and picking patterns and in the midst of messing around ended up making up my own pick pattern. Fancy! I know! :)

I had the pick pattern and strum patterns that I wanted but didn't know what to sing about. Here is a secret for you...I have a hard time writing lyrics to songs! I am not much of a poet...I don't think...but sometimes I swear it is just a moment of inspiration and then it is gone! It is amazing! And sometimes I am really surprised at the lyrics that come out.

When figuring out what I want to sing about I will often think of other peoples experiences I have watched or heard about, or I will make up a fictional experience that I am sure has happened to someone or I imagine happening to someone (if that makes any sense at all), OR...yes I know this is crazy!...I will write from my own personal experiences!

On this particular song, I wrote from my personal experience combined with some fictional feelings that are maybe a little more dramatic than what I would generally feel. In other words...sometimes my songs come out more dramatic than what I am really feeling... :)

I met someone kind of unexpectedly once and a relationship began to blossom pretty quickly. It had been a while since I had felt the feelings you get when you start a new relationship. So the song portrays someone who has been lonely and someone else comes in and takes that loneliness away kind of by surprise. So you get the lyrics, 'when did the sun shine again, when did the clouds part and penetrate my heart? When did I smile again?'

I find that being single for a long time makes a person put up more walls, or doubt the possibility of a relationship lasting. I don't mean to sound negative, but the reality is (in my opinion)...the longer you are single, the more times you get to deal with heartache! The reason I tell you this is to explain the part of the song that says, 'when will someone else be replacing me.' And there is another part where it says, 'can I let this happen again, can I open my heart and let you do your part? Dare I face the fear that love is? Can I?'

If you ask me, it is scary to open the relationship doors again and again! Especially when you have been hurt before. But...it is something we have to do, and we have to do it confidently or those doors can close again really fast merely because of your lack of willingness to try, your insecurities or fears.

In case you can't tell, I really do think a lot when I write lyrics to my songs. They all have deep meanings to me. I will try to keep up on posting new songs and old songs, including the reasons why I wrote them and their particular process of recording. Which brings us to our next subject!

Recording When

I record with Ryan Tilby and I like recording with him because he is fast and does a great job! He is great at editing while we go along, and I have found myself to be kind of an impatient recorder! ha ha! I want things moving and done quickly but I want them done well too!

For this song I recorded the guitar part alone and then recorded the vocal track on top of that. I like doing the parts separately because then you have a lot more control over the different parts. So if there is a spot where the guitar track needs to be softer then it doesn't effect the vocal part when you lower the volume on the guitar part. Stuff like that...if you know what I mean! :)

Once we have a rough recording Ryan gives it to me to listen to so I can pick at it. I usually find a few places that I want to fix, whether it is a spot where the guitar sounds funny, my vocal sounds funny or flat (I hate being flat!) or if I don't like the way I said a word...that happens sometimes...etc... Another thing I like to do is figure out if I am going to do back up vocals and where I am going to put them in the song. We decided that this particular song needed a lot of back up vocals so I listened to it a lot and came up with a lot of different ideas to try out.

Back in the studio we fixed all the little things that were bothering me, and then we started recording the back ups. Back ups are one of my favorite things to record! I love harmonizing! I love coming up with new lines and melodies! And let me just tell you...sometimes miracles happen in the studio. Harmonies you never thought of...guitar parts that you have never played but accidentally come out and sound awesome, so you keep them! I love it! In this particular case, we ended up layering a lot of harmonies on top of each other and you may not realize it but there are a few parts where there are four different parts being sung at the same time! It is awesome!!

Whew! I hope you made it through all that! If not, I hope you at least listened to the song! :) Now...if you haven't already listened...you should definitely go listen now! Especially if you took the time to read my giant entry!... here is the link again! http://www.kattingey.com/music/unreleased.html

I hope I helped you understand my song a little better!!

Can you believe it is Fall!

2010-09-20T22:44:00.000-07:00

Ok ok ok...so...I apologize that my blog has been stuck on July on it FOREVER! I have a feeling my blogging is going to come and go in phases! Just like everything else in my life...I swear, I live my life in phases. Maybe I should write a song about that or something! Ha!

Well, the summer has been great! I have been doing so much stuff and I haven't been telling you a thing about it! So sorry! I have made new awesome friends, played lots of shows and gone on lots of motorcycle rides (when I can talk my neighbor Kraig into taking me! hee hee)...I also learned to ride a dirt bike all by myself...I may have actually blogged about that already...can't remember...so here is what I am going to do...I am going to go through my pictures and give you a quick re-cap on my summer adventures!

Dirt Biking

Learned how to dirt bike! I drove up the mountain all by myself! Woohoo!!

My face got really dirty and I look stupid in this pic but I though it was funny...

Stadium of Fire Firework show (on the outside looking in!)

Trip up A.F. Canyon with Richard

we got really high...in fact almost to the top of the mountain!

This is Richard

Richard told me that we were going to look at some cabin property...he didn't say we were going to bushwack through 3' high jungle grass and mud! I wore short sleeves and flip flops!

Hanging with John

We played at the park...

Boating!!

I have the best dad in the world! He drove the boat to Provo to take us out on Utah Lake!

I win...

Kristen & Branton - it looks like he's trying to do break dancing moves...ha ha

Boys...who knows what they are thinking!

Look! Mindy came!

Boating Again!!! (With Richards friends)

Kraig is not as little as he thinks he is I guess!

First time ever wakeboarding!

Woohoo! Not so bad for a newbee!

Look I even jumped!!...

JUST KIDDING! Thats Kraig....

Kristins Cabin in Fairview!!

I'm in that ranger...just so you know...

After the puddle...I look scary in this pic! Kind of like the devil! Eak!

Toys at the cabin, games at the cabin, guitars at the cabin! It was sooooo much fun! I think it was my favorite trip this whole summer!!

This is called the paperbag game...as you can see, the paper bag is pretty much gone...you aren't aloud to touch the floor with your hands or legs and you have to pick up the paperbag with your mouth and rip off the piece you touched with your mouth...it was way harder than I thought it was going to be!!

Outside Movie Night

Visit to Britts house to meet Indi

She is soooooo cute!!! And yep! She smiled just for me!!

Shakespeare Festival with the girls

I even got a little Shakespeare action! He was just so smooth! Ha ha!! no pun intended!!

St George with Friends to see Tarzan!

We stayed at my parents house, it was super fun!

Bear Lake

Sadly these are the only two pics I have of this trip, but we had a fun group of people and my Dad took us out on the boat again! I told you he was awesome! :)

Hiking Stewart Falls

me and Kristin at the beginning of the hike. This was just last Saturday Sept, 18th...

I just liked this picture...ha ha its funny...

Me, Katie & Kristin...cuuuuute!! But seriously! Aren't the leaves beautiful!!!

Katie took "Senior Pictures" of Kristen and I, this was mine...obviously!... funny...

By the waterfall...Good times...

So there you have it...a patched up re-cap of some of the things I should have blogged about this summer!

I've played quite a few gigs this summer including the Weber County Fair and the Utah State Fair. I think my favorite was the concert I did for Mike Murphy at the Park in Bountiful...I really enjoyed playing there for some reason!

Well, it has taken quite a while to put all this together and it is now way past my bedtime so I am going to go to bed. Good Night!

July

2010-07-14T21:44:00.000-07:00

Well, July has been kind of slow with the performances, I have one this Sunday at Ed Kenley Amphitheater in Layton, so come spend your relaxing Sunday evening listening to good tunes. The address is on my website home page www.kattingey.com. The show is free and it starts at 7pm.

The summer is going by so fast I feel like I haven't had time to even do anything with it! My brothers family was in town for most of July, so I spent as much time as I could with them and it was great! I miss those kids so much! My brother and his wife Stacie live in Pennsylvania with their three kids. It was very fun to have them around for such a long time.

Other awesome things that I should document while I am here:

1. I learned how to dirt bike a couple of weeks ago! I didn't fall once (probably because I am too cautious - but whatever!) It was a blast! My arms got really sunburned though! I just didn't even think about sunblock! Now I am all scaley like a dragon cause I am peeling!

2. I got a new phone that has internet on it and it is a touch screen! I love it! I have become a cell phone junkie! I love being able to check and update my facebook, email, website, twitter and all the other sites I use for my music stuff! It has been really fun and very convenient!

3. I went through the Draper Temple tonight for the first time! It was beautiful! Funny story though! Totally forgot my temple clothes...yes I know...what a Kat thing to do! It gets better, my recommend was expired too! The cute temple workers were rushing around finding me clothes and getting me cleared with my Bishop just so that I could do the session with my ward! They were so sweet and it meant so much to me because I was looking forward to going through that temple so much!! God cares, and he watches over us! :)

So I am hoping to post some pictures of some of these events at a later time when I am not so anxious to go to bed! :)

Goodnight!

