Let's Sing with Brian!

Last Saturday we held our first "Let's Sing with Brian" night here at AEL. Even though it was very short notice (less than 3 days), we had a great turnout!

Here is the basic recap of the evening:
- The event was scheduled to be 75 minutes long (it actually lasted more than 3 hours).
- We featured the Beatles "Yesterday" as the song of the evening.
- First we provided a printout of the lyrics in English, as well as a detailed Nihongo (Japanese language) translation.
- My wife explained the song lyrics and meaning to everyone in Nihongo.
- Then I explained the proper English pronunciation to the group and we practiced speaking the lyrics properly.
- I included a basic voice training lesson on proper singing posture, breathing and phrasing techniques.
- As a group, we then practiced singing "Yesterday" one lyric at a time.
- We then sang the entire song many times as a group.
- Then we separated the group into men and women to enable them to sing in the appropriate keys.
- We finished the song portion of the evening with everyone singing "Yesterday" individually in front of the group.
- We continued the evening with much beer and wine (and partied like it's 1999)...

Everyone had a great time, so we've decided to make this a weekly event.

We will begin posting this event (as well as other events) on the AEL website and Mixi, so feel free to check out our ongoing "Let's Sing with Brian" nights. Be sure to contact us to confirm your reservation!

New AEL Flyer (フライヤー)

The long awaited new AEL Flyer is finally here!

Endless thanks go out to my good friend Harumi-san for her professional design and layout.

It looks great, doesn't it!

AEL's First Event

Last night we had our first AEL Wine tasting/English Conversation/Live music Event.
I was so happy and surprised by the turnout of guests. We had 18 people at the event.

The wine tasting was great! My wife did an excellent job of organizing and conducting the blind tasting. She covered the bottles and prepared a list of the wines and the guests would guess which wine they were tasting.

Everyone had fun with the tasting, and two people listed all 6 wines correctly. Although it was a wine tasting, my wife made sure everyone enjoyed (and finished) all the wine. I think our guests enjoyed this part of the event very much.

I was also happy and surprised that everyone was very comfortable and talkative with each other. Although I was the only non-Japanese person in attendance, most people spoke English all night and it was a wonderful opportunity to use and practice their English conversation.

I also performed 2 stages for the event. Though I had prepared 2 stages of music, I mostly played requests. Everyone had such nice compliments, I was very humbled.
I played a few original songs, some Beatles, Sting, some classic and love songs as well.