I’m super excited for TWO reasons! 🙂 Reason 1: I have a show this weekend!
Mother Fool’s Coffeehouse
Saturday, January 17, 2015
8pm
$6 at the door

Reason 2: I entered my first contest! 🙂

Some of my friends encouraged me to try NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert Contest. I looked into the details about the contest and learned that you had to submit a video of yourself performing one of your original songs at a desk.

(Do you want to participate? Submit your video here by January 19. Click here for the official rules.)

I was feeling nervous about entering the contest because I had never participated in a contest before, but with the support of my friends, I decided to enter the contest.

I just had to figure out these three things:

1)What song to perform
2)What desk to use
3)Who was going to record the video

It was difficult for me to decide which of the songs from my album to choose, so with the help of friends, I decided on “Temptation.”

The contest rules said that you could use any kind of desk you wanted. I ended up choosing my work desk but wasn’t quite sure how recording at work was going to turn out…

The last thing I needed to decide was who was going to record my video. Luckily, my friend Yasir Alhumaidan just happened to be taking video production courses and helped me out loads by offering to record the video. 🙂

We recorded the video at the end of December, after a full day of work. I was so excited about the video that my adrenaline kept me going. 🙂 My office is in a basement, so I helped Yasir move a bunch of stuff around to get the lighting just right. (I think you would have been entertained to see what my office looked like while we were recording 😛 )

After we got the lighting just right, the only thing I was nervous about was whether or not the building was going to be loud.

When we started recording the video, the building was extremely quiet. Luckily, it wasn’t until after we finished recording the video that the cleaning crew came in to start vacuuming. 🙂

Here’s a photo of me and Yasir after we recorded the video.

Allison Merten and Yasir Alhumaidan
Tiny Desk Concert Contest Submission

After Yasir finished editing the video, I submitted my entry on January 05. Want to see my video? You can check it out on my YouTube channel here.

I am so lucky to have friends who encouraged me and helped me participate in the contest!

I know tons of musicians are going to participate in this contest and that there is only going to be one winner.

However, it’s not about winning. It’s about trying and having fun 🙂