July 2015: Music Theatre Exams, Wombourne School of Music and Why I Shouldn't Sing After Going Swimming

I was struggling to think about what to write for this one, as I couldn’t think of many things that had happened straight away. Turns out quite a bit, actually:

The first thing that happened was I took a Grade 2 Music Theatre exam. I sang two songs for it: If I Only Had a Brain from The Wizard of Oz, and Part of Your World from The Little Mermaid.

Yes, you read that right. Believe it or not I’m quite a big Disney fan, and The Little Mermaid is probably my favourite Disney film. Part of Your World was about the right level for me, and because I’ve got so much investment in the song already, I managed to sing it really well. I had to change some of the lyrics around in order for it to make sense (the song is sung by Ariel in the film, who is most definitely female) but I really enjoyed doing that one.

If I Only Had a Brain was a little different: I hadn’t seen The Wizard of Oz before, and apart from Over The Rainbow and some Family Guy cutaway gags, I’d had very little exposure to it. What that meant was that I could bring something of myself into the three characters: Scarecrow, Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion, without necessarily being influenced by what I’d seen in the film or on the stage. I did watch it in the end and it did help, but not before I’d got the words down and had my own ideas of what I was going to do for the performance. Plus, characterising three voices in one song is not something I’ve had to do a great many times before; it was a good experience!

It all paid off, as I passed the exam with distinction, 93%. I’m very pleased with that, and I’m hoping to take that a long way in the future! Once again thanks to my Vocal Coach Vie Watson for all her support; couldn’t have done it without you.

The second thing that occurred was that I started doing a bit of work for Wombourne School of Music. This is something that I’m hoping to run alongside my work with DPA, doing an evening and a day in the weekend for them. At the moment I’m teaching guitar for them while their regular guy is on holiday, with the possibility of picking up some more permanent work when term starts again. I’m glad I’ve had my experience with DPA as I’m able to bring a lot of that in to what I’m doing for WSOM, and hopefully that will come across in the future.

I’ve been rocking up at open mics and gigs on and off for about five years now, and I’ve always said that no one’s ever the finished product and I’ve always got something to learn. No more was that the case than the last open mic I did of the month, which was on a Wednesday evening at the Saddler’s Arms in Bloxwich. I played my first two songs and found it very difficult to breathe; it was affecting my voice control and I was exhausted by the end of the set. I couldn’t think of a reason for it, until through speaking to some people in the pub I remembered that I’d been swimming earlier that day. Of course, the chlorine in the water had affected my breathing control. I’ve been absolutely caning it at the gym over the last few weeks, but now I need to remember not to go swimming if it looks like I’m going to be singing afterwards!

I had a jam early with a chap called Jon with a view to getting a band together, but to be honest I wasn’t really feeling it, I don’t think he was either and I haven’t heard from him since. It happens, of course, and it might be best to put that one on the back-burner for now. I’d still like to get a band together to play some original material, but it’s a slow process indeed with everybody wrapped up in their own lives now.

Let’s see what August brings…

1/9/2012: I held Codfest in my arms...

So hang on, haven't I stopped gigging?

Well, yes, for now. But here I found myself ready to take the stage at Codfest once more! What happened was that I went to Sam's open night at the Hartley Arms on Monday Night, partly for something to do but mostly because I needed a word with Sam about one or two different things and this was as good an opportunity as any. He mentioned right at the end that one of the acoustic acts for the Back Porch stage had pulled out and I offered to do the set for him. Sam gladly accepted, gave me the 2.55 slot and at 2.50 on Saturday after getting lost I managed to get on the car park and hurry on to the stage. Here's how I got on:

I'd specifically chosen a set of songs for this that I thought complimented both my current position of semi-retirement and the fact that I'm fortunate enough to get on stage at quite a big festival (in fact, for this level of gig, Codfest is about as good as it gets.) I opened up with You Held The World In Your Arms by Idlewild, one because it's an absolute belter, and two because my interpretation of it is being given one chance to break out of a very boring lifestyle. Not that my life is boring at the moment, far from it, but it was my first gig in over 4 months so I needed to hit this one with everything I had. What a shame then, that I managed to forget the words to the first verse. In my defence they are near enough the same all the way through with only minor variations but there was a definite feeling of [Brian Griffin sarcasm] "Well, we're off to a good start." That affected my performance for the first couple of minutes but I pulled it together after that and I did see one guy singing along to the chorus so that was pretty good.

I dropped the capo after that for my next song, Storm from the North. Of all the songs I recorded with Sam last year that one's his favourite and I owed him for the gig so I played that one and I'm pleased to say that I've lost none of my attack in the time it's been since I've played it last. I noted in the program, by the way, that Sam described my songs as 'observational.' Well, he knows what this one is all about and the metaphor of the ship fits the situation quite well, and this is something I intend to play up to in future songwriting endeavours!

After that I did Get Out Of My Head, because that's Kayla's favourite. I did it with the a'capello first verse and chorus, which might not have been a wise move given the setting - a festival audience is by their very nature largely unfamiliar and it might have been better to give them the "real" version. However, it's not like I had to worry too much about continuity. Besides, taking the Rammstein approach to it, the recorded version is the best I could make of it at the time but since then I've discovered ways of playing it live that make it all the more enjoyable for me. Given the amount of people who've actually listened to the recording, (2 people on my last Myspace count,) I don't think it's wrong to play it the way I enjoy it as audience expectations are pretty much a secondary consideration!

I've got a bad habit of fiddling with the capo between songs. I knew perfectly well that after the first song I didn't needed the capo after that, and after every song I'd pick it up, put it on the mic stand, get half way to putting it on the guitar before remembering I didn't need it; should not be letting that happen!

Because I played it at the last year and it went quite well, I played Colours of the Wind from the Disney film Pocahontas. Granted I can't sing it quite as well as Judy Kuhn, but I think I did an OK enough job of it. I did notice, though, that it went down better last year when I did it at a later hour; everyone was drunk and wanted to hear songs to sing along to. It was great to play it again though. Intrestingly, what I'd actually intended to do at that point was I'll Make A Man Out Of You from Mulan, but because of my guitar, there was no way I could have done it comfortably without putting the capo on halfway through the song. Barre chords are a pain! However, you can all be rest assured that I can't sing it as well as Donny Osmond either. I haven't got enough teeth.

I finished off with pretty much the most appropriate song I could think of in the circumstances: The Boys of Summer by Don Henley. This is quite a good 'rounding off the summer' song, and being the first day of September I could hardly have picked a better time. It's a nice one to play, not so nice to sing because I can never remember the changing line of the chorus. I know what they all are but I keep forgetting what order they all go in, which resulted in a few stumbles. However, a lot of the audience recognised it and I enjoyed playing it!

So ended my Codfest set. Am I back? No. That was a favour to a friend and I wouldn't like to say that I'm back yet as bar the covers I'm still doing what I was doing when I quit. But it was nice to get on the stage again. Given what Sam was saying about observational songwriting I might try getting in to that again and see if I can get something together that I'd be happy to play on stage. I'd like to drop a stone and a half in weight as well. Until then, it's one-offs like this, or perhaps a gig or two with The Fakes if we can organise it.

So, thanks to Sam and the comittee for organising the festival, biggest and best one yet, couldn't have asked for a better end to the Summer Holidays. See you next year, whether I'm playing or not...