The next challenge awaits...

Hi Everybody!

Sorry I'm aware that it's been a while since I've posted a challenge, I'm having a very busy July so I thought it would be easier if I look to plan ahead for the next set of hurdles!

The first stop is definitely to make up for my epic singing fail. I know I posted about performing with the choir a while back and I didn't follow up on how it went after the event. Well the concert itself went amazingly well, we had a fantastic turn out and everyone had a blast. Unfortunately I can't be as cheery about my solo which sadly fell on its ass as my nerves completely got the better of me. I stood up to sing and the minute I started walking to the front of the stage my legs just turned to jelly on me. I started off fine, but then I took a deep breath and immediately my mouth felt like someone had sucked all of the moisture out of it. I choked, I froze, I looked to the pianist for help and was met with a mad panic look that said "for god's sake don't make me do some sort of weird improvised piano solo". I looked up to the audience and was met with 80 pairs of eyes all thinking "poor thing" and then I heard the sound of salvation behind me, the choir (awesome, wonderful ladies) started singing quietly behind my back, spurring me on. I sucked it up, looked the audience in the eye and forced myself to sing (all be it a bit haphazardly and with my eyes closed at times) until the end of the song, I wobbled back to my seat and was greeted with a drink of water from a very kind lady from the church. I sat down and wanted the ground to swallow me up whole.

Now I'm not the sort of person to take defeat lying down, those who know me know fine well I'm very stubborn and once I set my sights on something I'm like a dog with a bone. So instead of accepting this as a defeat I decided to accept is as a minor hiccup and try again.

So my new challenge is going to be....performing at an open mic night or a gig by singing and playing the keyboard. I'm always very jealous and massively in awe of people who get up on stage and perform while playing an instrument so it would be great if I could achieve it for myself.

The singing part is all well and good, I've done karaoke before and while that does still bring out my nerves and jelly legs there's generally vodka involved which fuels me with false bravery. So I hope that singing in this setting may be a little less nerve racking. The keyboard however is a whole other kettle of fish. I learned to play as a child, I still own my keyboard - a Yamaha with all the trimmings - think Ross in friends with his crazy sound effects - but I can't say I really know how to play, never mind read music! I know I'm better at playing by ear but that will mean doing some very simple songs.

So this is when I turn to you for help :)

a) I could do with a suggestion for a venue/event I can play at - I'm thinking August/September time to give me time to learn a decent number of songs.
b) I don't own a keyboard stand so I may need to borrow one if possible! Nor do I own a microphone or any kind of sound system, but I guess that depends on the venue!
and c) any song suggestions for a female solo vocalist with a piano would be greatly appreciated.

I'm also open to suggestions of other challenges I can do, I've had a few already put to me and while some were reasonable - learn a language - others were a little odd - do an archaeological dig...erm...

So if you have any suggestions of things I can try my hand to in the Newcastle/Gateshead area please feel free to get in touch!

Becky x

...with the sound of music

So my next musical challenge came courtesy of my confidant and knight in shining armour who had a friend who sang in a choir in a local school. The instructions of how to join were sketchy and suspicious to say the least, I was basically just told to turn up at the car park at 7pm and to try and grab someone who was going into the school. In all honesty I half expected to be bundled into the back of a van with a bag on my head and to wake up in an ice bath missing a kidney. Anyway as it turns out that didn't happen, I turned up and followed a couple of ladies into the school (cue me looking weird and suspicious) and found my way into the music room where a large group of super friendly gals greeted me into the fold.

I was thrown in at the deep end and placed in the middle of the choir on the front row where a gap had formed from people not wanting to sit at the front. The first rehearsal was a blur of me trying in vain to remember how to read sheet music while also smiling like a maniac at everyone hoping they would think that I wasn't some weirdo for just turning up.

A few months down the line and I'm happily unleashing my inner Rachel Berry. We had our first choir competition back in March, tensions were high, we'd spent weeks practising a Hungarian folk song which was supposed to only take 48 seconds to sing (without any music) it was tantamount to torture. We turned up on the day all dressed in black and donned our blue and red scarves ready for battle. We turned up in the hall and faced our foes, I've never been so threatened by two bunches of middle aged ladies in floral shirts in my life. We eyed up our rivals (I felt like I was in Westside Story) and got to the stage, gave it our all, waddled off with jelly legs, sat down and attempted to look diplomatic while the other choirs sang.

The adjudicator got up to give her results after a long a drawn out story to create set the scene, honestly Chris Tarrent has nothing on this woman in terms of creating tension. We held our breaths, grasped the bottoms of our cheap school plastic seats and awaited for the results.

Anyway as you've probably gathered from the picture below we won! Two trophies in fact, we even got told off for celebrating too loudly when our name was called out and the hall erupted in a chorus of cheers and whoops!

All in all a massive success. I'm still singing with the choir and have even put myself forward to do a solo in our up and coming concert, anyone would have thought I'd been on the wine when I put my hand up to volunteer, but needs must and the point of this adventure is challenging myself and pushing my boundaries no matter how scary that may be!

The show must go on!