My Shows in June!

2010-06-05T10:11:00.000-07:00

Picture taken by Amie Hale www.persnicketypics.blogspot.com

June is getting filled up with some really fun shows! Here is what I have so far! I hope you will try to come to whatever you can!

June 12 - THIS SATURDAY!

Hammer Hands Concert Series

Where: The Loft in Provo - 177 W Center Street in Provo, UT

Time: Starts at 8pm

Cost: $5

Line up: 1-April Meservy, 2-Michael McClellin, 3-Kat Tingey, 4-Sarah Wilcox, Emcee: Weston Wride

I haven't played on one of these concert nights before, but I hear that they are a lot of fun, so come check it out!

June 17

Warehouse Gig

Where: I know it is in a Warehouse located somewhere around the SLC area - I'll email more details as it gets closer

Time: Probably 8-10

Cost: I want to say a can of food or something...

Line up: Steve Soelberg (comedian), Kat Tingey, Danny Heslop and band

Comedy and music!? How could this not be an awesome show! I will get more details on this as it gets closer, but I will tell you this...Steve makes me laugh really hard and Danny is very fun to listen to! He writes some awesome stuff and he is going to have more people playing with him on this show so it is really going to be worth coming out to see!

June 19

I entered a competition in Layton called "Show Layton Your Talent." There are 16 performers that made it to the finals and we will be judged on our one performance. I need all the support I can get at this show because they have 4 judges and the audience is the last judge! 1st place wins $1000, 2nd $500 and 3rd $250! So if you have the time come vote for me at this show!!

Where: Ed Kenley Amphitheater - 403 North Wasatch Drive Layton, UT 84041

Time: Gates open at 7, show starts at 8pm

Cost: $5 for grass - I think the rest of the theater is about full but the tickets for actual seats are more I think the highest is $10

Line up: 16 performers - I am number 13 in the line up

This show is not just music. It is all kinds of talent. There will be a lot of different acts, so it should be very entertaining, and you get to vote!

June 20

Sunday Night Series

Where: Ed Kenley Amphitheater - 403 North Wasatch Drive Layton, UT 84041

Time: 7pm

Cost: Free!!

Line up: Kat Tingey (30-35 minute set) and Barbie Elliot

This will be a fun, relaxing concert, so come hang out and enjoy the night air and great tunes!

So far that is all I have for June! So pick what you would like to go to and mark it on your calendars!! I will send out updates as each show gets closer.

Thanks for all the support I have out there!

Feel free to email me any songs you would like to hear on any specific night and/or if you have any questions about any of these events!! My email is www.kattingey@gmail.com

Last Saturday House Party

2010-05-19T20:19:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday May 15th I used my new sound system for the first time!! It was very exciting for me, and it worked really well for us. There are still some kinks that I am going to have to figure out. Like, when I sing really loud it peaks and goes kind of fuzzy sounding, and that is no good because singing loud is what I do best!!

Anyway, the party was a lot of fun! They had a BBQ and a lot of people came and most of them stayed for the entertainment too! Danny Heslop played first and did great as usual and then Steve Soelberg did some stand up and he did really great...he even got everyone to stop and listen, which was cool. Then I played and it was fun. I have to admit that I felt kind of bad when I finished and someone said, "I thought you were going to play a lot more from your album." I really should play more from my CD. Here is the problem. When I write new songs, the old songs just don't seem as good to me anymore! But I forget that the people that have bought my album are excited to hear me play because of the songs on the albums! So, therefore...I am going to try and play the songs from my albums more and I will just sprinkle in a few new songs and a cover song or two.

So the party was a hit, my sound system was fantastic! Oh and guess what else! You can totally plug your ipod or nano or whatever you have into it and play music! I could totally DJ a party or something!

One thing that I am excited about is that I can take it wherever and have my own little show. My neighbor Kraig and I are going to put on some amphitheater and park gigs this summer. I am excited! I think it will be great!

That is all for now...sorry I didn't take any pictures for you! I was too busy being a sound man! :) And now it is time to go do some catching up on Lost! Mindy and I are almost all the way up to real time!

MS Benefit Concert 2010

2010-05-08T23:23:00.000-07:00

If you couldn't make it to the MS benefit concert last night then you missed out on a really good time!

I think that was the most fun I have had on stage at that concert yet! Ryan Tilby came and played bass with me and it was a blast! I felt like I played really well (Ryan played great, just like he always does) and my vocals felt really on! It was awesome!

I don't have any pictures to show you, but I will post some on the website when I do get them. Everyone played really great and we all kind of played and sang with each other throughout the show and that made it a lot of fun too.

The main reason for the show was to raise money for Multiple Sclerosis, and I think we did a pretty good job!

Thank you to everyone that came to the concert and contributed! It was a really great night!

New Toys...

2010-04-19T18:05:00.000-07:00

I BOUGHT A SOUND SYSTEM!!! YEEEEAAAAHHHH!

I finally did it! I probably should have bought a sound system a long time ago, but that is that and this is now! I went to Murphy's Guitars in Bountiful last Saturday to pick it up. Mike Murphy was my first guitar teacher when I took the beginning group guitar class in High School. He told me about this awesome little system and I was sold!

It is so cool! There are two speakers that hook together like so...

Then there is also a mixer and it just fits right into the back of one of the speakers like so...

Ooops! My foot got in the pic! Ha ha... now you think that is cool...but watch this!

Simply unlock here...

and you can take out the mixer and put it where ever you want!!

Ooops....foot got in the pic again...sorry about that! :) I'm kind of in a hurry right now so deal with the feet!

I can plug in 4 guitars or 4 mics or 2 guitars with 2 mics or I can listen to my ipod, I can even plug in a piano if I want!! I am so excited I can hardly stand it!!!!

Here is the grand finale!

WOOOOHOOOOO!!! I think I played with it for about 3 hours on Sunday! It was fantastic! So if you want me to play at your house or your park or your garage or your porch you just give me a shout and I will be there with my little, light, compact system!!! :)

I will be using this fancy system at my next gig which is a double header - Me for 30 minutes and then my friend Steve has a stand up routine. Very funny! It is going to be a great great night so you should all definitely try to come to this one! It will be well worth the drive, the money (probably $10) and the sides hurting from all the laughing you will do!

This is the very happy end of this very happy blog!

MUSE!

2010-04-07T20:37:00.000-07:00

I went to the Muse concert on Monday! I wonder if the day will ever come that they are not my favorite band in the whole entire world! Right now it just doesn't seem possible! :) The concert was incredible! They play song after song and they hardly say anything to the audience. They played 17 songs! And that isn't including all the middle jamming stuff they did between songs! Wow! My heart starts getting excited just writing about it!!!

Anyway, here are some pictures from the concert!

Proof that I was there, rockin' out at the concert with my awesome Muse shirt on!!

Yep! That is my girl Candice! She was there, and not to far away from us!

I went with my friend Scott! We bought tickets to this concert way back in December! I'd say we are devoted Muse fans!!

They had some awesome laser effects and stuff!

Ah Matthew! You are so beautiful!

I took some video of some of the songs and they turned out pretty good, but I can't ever seem to get them to work in my blog! So my pictures will have to do! :)

If ever you get the chance to see this band in concert my advice would be to do whatever you possibly can to go because it will blow you away!!

Hmmm...am I obsessive??? I dont' really care! I love them!!

Upcoming Events and My Difficulties Waking up this Week!

2010-04-01T19:08:00.000-07:00

Things are looking good for April. I am playing at a friends house in Salt Lake on April 10th (more details are coming for that one.) The end of April my friend Steve, who does stand up, are going to do a double header where I play and he does his stand up routine at a place in Trolley Square (I want to say it is at Wise Guys.) I am playing the Tulip festival at Thanksgiving Point on May 1st and then it is the MS benefit concert at Viewmont Hight in Bountiful on May 7th. So I am excited for all the upcoming events!

I am starting a beginning group guitar class the last week in April. I am excited for that. If you are interested make sure to let me know! I am charging $65 for an 8 week class. I am going to teach the class out of my very own basement and I think it will be a lot of fun! I am only going to have 6 people in the class and we will see how things go from there!

The days are flying by. Work has been busy so that makes the work day go by fast. Then, I get home and start doing stuff around the house, practice, get online and blog and facebook, and twitter and myspace and all that good stuff and by the time I get all the things done (rather, half the things done) that I wanted to do it is 10:00 and I don't know where the time has gone!

Oh I have to tell you my difficulties with waking up in the morning this week! It has been a bear! Tuesday my roommate comes in and says, "Kat!" and I groggily say, "ya?" and she says, "it's 7:30" and I jerked up out of bed and said, "WHAT!? No way!! Why didn't my alarm go off!" and she says, "it did!! And you then you turned it off!"

