Keyboard Shenanigans and the Great North Run

I just thought I'd give you a cheeky little update on how my challenges are coming along as well as some future fun I have to look forward to!

Open Mic Challenge -

My lovely friend Lynne has given me a HUGE list of potential venues which is amazing, so now I just need to get my act together - literally!

I dug out my old school Yamaha keyboard and after a slightly distracted 5 minutes of playing monkey noises and elephant sounds I decided I should really learn to play an actual proper song, that people would actually want to listen to.

Now part of my problem is that I no longer remember how to read sheet music, nor do I own any music which would be suitable for this event, so my efforts so far have been a bit maverick to say the least! Mainly me listening to things on my iPod and trying to copy them bit by bit, and I've actually managed to get to the end of a song so far. The playing and singing at the same time thing is quite tricky though, I can only equate it to trying to pat my head and rub my tummy at the same time - does not compute! But I'm happy that if I keep practising I'll get there in some form!

And worse comes to worst I'll just play chopsticks and press start on the demo version of Little Brown Jug and we can have a good boogie!

Run Pickle Run -

I also have a pretty monumental challenge coming up which I haven't told you about yet! I've only gone and got myself signed up to do the Great North Run (shock, horror)! Now I actually started training for this back in March/April time, but I didn't want to shout about it too much at the time as I wasn't sure whether it was something I could physically do, I haven't ran since school and even then I didn't particularly enjoy it!

I've tried to stick at it, fit as many little runs in as usual with a big run at the weekend, which is all well and good except when I first started running my muscles would ache for days making it difficult to keep the momentum going. Now I seem to be at the opposite end of the spectrum, my stamina has improved, I can run more than a few feet without dying on my ass, but the training seems to be taking its toll, especially on my  poor knees! It's got to the point where I can keep going, I'm happy to run and run as long as I have my iPod on me, but my knees seem to have other ideas!

This presents somewhat of a challenge in itself, as I only have 8 weeks to go until the big day where I'm expected to run 13 miles and at the moment I've had to force myself to rest after my last 5 and a half mile run left me in a knee brace walking like a pirate. I know, it's a good look!

Not looking good but I won't give up just yet, especially as I'm doing this for a cause which is very close to my heart, and people have started to sponsor me!

Speaking of which, if anyone would like to sponsor me for running 13 miles like a pirate please feel free, all donations are appreciated, just visit my sponsorship page here.

I'll keep you posted on how everything goes :)

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!

The hills are alive...

So challenge numero uno technically started towards the back end of 2011, having moved to Gateshead I really wanted to get myself involved in something musical. I always loved music as a child, despite my ability to stick with any instrument for a decent amount of time. You name it and I've had a go...violin, descant, treble and bass recorder, flute, trumpet, piano, keyboard, clarinet, the ocarina and I even attempted and failed to get a set of bagpipes to make any sound that didn't resemble a dying swan...So you can see why I was so keen to resurrect this amazing talent again.

Anyway, as fate would have it I happened to be walking past the monument in Newcastle city centre one sunny Sunday afternoon where I came across a samba band doing a street performance, the guy I was with at the time had previously been a member so we stopped to watch the show. After being utterly enthralled and having a good old boogie (I should probably point out that there may have been some alcohol involved) I nipped to grab a coffee from a nearby Starbucks only to find upon my return that I had been "volunteered" to join for a performance on New Year's eve.

This naturally lead to many weeks of me learning to master the bells, yes even hitting things in time with a stick provided a suitable challenge, I even managed to get so carried away that I broke a drum stick mid performance. The rehearsals lead up to the grand finale of us dressing up like crazed Viking types (super sexy look by the way) and parading our way through Newcastle city centre on New Year's Eve. I have to say even though I was home by 9pm, alone, with a chinese takeaway and a bottle of wine, I can happily say it was one of the best New Year's celebrations I've ever had.

If you would like to view (and laugh at) the videos from the performances on the day they can be seen on YouTube here.

Despite the eccentric oddness of it all when New Years Eve was over and done with and life returned to normal I found myself missing the adrenalin rush that you only get from being a part of something special, so the search for my first proper challenge of 2012 began...