I spoke in an earlier blog about taking on new challenges and self-development. Not just in the New Year but all-year round. I’m not a person who can sit still for too long. I like to set myself goals and learn new things about myself and others. It wasn’t always the way, I spent five years living in Sydney, Australia and got nothing done. Nobody did. It was too hot and we were too lazy.
But life has moved on and I’m lucky enough to live in a City that is (mostly) full of creative, inspirational people that don’t just talk about doing that ‘thing.’ They go out and do it. The more people do that, the more it inspires the people around them. And I’ve been inspired. Inspired to do something I probably should have done twenty five years ago. I’m learning to sing.
Regular visitors to this blog, will know that my band recently reformed after twenty three years. Before that band, I was in others, so all in all I’ve probably been in bands on and off since 1989. In all of those bands, I have been the singer. And in all of those bands, I have been unable to sing.
I’m lucky in that the band I have had around me during that time (there’s been changes but I’m no Mark E. Smith), have been a talented bunch of musicians and they have carried me (sometimes literally) through the gigs on a wave of musical euphoria and heavy alcohol consumption.
In a word, it was generally accepted by the band, the audience but mostly by me that I could not sing. But as long as I was prepared to dress as Superman, a woman and at one stage, stark butt-naked, then I could stay in the band. I wasn’t fooled. I knew I was in the band because I was prepared to make an arse of myself on stage in front of a live audience and I was more than happy with this.
Anyway, that is about to change. I want to be able to hit the odd note. Just to shock people. It’s all very well mincing around in a cat suit but I want to be able to move people emotionally. Not just towards the bar for some kind of escape route from my screaming.
So I signed up for one to one singing lessons just before Christmas and I’ve had three lessons since. It’s clear I am not going to be the next Freddie Mercury. Not even the next Matt Cardle. But I’m enjoying it; it’s kind of cathartic to really belt out a tune. There is something quite spiritual about it, which is one of the reasons why music is such an important part of our lives. And I’m actually noticing some improvement.
But for me, as a front man, it will always be more about the lyrca and the eyeliner, than the actual singing. Some things just come more natural to me.