Being a singing teacher/choral leader is a funny thing. I plan and lead singing sessions to inspire and uplift others. To build confidence and spread creativity and strangely enough this often comes full circle.
This weekend I hosted the third Sing Out event. I was thrilled to share the stage with Naomi Lee and having crossed paths through mutual friends in our student days, I'd heard great things about her voice and musicianship (even back then, somewhat nearly twenty years ago!).
Naomi led a wonderful session which was informative, therapeutic and extremely funny! Who knew that Naomi was quite the comedic?!
Exploring various onsets and some fun vocal warm ups we then worked on a beautiful canon. I found the session relaxing and so enjoyed being the other side of the rehearsal room. It felt good to sing in a safe environment where there was no judgement or expectation.
I thoroughly enjoyed leading my jazz inspired session. Bye Bye Blackbird is actually one of my favourite standards to sing and I have fond memories of working on this with the late Abram Wilson at a workshop when I was a student at Leeds Conservatoire. I remember being so nervous but loved singing this song and gaining amazing insight from such a prolific jazz musician. I love the melody and how the bridge lifts and like so many standards there's so much room for play and interpretation. As much as I joke that I'm no longer a jazzer, I do love working with the genre for creative purposes!
Anyway back to my big surge of creativity…
I left fully inspired. I went home and finished a song I'd been toying with since December of last year, played around with melodies and lyrics for my own sea shanty style song and booked a singing conference that I'd been sat on the fence about for a number of months. I haven't been this creative in a long time.
For those who’ve read Big Magic you may remember how Elizabeth Gilbert discusses creativity like sparks that come so quickly that there’s an urge to get them written down before they slip away. That is exactly how I felt. I had to get pen to paper (or in my case voice to note) extra quick before my sparks vanished.
And so I think there's something very special about events that are collaborative. Singing with people that you don't usually perform with has a special kind of energy. Every attendee is there to learn something new and therefore I think we're open to variety and ready to engage. I'm sure I'm not the only who left feeling elated by the creative energy and inspired to sing out just that little bit more.
Did you attend Sing Out and how did you feel afterwards?
0%Creative
0%Uplifted / elated
0%Inspired
0%No, but I'd love to come along in the future!
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