Let me just tell you...I had no recollection of turning off my alarm, or hearing it at all that morning! Then this very, lovely, snowy :( morning I woke up feeling as though it was Saturday morning and I thought to myself, "did I wake up before my alarm?" and then I looked at the clock and you'll never guess! I didn't even turn the dumb thing on last night! All I have to say is that I hope tomorrow I have better luck with the alarming and the waking from the deep, delirious, depths of sleep!

Muse Music and my Weekend

2010-03-28T18:07:00.000-07:00

I am a little late reporting, but my gig at Muse Music on Thursday went well. It was a lot of fun and I met some cool people. I didn't have a huge following for me, but quite a few people stayed from the other performers so that was good! I am so grateful to the people that did come to support me. It is hard, because I don't expect my friends to dish out the money to come every time I play. I just hope they know how much it means to me when any one of them shows up to any one of my gigs!

I am working on getting fans...March was a pretty good month for me, I did quite a few performances, and April is looking like it is getting more stuff lined up too! I believe the next thing I have lined up at this point will be a show at my friend Lindy's house in Salt Lake. My friends Danny Heslop and Kraig Brinkerhoff are going to play too. It should be a really great show! I just met Danny a couple weeks ago at the acoustic night I played at and he is fantastic! I can't wait to hear him play again.

I am working out another show at the end of April with my friend Steve Solberg who does stand up. We are going to see how a double header goes over. We will have an MC and then I will play for about 30 minutes and the Steve will do his stand up. I hope it goes over really great!

This weekend I went and picked up my nephew Grant and brought him to my house to hang with me Friday and Saturday. We went and saw How to Train Your Dragon. We both loved it! What a great movie! I would go watch it again in a heart beat! We hung out pretty late Friday night and then Saturday morning went and played frisbee in the park with my friend, who is also Grant, and Mindy. It was a lot of fun.

Being in charge of your nephew, or niece for that matter, really makes you check yourself out. Am I a good influence? Am I being a good example? We watched some episodes of Lost and I kept wondering if his mom would be ok with him watching! (Carlin, if you are reading this, I hope I'm not in trouble!) I just wasn't sure what kinds of shows were ok, he is 14 years old after all (as he would say!! :)) I realized that I have to give more credit to kids these days! My nephew is very smart, and is just a really great kid! I enjoyed our time together very much! He was always asking me, "have you read this? Have you read this?" It made me feel way behind with my book reading! He didn't complain about anything (except going home of course!) And helped out with anything I needed help with. Not that it was a lot, but simple things like taking his dishes to the sink, bringing the sheets and blankets in to see where they needed to go, offering to carry the mattress back downstairs where we got it! Anyway, it was great and my nephew is awesome! Props to my sister for raising such a great kid!

P.S. If you want to take a kid to go climbing at the quarry you have to get a signature from a parent! We were totally bummed!

2010-03-23T18:44:00.000-07:00

So I just had to jump on and tell you how great things have been going this week! I have this radio thing tonight at 9:00-10:00 in Weber (tune in at www.weberfm.org if you read this in time! :) ) Then I am playing at Muse Music in Provo on Thursday! I got a call on Monday to play at Velour on Wednesday but since Muse is literally 30 steps away from Velour we thought it would be a better idea to put me on a later show so I could get more people out. I was still excited to get the call however!

So I will probably be playing at Velour sometime in April and then my friend Lindy and I are planning to put together an acoustic night in April at her house in Salt Lake. I am also possibly playing at the Tulip festival in April as well. I hope things keep going good!

I better hit the road, its time to go be on the radio! :)

Some Music News

2010-03-20T09:37:00.000-07:00

As you can tell by the decrease in blogging things have become a little busy lately. Things are going well with my music. I have a radio interview set up on Tuesday March 23rd in Weber. The station is 88.1FM if you live around the Weber area, but if not you can still listen online at www.weberfm.org. I am scheduled to go on air at 8:30 PM and I am just hoping that I don't make a fool of myself!!

For those that know me very well you know that I don't always do great right on the spot in certain situations. I feel like I do well in social settings where everyone in the group is chatting and sticking in their funny jibes or stories and whatever. But, when it comes to answering questions right on the spot I tend to stutter and sometimes I even say things that I look back at a day later and think..." thats not really how I feel! Why did I say that!" I don't know...maybe we all do it! Or maybe I am just that way! Ha!

Back to things going well with my music.... I also have a gig set up on Thursday March 25th. This will be a good one. It is at Muse Music in Provo and there will be 4 people playing. I will be playing 2nd or 3rd and will be doing a 30 minute set! Check out my website for more details about the show. (www.kattingey.com) Or just check out my website because its so cool! :)

Anyway, last night I went and played at an Acoustic Night in Provo that one of my friend Lindy's friends set up. (Did you get all that?!) It went over really great! I got to play 3 songs by the end of the night and there were a lot of other great performances. It was really a lot of fun. There were tons of people there. The whole front room and kitchen were packed!

Thats all I have time for right now! So I will blog ya later!

Skiing at Snowbird

2010-03-16T19:22:00.000-07:00

It has been a few days since I wrote so I have some catch up to do, but for now I will tell you about my Saturday skiing adventure.

So Saturday was a forgetful, retarded, funny, awesome, frustrating, exciting day! Yes ALL those things! And I will tell you why! Saturday morning I got up and started getting ready for the ski trip that I was going on. I was running a little late so I was rushing around the house trying to get everything together. I ran downstairs, got my ski bag, made sure all the stuff I wanted to be in there was in there and took out the un-needed items. So far so good, right? Hmmm... well, I run out to put my bag into my car, but it was locked. So I set it down behind the car...I'm sure you can only guess what happened with that situation! No worries, Ill get to it.

So I run into the house, pack my lunch run through all the things that I wanted to take in my head and out the door I went! Jumped into my car and started backing out! YEP! Right into my bag. Since it had my ski boots in it and it is a fairly large bag...ok its a large bag...it didn't quite go under my car it just slid across the concrete and tipped over creating small holes in the bottom where my ski boots go! Sad! I know...but it is still ok. That was forgetful moment number 1! Yes there were several!

I drive over to my friend Michaels house to pick him up and realized that I had forgotten my cell phone. That was forgetful moment number 2! I was bummed, but it wasn't really that big of a deal because I don't pull my phone out on the slopes anyway.

So we started driving. We stopped at ski n see where I had rented my skies the night before. Then we went to Michaels parents house to pick up his skies. We headed up to Snowbird...which by the way was forgetful moment number 3, 4, 5, and 6 because I kept thinking and saying Snowbasin...as you may have seen on my facebook status as well!

So we get to snowbird and start putting on our gear when forgetful moment number 7 happens. I FORGOT MY COAT! MY SKI PARKA!! I was SOOOOO FRUSTRATED!! I can't even tell you! The bag? FINE! The cell phone? FINE! Who really cares! But my coat!! My beloved coat that I love so much and get soooo excited about skiing in. It was probably sitting at home just fuming when I left it there! Poor thing. Poor me! I was very upset!

So after my feelings of stupidity and frustration subsided a little I tried to tell myself that there is nothing I can do about it now and we are just going to have to figure something out! So we drove all the way back down to Michaels parents where I borrowed a rainproof shell/jacket thing and we headed back up. (I was still frustrated...but trying very much to swallow it!)

The rest of the day was pretty good minus the clothing malfunctions and issues that I kept having with my alien coat! We just had to stop at a lodge once so I could re-adjust and then we were back on the mountain.

The skiing just got better throughout the day because it was snowing on us all day. Which made it wet, but it was still a lot of fun. Michael took me to the back side of the mountain where you ski down into this big open bowl and then they have some runs and chair lifts on the back side once you get out of the bowl. It was really cool other than the fact that we couldn't see anything at all! It was completely white and you couldn't see where the mountain went up on the right or where it dropped off on the left. I almost didn't go because honestly it freaked me out! But eventually I mustered up the courage and followed Michael down. Once we started going down and there was no turning back, there was a very close moment of panic...but I was quite proud of myself because I held it together quite successfully and enjoyed this new adventure I was taking. It was a really sweet spot to ski and the snow was great! It was just hard to tell if you were even moving because of how white it was, and it also made it hard for me to trust myself so I was skiing pretty cautiously. I would love to go back there sometime when the visibility is better.

Anyway, I need to get going so here is a picture for you! ...Michael kind of looks like an alien or something....ha ha ha...I'm lookin pretty hot myself!

Kat's Thoughts...

2010-03-12T20:48:00.000-08:00

Its one of those Friday nights where I am completely content just staying home by myself. Funny...it seems like I was just writing about how I always have a need to have something planned on the weekend! Ha ha... I did write that, I think just last weekend. Well, don't you worry, because I am going skiing in the morning, and probably dancing in the evening tomorrow! So I think it is ok to just hang out tonight by myself.

