What Type of Singer Am I?

A silly question you might ask given that I’m 31 (soon to be 32) and I’ve been singing all my life.  But the answer is: I don’t really know.  I once resorted to a palm reader (yes, I have been that desperate) when I was having a directional life crisis.  I don’t remember much of what she said – except for one thing: “you’re like a swan really – on the surface you seem to glide along - but underwater your legs are paddling like mad”. 

Over the years that image has popped into my head a number of times and anyone who knows me will understand what it means: sane on the outside, bit of a nutter underneath.  The trouble with me is that I have to be the best at everything I do and I get distracted easily.  In the last week, I’ve started to research how to break into content writing, train as a speech level singing coach, start up an Acupuncture practice, train as a Chinese Herbalist, work as a report writing guru for a Retail company … all this on top of wanting to be an extraordinary singer.   I’ve got this bizarre, manic drive and I can’t calm it down.

My better half once suggested I take up a “relaxing” hobby. Something that I can just do and enjoy – to cut down my self-imposed stress levels.  So I took up tropical fish keeping.  Three weeks later, and I was knee deep in books about water hardness, lighting, reverse osmosis water, breeding cichlids, rearing aquarium plants … etc.  I know a hell of a lot about tropical fish and plants, but now my aquarium hobby is not a hobby anymore: its a source of stress.  As I wander past it each morning to make breakfast, the thin strands of angel hair algae and my growing snail infestation catch the corner of my eye and ruin my breakfast.  So I look out of the window, but even if that does draw my attention away from my failing fish keeping hobby - oh no, there’s an overgrown garden and a load of dead trees to highlight my failure as a gardener.

And this is my problem as a singer. In one week, I might watch the X-Factor and marvel at Laura White’s style and range … go to a jazz concert and end up vowing to be the best scat singer on the planet and then catch a clip of Patty Griffin with her soulful folky tunes and think “I wanna be a folk singer”.   I also want to write songs …

So where does this leave me?  I did go on a transcendental meditation course a year ago – and was startled at the ease with which I learned to meditate and the amazing sense of calm I felt.  So I’m thinking of going back to my secret mantra, and setting myself a target of meditating 20 minutes, twice a day.  I’ll let you know how I get on … perhaps in the depths of my own psyche I might discover finally what type of singer I am

Blog Virgin

OK I admit it I’m a blog virgin, so please be gentle with me!

I love writing, so here I am: female, 31 years old, accountant by day, trainee acupuncturist on the weekend and aspiring singer/pianist in between.  I’m still reeling from the effects of a quarter life crisis as I woke up one sunny morning and thought “why the hell am I an accountant, I hate numbers”, and suddenly the toilet cleaner’s life at work seemed so much more appealing than mine.

6 years on and I’ve come out the other side. Granted I’m still an accountant, albeit a contract accountant but it purely pays the bills.  There is no staying late to impress the boss; no brown nosing my way up the mystical rungs of the corporate ladder and no demeaning performance reviews or three letter acronym HR fads for me.   I feel free …

If my life were a book, I might be interested enough to read on to see how the next chapter unfolds … whereas before I might have used it to swat flies, or pick up cat poo.  Thankfully, you can’t use blogs in the same way.

For the past 6 years I’ve debated whether to pursue a career in acupuncture or singing … singing or acupuncture.  Whilst my absolute passion is singing, I’m ashamed to say the slim chance of being able to make a decent living from solely singing has lead me to try and balance the two, with varying rates of success.  The next 9 months will start to unveil the fruits of my 6 year long quarter life crisis “get your life back on track plan”

I will be treating real people, after 3 years of studying, hopefully recording my first proper demo CD, competing in the regional finals of a talent competition …  so I thought I’d take the opportunity to blog it all in the vain hope that someone out there might find it a teeny bit interesting; maybe even inspiring.