Starting here, starting now!

Well, for a change, I did what I said I would do. You may, or may not, remember I said I was working on a new song in my last post (click here to read it if you missed it). So I learnt the song and I recorded the song and now I'm on the hunt for more songs.

It's not perfect but I thought a work in progress type video would be good enough for now. It still needs a bit more work but it shows me, as well as everyone else, that it is worth working on. It has been a while since I have wanted to learn a new song so I am hoping this is the start of a trend.

I have a working title for a new cabaret set, "Boys, Boys, Boys" (like the Sabrina song from the 80s) and I have been putting together a list of possible songs. I don't know if I will ever find a home for this new set but if I can get my act together (pun intended) I might actually manage to put myself out there before the end of the year. 

Having said that, things are busy at Claire Platt - Singing Teacher HQ and Songsations HQ so I have to work out how to use my time economically so I still have time for my own stuff. I have started scheduling my time a little better already. I teach for a dance school and those times are set in stone so I have tried to set aside certain times for my private singing lessons rather than working around other people's schedules. This means I can also schedule time every week to work on Boys, Boys, Boys (pun also intended). Fingers crossed this all works. 

I have never been particularly good at using my time efficiently. I am a fly by the seats of my pants kind of girl. All my essays at university were done the night before they were due in. Except one that I worked really hard on over a couple of weeks and got an A for. It's just a shame I didn't learn from that! I am determined to use all of my time productively from now on. Of course I also need to schedule time for watching shit on Netflix. That's very important.

So if you want to have a gander at what I've been up to, the video is below (if the video doesn't show up click the link instead). https://youtu.be/4TSQjtcqJ-g

Shall we just get on with it now?

Well, well, well it's the summer holidays so everything gets a little more manageable for a few weeks but, as always, I am plagued by procrastination. Well I say that, I watched a webinar (standard) that included some techniques to get over the procrastination thing. Funnily enough I had already decided that I was going to split my to-do list up into smaller chunks in order to be able to tick more things off which is one of the techniques. It always feels good to tick things off a to-do list.

Changing the subject very abruptly, Facebook has been throwing up more "memories" than it ever used to recently. Has anyone else noticed that? Anyway, last week I was reminded about the very first cabaret set I did at The Pheasantry in Chelsea back in 2014. It was, by a country mile, the best thing I had ever done on a stage (possibly off-stage too) and really made me re-evaluate what I'm doing with my worklife.

I know I have a little more time as I gave up one of my regular jobs. I originally gave this job up in order to give more time to my choir, Songsations, but my thoughts have changed where that is concerned as well. The choir is going to be a fun project. Great if it brings in a few pennies but I think it's time to try and start making a living doing what I actually trained to do and go back to performing.

I know I don't want to do big shows like Phantom again but I definitely want to sing again, on a stage, in front of people. It will take a bit of time to get things organised but I have started putting things together for a new cabaret set PLUS I have started to learn a new song. A song that I will sing AND play the piano for. I am still a dreadful pianist but I am far better than I was before I started teaching singing. I will record the new song for you, not when it's perfect (as I have learnt perfection is unattainable) but when I can get through it without making too many mistakes.

One thing I do find, now that I'm a bit older, is that I have a brain like a sieve. I can't remember lyrics nearly as well as I could BUT the good thing about doing cabaret rather than musicals is it really doesn't matter if I go wrong so the pressure is less when contemplating putting a cabaret together. 

For the first time in a very, very long time I am excited about MY singing again. I don't feel the need to live vicariously through my students anymore as I AM going to do something about it and put myself out there again!

In the meantime, here's a little reminder, for you and for me, of what I CAN do (Ooh there might be one sweary word in this!). If you can't see the video below, click here!