Still haven't heard anything from America's Got Talent. I kind of forget about it honestly, is that a bad sign? I'm not jumping every time my phone rings hoping that it is them. Hmmm....

I do have a gig this coming weekend on the 19th in Salt Lake. I will post more details about that one as I get them. It should be a low key, fun gig. I was thinking today that it would be really cool to find someone that was playing around places and just open for them everywhere they go, or at least when they are around here. I really need to research the artists coming and going. I have heard that you can get on their myspace pages and what not and ask them if you can open for them. I should do that. I would say that I have an outgoing personality, I get along easily with people and I feel like I am fun to be around. But I sure don't like bugging people with my music. I want them to just want me. But before it gets to that I have some work to do.

Anyway, for all those reading this...it was kind of just the random thoughts of Kat...hope you weren't too confused by the end or anything! :)

P.S. I'm not re-reading to fix awkward sentences or mis-spellings. Just an FYI!

Pottery Picture Crazy

2010-03-09T22:02:00.000-08:00

My pottery turned out soooo great!! I am very happy with the results.

The greenish blue cylinder was my second try at a cylinder. Here is the before and after! The white one is what turned into this pretty green color. I love how the color turned out!

The plan, in my head, with this one (below) was to have a black pot with a red top that kind of dripped down the sides. It defiantly turned out different than I was anticipating, but I was still very pleased! This is from the beginning to the end. :)

My bowl and my curvy pot are my two favorites!. However, the colors on my bowl were totally unexpected to me and I absolutely love it! I'm a geek I know...but this was very fun for me and I am going to enjoy every bragging second

Mindy made some really great stuff too! She is very creative and artistic with stuff like this! I think her stuff turned out really great!!

I need to go to bed now, so I am going to stop there! Thanks for coming on this pottery journey with me. You might see and hear more about pottery stuff later because I am thinking about taking the class again in April... Just a little warning for you. ;)

2010-03-08T17:45:00.000-08:00

I had a good weekend...again...I find that I usually do. :) I don't know if it comes from college or what but for some reason I feel this need to have plans on weekends. There have been some weekends where I have sat home on my own and just watched movies or read or things like that and I have enjoyed those too. I guess those are kind of planned as well...or they end up feeling like they were planned in the end. Anyway, for the most part, I try to have plans.

This weekend I had my gig and I blogged about how well that went last time, so you don't need a re-cap I don't think! I hung out with a good friend on Saturday and on Sunday I finally got to jam on my mandolin! I'd say I did pretty well for a beginner! :)

It is funny to me. I sit here writing about myself, kind of like this is my journal and I think it is funny that there are people out there that actually want to read and even enjoy the things that I write. I think that sometimes my blogging gives me a little self esteem boost too. I have had a few people now say that my blogs are funny or that I am good at writing. I know that I can be funny sometimes...that is one of my personality traits that I know and like about myself. However the good writing compliments were a surprise!! I have never considered myself very good at writing at all!

So I guess what I am trying to say is thank you for the compliments! They are a real self esteem booster, and I think that because of the way they make me feel, I will try to give them out more often than I do now!!

Glazing and Friday's Gig

2010-03-06T13:40:00.000-08:00

This last week has been pretty busy! On Tuesday we went to our pottery class and finished glazing our creations. I had two pots a bowl and I don't really know what to call my other one. Kind of a bowlish vase type of thing.

Glazing is interesting because I really have no idea how it is going to turn out. My bowl is going to be three different colors! Kind of like a Neapolitan bowl! I hope all the colors match or at least look ok together! We didn't have any examples of what the colors were actually going to be when we were finished, so this will be interesting! ;)

Sometimes the sandy/muddy stuff in the glaze kind of settles at the bottom if it hasn't been stirred for a minute, so when I was dipping one of my pots I went too deep and it got all goopy on one side. So when it dried I had to kind of scrape it off and dip it again. I finally just stopped caring and started going dip crazy! So I have some multi-colored stuff going on and what not! I'm excited to see how they all turn out. I will definitely take pictures!

I have pictures of the "before firing" glazed stuff, but as I am at my parents house today I will have to add them later!

As for my gig last night! It was great!

Sometimes when I play, people that have never heard me don't know what to expect and I think they look at me and think that I am going to get up and sound crapy or something. So there are those occasional sets, like the one last night, where I get up and start playing and I get this "deer in the headlights" look from some of the people in the audience!

Can I just say...I live for this! I love it when I surprise people, or when I see someone finding in me new music that they like! It is one of the best feelings in the world for me!

So, like I said before, last night was really great! It was way laid back and chill. I really liked The Basement and would play there again any time. It was a lot of fun and a great venue! Thank you to those of you that made it out! It was great to see you and I really appreciate your support! I had a few really great surprises - friends that showed up that I wasn't expecting at all! Very cool!

Now it is just a matter of getting more gigs set up and getting my name out there. So make sure to tell all your friends to look up Kat Tingey!

Portland Fun

2010-03-03T20:52:00.000-08:00

Candice and I flew into Portland very early in the morning, so we had the whole day to explore before the auditions. I will try to give you the condensed version of our travels since knowing me, I could probably write a whole novel about our one day of exploring Portland, OR.

One of the first places we went was Old Down Town. This was where china town was located, and (according to the lady at our hotel) it is "saturated with restaurants and shopping!"

Well, when we stepped off the Max (that is their rail system) we ran into several bums, got asked for spare change a few times and found two unions and kind of found China Town. It was quite deserted, however there was a parade of great Danes with their owners that passed us by. I know...it was random! It didn't take us long to decided we weren't into old, but that we were into new! So we headed back to the Max to go to New Down Town Portland. Maybe you need to know someone who can show you the cool stuff in the Old Town because on our own we didn't get very far.

On the way into the "new" city we randomly found an awesome music store which is where I found this fabulous mandolin! I know what you are thinking...why did Kat buy a mandolin? Well, little did you know that I have been wanting one forever and have been looking at them and hadn't bought one yet because the ones that sounded the best were over $600. And that is a little extreme for a beginner. So when I found the one in Portland it sounded great and was a very good price compared to what I had been looking at in Salt Lake. So I couldn't leave without it! As you can see I am very excited about it! A little scary excited now that I am looking at the picture!

We rode the Max and the street car all over Portland! We found this awesome mask store, called Mystique, in the mall! It was fantastic!! If you want to check out some awesome masks you can go to their website www.mystiquepdx.com. Anyway, the owner of the store was awesome and let us take pictures and try on the masks! We even got a picture with her because she was so cool, but we took that one on Candices camera.

While in the mall a very nice girl in a very cute jewlery/craft-ish store told us to get on the street car to go to some other cool places. She also gave us a way better map than the little one we were trying to use that the hotel lady gave us. (We think the hotel lady just wanted to see if we would make it back alive from China Town!)

We got on the street car and to our delight discovered an Aerial Tram!! We knew the minute we read those words on our map that this had to be our next destination! So we found the Aerial Tram and bought tickets to ride it up. We had no idea where it was taking us or what its purpose was, we just wanted to ride it. Well, for your curiosity...it took us up to a hospital that must have had some kind of historical background or something...(we didn't take the time to find out because we just wanted to walk around the outside of the building because it was cool - and it was a great view!)

Us on the tram ride...

Pretty pictures of Portland from the top!

This hospital happened to be the location of our favorite find, and I would have to say, one of the best moments of the whole trip! Don't judge me! We weren't quite sure what to think at first either, but we came to love this fantastic statue we found!

In case you were wondering, the bunny man is holding a sad dog. At first we were confused...

Then we felt a strange sympathy for the statue!

And then of course...because this is me and Candice we are talking about ...it pretty much just got ridiculous!

Yes, I am laughing out loud right now...it just doesn't get old!

After the wonderful moment that we had with the bunny man and the sad dog, we knew we had to go back. The music store guy was holding my Mandolin for me and the store closed at 6. We headed back to the store and as I was purchasing my Mandolin we ran into another fellow Auditioner for America's Got Talent!

We sat and talked to our new friend and his Dad for a bit and exchanged random info that we had found online. We were really glad that we talked to them, and it made us more excited for our next days adventure! After I bought my Mandolin we went to Target (which happened to be right on the way back to our hotel) where we bought lunch and snacks for audition day (since we had no idea how long we were going to be hanging out there.)

We got back to the Hotel, got everything ready for the morning and crashed!

And if you haven't already read it, our second day of adventures - Audition Day - are posted on the post previous to this one labeled, America's Got Talent Auditions.

I hope you enjoyed reading about our Saturday adventures in Portland!

America's Got Talent Auditions

2010-03-01T20:16:00.000-08:00

My trip to Portland was awesome!! My cousin Candice got to come with me and we had a great time. We also had a lot of great adventures that I am excited to write about too, but I know that a lot of you are dying to know how the audition went! So I will write about the other stuff later!

The auditions were held at the Convention Center in Portland. Candice and I got there to line up at 5:45 AM! The line wasn't too bad when we got there so that was good. Then they decided to let us in around 6:30 AM which was another sweet surprise since we thought we were going to have to wait outside until 8!

Once we were inside we went through a security check and were sent to another line where they made sure we had our paperwork filled out, gave us wrist bands and gave me a number. Once we got through that line they checked our paperwork and sent us to the other side of the giant room where there were tons of chairs set up for us to go chill on, and wait wait wait.

We waited in that room for a little while and then they had us all go outside on the steps where we cheered and yelled stuff for the cameras. It was kind of funny to keep yelling "Portlands got talent!" since I am not from Portland. It will be really funny if I am in any of those shots when they air the show!

Anyway, after that they started calling us in to audition. They took us out of the big room in groups of 50 and I was in the second group! Number 98 to be exact! :)

They separated the people that were just singing from the rest of the group and we went and waited outside of the room we were auditioning in. I had fun waiting outside, just hanging out and chatting with the other people auditioning. Some were chill and cool and some seemed really nervous.

They had all of the guitar/singer people go into the audition room at the same time. There were about 10 or 11 of us. Inside the room there was a table with 3 judges and a camera man. We each got called up individually to stand in front of the judges and the camera, stated our name and stuff and then played our song. After sitting with these guys so long outside, I was glad I got to see all my new found acquaintances/friends do their performances. When it was my turn I felt like I presented myself very confidently and I played well. (I played Big Black Horse and a Cherry Tree by K.T. Tunstall) My voice did something a little weird on one of my growly parts but I pushed through it and it is possible that they didn't even notice. All in all I felt very good about my performance.

When we were all done taking our turns the judges told us they weren't making any decisions today but that they will contact us if we are going on to the next round by the end of April. We all left and waited outside for the door guy to go talk to the judges and then come tell us what to do. When he came back out he asked me and another girl from the group to stay and told the others they could go. Some of them weren't very happy about that...and some were way cool and supportive.

The other girl went in first and it seemed like I was waiting outside the door forever! Then she came out waited for a few minutes and then they called her back in again. When she came back out the third time she said she was auditioning in another room now. My speculation is that they wanted her to go into one of the voice only auditions because she had a fantastic voice, but not as great guitar skills.

Now it was my turn to go back in. They told me they just wanted to hear me play another song so they could get a little more variety from me. So I stated my info again, for the camera, and when I said I was going to play Ice Cream by Sarah McLaughlin the judge lady looked at me kind of funny. So I asked if that was ok, and she asked if I knew anything a little more up to date.

PANIC!! The only song I could think of was Fairytale by Sarah Barelis (sp?). So that is what I ended up playing and while playing I was piecing together in my head how I could get all the best parts into the song before she stopped me! So I was grateful when it all came together as I played it and I felt like I did a good job, up until the end when I started messing up chords! But luckily she stopped me right then! Whew!!

At that point the judge lady told me again, that they weren't making any decisions yet and that if they should choose me to go on to the next round I would hear from them by the end of April.

All in all, Candice and I had a great time! We met a lot of fun people and had a really good experience with the whole thing! I am so happy that I did it and I am very proud of myself for going for it!!

Stay tuned for more Portland adventures! I am done for tonight!!

This was inside the Convention Center the night before. I was thinking 'where are all the people?' We weren't aloud to take pictures of anything when we were there for the auditions.

This is outside the Convention Center. If you look closely I am pushing the thing that rings the bell! I was trying soooo hard to make it ring! But for some reason it wouldn't work! :) Also note my new purchase on my back! I found this really great Mandolin for a great price! I have been looking at them and wanting one forever, so I couldn't pass up the opportunity!

Last but not least! This was when we got back to the Hotel after the auditions were over! This is my best friend/cousin Candice, me and my audition number. Yes...I was number 5080098! :)

Ok, thats all for tonight! For real this time!

America's Got Talent

2010-02-26T17:25:00.000-08:00

I am heading off to Portland Oregon tomorrow morning. I wonder if I am going to sleep at all tonight! It has been interesting so far. One minute I am totally excited and the next minute I am nervous. However, I have found that in the past when I am freaking out about the unknown events that are before me, they turn out to be great experiences or not nearly as bad as I was making them out to be!

It was cool yesterday because I was feeling pretty nervous and I knew I needed to practice my song a bunch of times so I got my guitar out and started practicing and I ended up not only playing my song a bunch of times but, I also ended up playing a lot of different songs for a while. By the time I finished my own little concert to myself my nerves had calmed and had been replaced with confidence! I can honestly say that I feel like I have a chance! Duh, I wouldn't be flying clear to Oregon if I didn't think I had any chance, but it was a real, powerful feeling like I really do have something to offer the world and I hope they can see that in my playing. The confidence felt great!

So, many of you are probably wondering what I am doing, how it works, and what song I am playing. I am going to try out for the TV series America's Got Talent. They take any talent there is out there from crazy stunts or animal tricks to comedy routines, singers and musicians. The first audition is done in the different cities they have picked (I think Oregon was the closest to me anyway, but it was also the last city they were going to.) You have 90 seconds to show them your talent and you do it in front of a couple people and a video camera. The producers then go through all the acts and pick the ones they want to call back.

I just found this out today...they won't be calling anyone back until April. (I was worried about call backs because I can't exactly hang in Oregon till I hear from someone.) So that put my heart at ease a little. If I get called back then I have to wear the same outfit I wore to try out and I go in front of the real judges that are on the actual show. This is where they have 3 giant X's above your head and they can cut you short with their very loud buzzing X button if they don't like you. But you don't have to stop until you have been buzzed 3 times. All I know is that if they buzz me, I am going to jump through the roof! Not because I am upset, but because it will scare the crap out of me! Those that know me very well can tell you that I am a very jumpy person.

From there if I don't get buzzed and they let me through I will go to Vegas and that is where they will do the rest of the "sifting through talent." The first 4 episodes (I think) you watch as they narrow everyone down and make all their cuts. From there I honestly haven't watched the show enough to know exactly how they continue after that. I watched the last two episodes of season 4 last night and there were 10 people on the finale. My guess is that they get to a top 10 eventually and then America votes and they tally up all the votes over the weeks and at the end they go through by order of votes until they name the winner of America's Got Talent.

If you are interested in watching some or all of season 4 you can go to www.usagotalent.com.

The number 1 important thing you have to remember is that if I get on the show you have to have giant America's Got Talent parties and everyone has to vote like crazy for me! :)

Well, I still need to pack and get ready for this crazy awesome adventure that I am about to embark on! :)

Thanks for all your support! It really doesn't go unnoticed!

Keep your fingers crossed and wish me luck!!!

Trimming and Glazing

2010-02-24T22:17:00.000-08:00

I wrote this entry a lot earlier in the day today, but I was waiting to post it until I could put my picture on so you could see what the glaze on my pots looked like before they were fired.

Anyway, I wrote all this boring stuff about how things were going with my music and what I was doing to move forward, yadda yadda yadda...well, as it turns out I have some news that is a little more exciting. I think that I am going to fly to Portland this Sunday and try out for America's Got Talent on Monday. CRAZY!! One second I am freaking out inside and the next I am excited to do it! It will definitely be a spontaneous adventure, thats for sure!! I'll keep you posted on what is happening with all of that. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

On to the other stuff I blogged about earlier today...

As for pottery! It is slowly coming to an end! :( I asked my teacher if she would care if I just kept taking her beginning class, and she said she would have no problem with that! So I think I might take the class again in April. I just love it and I think I might have a little bit of a nack for it. I feel like I have caught on pretty fast!

Yesterday we trimmed the creations we made last week and glazed the stuff we made the first couple of weeks. I am not sure that trimming is my specialty...I think I do better with throwing. I do have a pretty steady hand which helps me with throwing and trimming, but I just can't ever decide how I want to trim my pots. Do I want to create an edge on the bottom? Do I want to put lines around the outside? Anyway...I think I just need more practice. I think I am going to take her class in April.

Glazing is very cool! You dip your pot or whatever into this liquid stuff and it dries almost immediately after pulling it out! It is crazy! It looks kind of chalky after it dries. I Glazed a couple of my first pots (my first crooked creations...) so that I could see how they would work out and how the glaze reacts to the firing process. When you dip the pots they are not the same color as what they will be after they have been fired. So my first two cylinders are an experiment! Next week I will glaze the rest of my stuff.

Maybe I am too easily entertained...

2010-02-22T15:35:00.001-08:00

I had a great weekend in Logan! Friday night I stayed at my old roommate, Britt's, house in Corrine, a town near Tremonton UT. I was there Friday night and most of Saturday just hanging out and catching up on old times and new times. It is always good to just sit and chat with old friends. I was also very entertained with their pets. They have these two cats that they randomly found and rescued from the fields around their house. I am usually not a cat person, but these were very fun cats to mess around with! Caleb graciously handed me a laser pointer soon after my arrival and I spent most of my time teasing them. I couldn't get the video to post on my blog, but it worked on facebook, so go check it out!

Saturday evening there was a dance called Harlem Nights in Hyrum that is held every February. Mindy and I try to go every year, and she seems to always get roped into performing. Her and her partner got 2nd place! So that was cool. A lot of our old dance friends were there so it was good to get some fun dancing in with them. For those of you who don't know this about me, I have been into Big Band Swing Dancing off and on for about 6 years. I used to go all the time, but now I am very random about it. That is how I met my old roommate Britt and my current roommate Mindy.

Sunday morning I drove to my parents house and went to church with my Dad. He has been home alone for a few days because my mom has been out of town. So I thought I would keep him company. I know, I know...such a good daughter! It was good to chill at home with family for a while.

Last of all, once I finally made it all the way back home, Mindy and I watched the final 3 couples do their ice dancing routines. I really like watching the Olympics! I have to say, I want USA to win and everything, but I am overall, just so amazed at the time and efforts all of the athletes put into what they do that I am always just happy for whoever wins in any category! I definitely cheer and get more excited when it is USA but I don't ever feel sad when it is not. :) Anyone who has devoted so much time and effort, and has worked as hard as these Olympic athletes do, is completely amazing and impressive to me!

Recording

2010-02-19T08:09:00.000-08:00

I recorded some demo tracks last night. I was a little worried because my week went by really fast and I didn't get nearly as much practicing in as I would have liked! Good news! Things went very well! I had already laid down 2 tracks previously. So all in all we got 6 songs done. 4 that we recorded last night and 2 that we fixed up from a previous session.

When recording it is good to have your songs as ready as you can, otherwise you make a lot of unneccesary mistakes, and therefore you spend more time and money fixing things that wouldn't have been a problem had you been prepared. So there is a little tip for any of you that may go record songs of your own! :)

So, the plan was to lay down some demo tracks. In the beginning I was only going to record songs off of Stranger. The reason being that my initial plan was to be able to say that I had toured Stranger by the end of the year. Well, I am changing plans! I have about 7 new songs that I like playing too much not to play them at gigs. So I've decided that I am not considering myself as touring...we can save that for the next album! ;) For now, I am just going to do what I can to play anywhere and get people to start checking me out, listening to my music and passing it along to their friends.

SO SHOW ALL OF YOUR FRIENDS MY MUSIC! TRY TO GET THEM HOOKED, SO THEY WILL SHOW THEIR FRIENDS! :)

How was that for a plug!

Anyway, one of the problems I was having with playing new songs is that I didn't have a way for people to listen to them. PROBLEM SOLVED-thanks to my website guy Jason White!! If you have checked my website lately then you will notice that not only is my blog on it now, BUT also a spot where you can listen to my "Unreleased Tracks." (In other words new songs and works in progress) I will put all the new songs that I have recorded there. As I work on them I will try and post what I've done so far so you can see the process of recording unfold before your ears ;)! We will see how this goes!

Just a heads up before I go! I am playing in Ogden March 5th and I have a radio interview on March 23rd! I will keep you posted on place, dates and times.

Have a spactacular Friday!!

Pottery Success!

2010-02-16T20:35:00.000-08:00

I just had to jump on right now and let you know that my pottery class tonight was a huge success! My bowls turned out great and I made another curvy pot! I really feel like I kind of have a knack for this! I am sad because today was the last day that we got to make stuff. The next two weeks we are going to be learning how to glaze and fire and all that good stuff!

That is all I really wanted to say tonight, so here are the pictures I took. They are kind of in a weird position because I had already covered them and put them away on the shelf when I remembered that I wanted to take a picture of them. So I uncovered them and just got the best shot I could. But you get the gist! :)

Valentines Speculation

2010-02-15T19:27:00.000-08:00

Good news! I had a great Valentines weekend!
Don't let your imagination get carried away with you...it had nothing to do with boys giving me flowers or chocolates or taking me out on a date. :) ha ha. In fact it really wasn't that exciting, just nice and chill.

Mindy and I stayed home, watched movies and ate Thai Pizza. This pizza is sooooo good! It has this peanut sauce on it (as the pizza sauce) WOW! and all other kinds of good stuff like chicken, red peppers, little green onions, feta cheese, etc... Anyway, here is a picture... you can drool over it. :) It was delicious!!

We rented All About Steve with Sandra Bullock. I probably wouldn't ever buy it, but I thought it was funny. She does a great job acting like a really intelligent, nerdy girl with no social skills. Anyway, that was our awesome Valentine evening! On to my next Valentine topic...

I have a speculation about Valentines Day...

I wonder if there are more fights on Valentines Day than the average normal day. I was just thinking about it because it seems like certain things are expected and when a person is expecting certain things and they don't get some or ALL of them, then that leaves a little, or a lot (depending on the situation) of room for disappointment! Then you have guys who tried so hard to make their girlfriend or wife happy and when they don't hit all the expectations then they get in trouble. I am not saying this happens in all cases, but wouldn't be surprised to find out that a lot of Valentine evenings end in tears and frustration.

Sadly, I have to admit, that I speak from experience, because I know that I have been guilty in the past of having expectations...ok I'll say it...that were too much. I am here to tell you that they are very dangerous, and as a girl it can be hard not to let them just creep their way into your head! And you know what else is scary...and probably stems from watching too many chick flicks...but, I think that girls can have expectations that are unfathomable to a guy. How in the world is he going to meet expectations that aren't even possible for him to imagine! (Maybe the guys would have a chance if they watched more chick flicks! ha ha ha, just a little joke!) Poor guys. Poor girls too though...being a girl can be really ridiculous sometimes! Anyway, I was just thinking about all this stuff and I thought I would let everyone in on my Valentine speculation. :)

I do have to tell you that I am working on these things within myself. I don't think it is wrong to have expectations, but I think it is important to keep an open mind and learn to be happy with what you have and especially what you receive! I am reading this book right now called Awaken the Giant Within by Tony Robbins. (Yes it is a self help book, and you know what? I love it!) I am learning that we really do have control over our emotions! I can take charge and change the way I feel, the way I react and the way I handle my emotions and situations in my life!

I had an ah ha moment today too. I realized that sometimes it takes a lot of work to be happy because you have to focus on changing your state of mind, or the way you are thinking, or your focus, or ask yourself questions that make you think of other things (other than whatever is making you feel sad or depressed.) There are a lot of ways to do it, and it is possible to bring yourself out of any downer if you make the decision to do it! Then there are those awesome times when being happy is a piece of cake, because life is going easy on you for a minute.

I will probably talk more about this book as I keep reading it because I really do feel like it is having such a positive effect on my life! So I will leave it at that!

I really do, honestly, hope that all of you had great Valentines Days and that nobody got in any fights! :) Hee hee!

Brontosaurus!

2010-02-12T19:06:00.000-08:00

You guys will never believe what happened at work today! I was sitting at my desk working sooo hard and all the sudden this Brontosaurus came walking down the road!!! I couldn't believe it! Some guy had tamed it and was using it to help with some of the construction going on across the street from us! As you can see, I got a picture and everything!!! And you thought dinosaurs didn't exist!!! Ha ha ha! Well you were wrong!!

Pottery & Excessive Water Consumption

2010-02-10T18:56:00.000-08:00

Last night Mindy and I went to our awesome pottery class where we took the cute little pots (yes, the very ones in the picture you see) and learned to trim them. I think my pots had dried a little too much and so it was a little tricky, and I was inhaling clay dust...which, by the way, is not good for you. We learned how to do some final shaping, create a bottom for our pots, create little grooves around the outside of the pot - if we so desired - and do some final smoothing and what not. Two of my pots turned out pretty good if you ask me, and one was quite lopsided...what do you expect from a beginner! I was quite proud of my trimming accomplishments! :)

Aren't they cuuuute!!

So after she showed us how to trim, she then started showing us how to make a bowl. Well, by the time I finished trimming to my satisfaction there was only about a half hour left for me to attempt a bowl. On top of that, by the time I got to it I couldn't remember the steps to making a bowl anyway!

So I grabbed the clay and threw it down and started to try and center it on to the wheel and I think that because I was feeling rushed and wanted my bowl to work out so badly that I just couldn't get my clay to center! It was waaay off, and when it gets way off it kind of pushes you around. The only analogy I can think of for you(though its quite extreme) would be like trying to steady a small jack hammer or something. So I ended up with clay and water spinning everywhere and had a giant pile of wet sloppy mud in front of me! I'll admit, I was a little sad, but had enjoyed trimming and working on my other projects so much that it really wasn't that big of a deal. Good news though...the teacher said that we could do whatever we wanted next week! I think I would have been more sad if I didn't get another chance at making a bowl! So that made me very happy! So look forward to my blog next week about my successfully developed bowl making skills! :) Along with some pictures to prove my natural talent! (If I remember to take pictures! :-/ )

Thats all for you about my pottery class...

You are probably wondering what I meant, in my title, by excessive water consumption. Well...here is story number two for the day! My co-worker Amie and I decided, today, that we were going to try to start drinking the right amount of water each day. It all kind of started with somewhat of a water guzzling challenge around 9:00 where we both drank our mostly full water bottles in 2 minutes! (2 minutes is not a lot of time to drink about 20 ounces...just so you are aware.)

After this little challenge we looked up how much water a person should have in a day and found that women should have somewhere around 2 to 2.2 liters of water and men should have 3! Well, on our water bottles it said 1pt 7.7oz. 2 liters is around 64 oz or something (I think). For some strange reason, neither of us paid any attention to the 1pt part of the label and we were both convinced that our bottles were 7.7 oz! Therefore we had it in our heads that we would have to drink 8 water bottles a day in order to get our required, daily water consumption!!

The plan was to drink 1 bottle every 2 hours...and mind you, we kept accidentally procrastinating and so we would guzzle our water down the last 10 minutes of our 2 hour goal. I think we both went to the bathroom once every hour today!

Finally with the help of another co-worker it was pointed out to us that our water bottles were actually 23oz, NOT 7.7 and that we only had to drink about 3 of those a day to get our daily amount. At that point we were both suffering from 'water up to your eyeballs' syndrome and side aches! Ha ha! I thought it seemed extreme! I just kept thinking to myself..."if this is how much water a person is supposed to drink a day, then there is a very small percentage in the world of fully hydrated people! :)

Now drinking the correct amount of water seems like no problem at all!

Planning

2010-02-08T21:46:00.000-08:00

Sorry blog, I neglected you for a few days! My sister Tricia came down and hung out with me all day on Saturday. We had a really great time! We went to eat, hung out at my house and talked and went to go see Sherlock Holmes, the second time for both of us. (We tried to see The Avatar or When in Rome, but they were both almost sold out, and I am not a happy front row sitter!) Remember when you were little and you thought the front row was the most awesome place to sit?! I do...Anyway...I actually really liked Sherlock Holmes the second time around! It was cool to know what to look for. And instead of guessing what was going to happen I found myself paying closer attention to other details that I would never have pick out the first time around.

Enough about that...part of our time was spent talking about what we need to do, places I can play and what not. So we made a list and we are working on getting a hold of some places to see what I have to do to play.

I was thinking that I would like to open shows and things like that, but Tricia was thinking more along the lines of Colleges and city/county fairs, you know...summerfest, peach days, rasberry days, Farmington Days...stuff like that. Honestly, I don't care where I play, I just want to play for people! I really do have a passion for performing! But all of the foot work and promoting sure slows me down. And in all honesty it discourages me. But I am going to keep trudging forward with this if it is one tiny step at a time!

2010-02-05T10:07:00.000-08:00

Hello friends that read my blog! I hope you are all doing well! I have great news! As you probably saw on facebook or twitter or my website, I wrote a new song! I always get very excited about new songs. Well I finished it up yesterday and now I am just working on making it sound solid. I am putting a little guitar solo-ish part in it and I am going to have to really get it down and get comfortable playing it before I show it off to anyone. Still don't know what I will call it, and I am not ready to tell the world what it is about yet. So, I apologize for leaving you in suspense.

So this is random...but...I am really bugged because I don't have spell check on my blog anymore! I don't know what happened! I think I downloaded the new version and it just doesn't have spell check on it now. So sorry if you see spelling errors! Grrr!!

Well, I don't have any fun plans for the weekend yet...I am sure Mindy (my roommate) and I will figure something out. We usually end up reverting to dancing (West Coast, or Lindy) Maybe we will go se When in Rome or something. I have been wanting to see that. I do need to get some press kit type stuff together sometime this weekend to start sending to different Venues. I have a friend working on my bio right now. One little step at a time right...? :)

Good things happen during hard times

2010-02-03T10:40:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was a little rough for me. I have just had a lot of things on my plate to deal with and I think they all combined together yesterday and attacked! Fact of life...everyone has hard times. However, I have good news! Even when you have hard days, good things CAN still happen in the midst of your trials!

So here are the good things! My car is finally all fixed and so happy to be back with me! I missed driving it soooo much! So I was very excited about that. My mom brought it back to me after I got off work so I got to go to dinner with her which was very good. Moms always know the right things to say, at least my mom seems to!

Then I went home, picked up my roommate and we headed off to our first pottery class! I AM IN LOVE WITH THROWING POTTERY! I made 3 successful cylinders!! It was great! I love messing around with the clay and spinning it threw my hands and shaping it! It is so cool! 2 hours might not be enough time each week! It went by really fast! I did get a sore on my hand from the grainy clay, but it was totally worth it! I just hope it doesn't still hurt by next Tuesday! Our teacher is going to show us how to make plates and bowls and pots! It is going to be so great!

I learned another Muse song on my guitar. It is hard to play Muse songs acoustic because you just can't seem to get the full effect! They are just way too amazing. But I think this one will be a good one once I have it down! The song I decided to learn is called Falling Down off the Showbiz album. It is slow and takes a lot of air, so I am going to have to work on it for a bit before I will be covering it at a show. Ha! Mabye I will have it down by the time I get another gig! Just keep hanging in there with me!

I get my car back!

2010-02-02T15:14:00.000-08:00

I would just like to announce that I am getting my car back today!!! I think that everything is finally fixed!! And I am starting my wheel throwing pottery class today. So there you go! Two good things happening! And that is really all I have for you!

I am trying to find places to perform, but it is a slow process, so bear with me! :) Let's keep our fingers crossed that by April or May I am starting to play pretty steady.

Skiing, Guitars and Pottery!

2010-02-01T10:30:00.000-08:00

Sadly, I have neglected the world of skiing for a very long time.  My excuses? 1. too expensive, 2. I didn't have people to go with like I used to, and 3. it had been so long I actually thought I didn't really mind not going anymore! Sad, I know!! Don't worry! Those feelings were taken care of this weekend!

I went to Solitude with my friend Scott on Saturday and it was so much fun! I forgot how much I enjoy being up on the mountain! It was beautiful! Blue skies, no wind! It was a little crunchy/icy in some places, but we still just messed around and had a good time. Scott is a really great skiier, so he was totally taking it easy and I was doing my best to keep up to his easy! :) Ha!  It was really fun to go with someone who knows their way around. Scott took me on some really cool runs through the trees and gave me some good pointers about my turns and stuff. I felt very accomplished by the end of the trip! :) So now all I want to do is go again!!

On our way back from skiing we stopped at a great little guitar shop called, Acoustic Music, and I fell in love with a few Taylors. Now I am asking myself..."am I a Taylor kind of girl?" I almost feel like I am cheating on my Martin or something. But they sounded really great! And played great too! I guess we shall see what happens...you might see me bustin it out on a Taylor one of these days!

One last thing for this blog entry today. MY POTTERY CLASS STARTS TOMORROW!! I am super excited!!  It is the class where you use a wheel! My roommate Mindy is taking it with me.  I am going to make all kinds of fancy stuff! It will be great!! :) I'll make sure to tell you all about it!

Thank You

2010-01-28T17:24:00.000-08:00

Thank you again to everyone that came to the concert!! There was a really great crowd there for my set and I had SOOO much fun playing for everyone!  My ward is awesome! So many of them came out to support me! Even my Bishop and his wife! Everyone thought they were my parents, it was funny. The sound was great and besides a few cracks in my the performance felt very solid!

It is funny playing at places. I feel so awkward when I first show up. I never know where to put my stuff or what to do with myself. I really need to work on my confidence in that area! Especially if I am going to be playing at new places all the time!  Anyway, as I was setting up and trying to act like I knew the drill or something I started looking around at all the other musicians that were also setting up and they all looked just the same way I felt inside. So that gave me some confidence. :) I totally went into Velour with the attitude that I was going to be outgoing and introduce myself to the other performers yadda yadda yadda but it was kind of hard!  I felt like I did a pretty good job considering.  It is easier after everyone has played because then you can talk to them about their music.

When we were doing the sound checks they needed to check the piano and vocals for Emily Brown, but that would have required them to move my set-up and the piano and everything just for a sound check! So I asked the sound guy, Jordan, if I needed to sing while she played so he could get levels. He said that would be great so I ran up there and attempted to improve a song for everyone while she played something random on the piano. I sang things such as, "I am singing a song for a sound check and I don't improve songs out of my head, but at least I'm singing on tune and I even rhymed for you" (those were not my exact lyrics because I don't remember them, but I wanted you to get the gist) It was pretty funny! Everyone seemed to enjoy my attempt! Ha!

All in all, the night went really great. I felt great about my performance, but on top of that the other performers really did a great job! The guys after me had some great harmony and the one guy, Chad, played awesome rhythms on the harmonica while strumming the guitar! I was very impressed.

The girl after him was Emily Brown and she was AWESOME!! I absolutly loved her. Similar style to Regina Spektor, (minus the Russian background) very unique voice, and great piano skills! I was sooo impressed. You can find her on facebook. Go to www.facebook.com/emilybrownmusic. I just loved her! And she was very nice which makes her even more cool! :)

The last guy, I think his name was Asure, had a really great voice and had a very chill set. I really like that chill, kind of minor style.

Once again, it was a great night and an awesome show. I hope everyone that was there enjoyed it as much as I did!

Bye for now!

What?! A Crack?!

2010-01-27T11:55:00.000-08:00

Got my guitar back yesterday in time to use it tonight at Velour. It is sounding great and feels good to play! There is just one sad thing! They found a crack in it! Martin & Co warranty their guitars forever so I will eventually have to send it in. It is not a noticable crack but it is a crack none the less! SO SAD!! Maybe it is time to start looking for a new guitar...why does it make my heart so sad to say those words?

On to other events of the day. I am excited to play at Velour tonight. I think there are going to be a lot of people there to support me and I don't know if they have any idea how much it means to me that they are all coming! I really hope that I give everyone a great show!

Velour: 135 N University Ave Provo, UT. Show starts at 8 (I'll play soon after) $5 at the door.

Car Woes, Concert Concerns

2010-01-26T17:21:00.000-08:00

Totally got my car back today - don't get too excited - I got it back only to find that the check engine light came on 10 minutes after I started driving! So, I will be taking it back to the shop again!

Enough about my car, I play at Velour tomorrow night and I am way excited! It sounds like there are going to be quite a few people there to support me and that makes me even more excited to play.

I do have a concern though. I am afraid that all these people are going to come tomorrow and then Corey (the guy that owns Velour) is going to think that I have this really great following and then he will put my on a bigger venue and nobody will come to that show! Hopefully people that come to the show tomorrow will like what they hear and that will make them want to come back next time I play again. And hopefully they will tell all their friends and make THEM come to shows and they will tell their friends and then I will be PACKING all kinds of different places with huge crowds of people!

Wouldn't THAT be awesome!? :) Ah...daydreams...sometimes they can be so fun...

My Car...

2010-01-25T15:01:00.000-08:00

I got in an accident about a month ago in my Trail Blazer. I fish-tailed at around 60 mph into a baracade which sent me sailing across 4 lanes of traffic into another baracade where I stopped, unharmed and extremely gratful to have not hit any other cars. So that sums up the accident. Pretty scary! I know...I was there! :) (I'm a geek and you love it...)

So we took my car into the shop and they got it all fixed up but they keep painting it the wrong color! Maybe the painter is color blind or something...I think I will pretend like that is the case just to make myself feel better. Kind of like when you are behind a really slow car and instead of getting road rage you think to yourself...'maybe they are carying very fragile materials or something.' Maybe you don't do that, but occasionally I do.

So the moral of this story is that I miss my car...though I am grateful for the little truck that my dad is letting me borrow so I really shouldn't complain!

Enough about that! I have a gig this Wednesday and I am way excited! It sounds like there might be quite a few people there and that will make it even more awesome! I have been stressing a little since my guitars have been in the shop getting all tuned up and stuff. My Martin wasn't going to be done until Tuesday, so I decided to do the show with my Ramirez (my classical guitar). I know what you are thinking...'A Claaaaasical guitar! - what are you doing Kat..' Let me just tell you that my Ramirez is a sweeeeet guitar and it sounds great! Especially plugged in! So I have all the faith in the world that you will still be very satisfied with the performance if you happen to be lucky enough to be there! Ha ha...was that cocky enough for you? :)

About my Weekend

2010-01-23T14:57:00.000-08:00

This blog is more about my weekend and not so much about my music...but isn't that what a blog is...random info about my life?

I thought that last night was going to be very chill for me. I'll admit, I was a little bummed about that, but, I was determined to deal with my circumstances with a positive attitude! So I called my friend Betsey to chill with me and to my delight we ended up having quite an adventurous night! I love when stuff like that happens!

It snowed quite a bit here and Betsey's neighbors decided to go play in it. Since my Trail Blazer is still in the shop getting painted all the wrong colors, (a story for another time) I am currently driving this light little Chevy Colorado that my Dad was nice enough to let me borrow for a while. Because of its lightness it is really great for donuts and such...and as I found out last night...REALLY great for bizzin. A new term for me...the picture explains it all! I only completely fell down once! But I probably swore more than once... :/ hee hee.... bad habit when I get in tight spots! Still not a good excuse though...

Well the fun did not end there! We also went sledding down this long kinda curvy road! It was very fun! And just a little scary when the snow plow decided to plow up the road we were riding down. No worries! We had plenty of seconds to jump to the side! :)

We only had one mishap the whole trip and that was Betsey's phone slipping from her pocket and into the snow somewhere. And before we realized it the snow plow had already gone up and down the street. Sorry Betsey!

As for today...my roommate and I scrubbed our kitchen floor! Something we have been dragging our feet on for a long time...ha! No pun intended! Since then I have watched an episode of Lost and done quite a bit of advertising online for the show at Velour on Wednesday! The rest of the night is ahead... disco skating anyone??

Friday

2010-01-22T07:23:00.001-08:00

It is Friday today!!

Don't be surprised if you find a post from me every Friday about how much I love Fridays! Anyone that has an 8-5 M-F job understands me completely! And for all you other people that have to work weekends, my heart goes out to you!!

Although, as I start finding places to play I am probably going to be "working" a lot of weekends. But I am pretty sure that I won't mind that "work" quite as much as my regular job. :) Don't get me wrong, I am very grateful for my regular job! Especially in these hard times. I work with great people, a good company and I am kind of a nerd and enjoy typing/secretarial work.

The Beginning

2010-01-21T07:54:00.000-08:00

Hello Everybody! I am finally entering the blogging world and I will tell you why...

For those of you that don't know me very well yet, my name is Kat Tingey and I am a musician. I have been playing guitar, singing and writing music for over 10 years now and that is where my passion is in life! I love writing music, and I absolutely love performing for people!

However, though music is my passion, I haven't been pursuing it like I should. I have played quite a few shows here and there, but I have not given my best effort to find more places to play. I know that I have let some of you down because you wanted to see and hear more from me. I am sorry! I even had one of the songs I wrote, called Undone (inspired by the Twilight novels) and it became quite popular online, yet I still didn't take that perfect opportunity to do anything about it! Why? Who knows...I have come up with all sorts of excuses through the years! To be completely honest with you I think the reason for my slacking is fear, feelings of inadequacy, intimidation and anxiety! All great reasons not to pursue your dreams right??? HA! Are you kidding?! PATHETIC! I am tired of succumbing to these fears and feelings! I am tired of letting them stop me from moving forward with my life and following my dreams!

Don't get me wrong...I have accomplished quite a bit with my music. I have recorded 3 albums, 2 (Raining Autumn & Stranger) of which can be found online through my website http://www.kattingey.com/ or by searching Kat Tingey on itunes, http://www.cdbaby.com/, http://www.amazon.com/ or just google my name. I graduated from USU in Guitar Performance and studied with Mike Christiansen. I have taught guitar lessons, classes and ensembles. And I have played at a lot of different places. These are great accomplishments but I think it is time to take things a little farther now.

I was talking to a good friend a while back about jobs and such and he mentioned something about doing what you love for a living and how he couldn't imagine work being any better than that! That conversation apparently stuck with me because later I was sitting at my 8-5 M-F job...where I answer phones, enter data into the computer and do other secretarial type jobs...and I thought to myself, "what am I doing with my life! Am I really going to be a Secretary my whole life when I could be doing something with my music?! Making money doing something that I love?!" Around the same time I had this realization, another friend emailed me saying, "Kat, I have been listening to Stranger a lot lately and there is no reason these songs should not be on the radio! Are you touring with this!"

Maybe I have been too open with you...maybe I have told you a little too much about myself and my feelings, but this is my blog and I am going to keep it open and honest as I proceed with upcoming goals!

So if you would like to join me, I have decided that by the end of this year I would like to be able to say that I have toured around with my newest album called Stranger. I am going to try and stay updated on my blog to let you know how things are going and probably how I am feeling too. It might even get a little personal sometimes, because, well, I do like to talk a lot sometimes! :) You probably noticed that already! Ha!

Thank you to everybody for your support, patience, good advice and love! Start checking my website for upcoming events, shows, and blog updates. (http://www.kattingey.com/) I am hoping to get some shows set up in February and go from there.

Here goes...I am going to post this...eak!

Kat