A few months ago, I set myself an Arts Challenge, to develop my skills in an art form that particularly interests me. In this post, I’ll tell you what challenge I set myself, why I chose that particular challenge – and how I achieved it!
Background
Before I get started, a bit of background is necessary (and if you start to think ‘what on earth is she going on about??????’ – hang in there! You’ll understand what I’m talking about a bit later) I own a rubber pig called Marvin. I got him from Tiger, originally meant to be a present for my dog, Ozzy – but he didn’t really take a fancy to it. I was growing quite attached to the pig so, instead of throwing him away, I decided to keep him and christened him Marvin. Now, during one of my virtual UCAN workshops, I introduced Marvin to the group…… and they loved him!! Since then, Marvin’s made regular appearances on virtual UCAN sessions, and I’ve been unintentionally developing his character (which I’m having a LOT of fun doing, I can tell you!); so now he’s not really a mere pet toy – more like a quirky, sassy pig who just happens to be made of rubber! Call him the “unofficial” UCAN mascot!
Anyway, on to the main event…..
My Arts Challenge
My chosen Arts Challenge is performing at the annual UCAN festival; I have always been passionate about performing in front of an audience – so it was only natural! Specifically, I decided to sing because, it’s something that really interests me and I just love to do it! It’s as simple as that. Initially, I thought that I’d recite a poem (spoken word is another area of the arts that I am passionate about) but I eventually decided to sing as I haven’t been given that many opportunities to sing solo in public before (unlike with public speaking) – so I wanted to challenge myself in that respect.
However, I was aware that some other people were going to be singing at the Festival too, so in order to make my performance stand out from the rest, I started thinking about other art forms that I could incorporate into my performance. As I’ve always enjoyed making people laugh (and people have said previously that I’m very good at this!), my thoughts naturally slid towards comedy – which I thought was a perfect fit for the UCAN Festival (although I had never attended it before, I got the feeling that it was a generally feel – good event). Eventually, after double – checking with the organisers of the festival that it was allowed, I decided to sing two songs – one that I’d just sing straight through (to show off my voice), and one that I’d sing while showing off my comedic flair in some form. (I just wasn’t sure how yet!).
Strengths and Weaknesses
Although I have had singing lessons for two years when I was in school, I haven’t sung professionally (yet) and I mainly sing for fun; by myself and to anyone who is willing to listen to me! I think that I am quite good at singing (reaffirmed by the majority of people who have heard me sing before); I can stay in tune, for one thing! I feel I have definitely improved a lot since I began singing lessons – during that time I learned that I am a soprano (which makes sense because I’ve always naturally preferred to use my upper register), and that my head voice isn’t really that powerful; I’ve tried singing in my chest voice before (I used to sing ‘alto’ in the school choir believe it or not – not my choice!) and I am definitely able to project more than when I first started lessons, but I don’t think I sound as good!
Action Plan
I will spend some time exploring the possible songs I could perform, singing through the ones I like, establishing which ones work/don’t work (i.e. comfortable to sing in my range) – before deciding which songs to perform. I aim to spend approximately 2 – 3 hours per week on this initial exploration.* Once I have decided which songs to sing, I will aim to spend approximately 2 – 3 hours per week* (these timings to increase in the weeks leading to the performance date – to about 30 mins to 1 hour per day) developing, rehearsing (both by myself, and in the presence of others so I can gather feedback and figure out what aspects need further work/refinement) and refining before the actual performance on the 26th of July 2022.
Overall, if I begin the initial ‘exploration’ phase in early May, I expect to complete my challenge within 26 weeks (2 months and 2 days), although it may make me longer if I encounter problems.
- – These timings are APPROXIMATE and should not be taken as exclusive. Some weeks I expect to spend more time on the Challenge (As I really enjoy singing, sometimes once I start, I just can’t stop) then stated, while less time (or even none at all!) on other weeks, due to other committments.
Initial Exploration
The next step was deciding what songs to sing – by far the trickiest part as there are lots to choose from. There were many I deliberated, and I could go on about them forever, so I’ll focus on the main contenders.
1. The first was ‘Hopelessly Devoted To You’ from Grease – dressed up as Sandy (I was eyeing up the costume on eBay and everything!), as no 1. I LOVE Grease, no 2. I LOVE Oliva Newton John (RIP Olivia) and no 3. I thought the song suited my voice. However, when I sang it to my parents one day, they had other ideas – they thought I sounded like a cat! I must admit though that I agreed with them when I listened to the recording I made – I sounded dreadful! (Well, I thought so anyway!) And all the time leading up to this moment, I was in a happy state of bliss, thinking that I sounded AMAZING! Just goes to show how your brain can perceive things, I suppose. THEN I thought, that maybe I’d look like a downright fool in the Sandy costume. So, that idea went right in the bin.
The second contender was ‘Bring Me Sunshine’ by Morecambe and Wise (suggested by my Mum – she thought it would be a fun song to sing, and said that song suits my voice better). That was eventually discarded as well, because although I do really like that song, in my honest opinion, it doesn’t really show off my voice that much. I didn’t want to take myself too seriously, but I did want to show a bit of what I can do. It might be a contender for future years though.
On to the next contender – and this one actually made it! ‘Top Of The World’ by The Carpenters (they actually preferred to be referred to as just ‘Carpenters’ – without the ‘The.’ Who knew!) I discovered Carpenters by chance at the start of this year, and really enjoy listening to their songs (Karen Carpenter has such a beautiful voice – I love her). ‘Top Of The World’ just happens to be my favourite of theirs, and I thought it’d be a perfect song for this particular occasion because 1) it’s really fun and joyful and 2) the lyrics actually sum up how I’d be feeling while I’m singing! Although I can sing most of the song in the original key, there are some notes that I struggle to reach in the verses (Karen could go REALLY low!), but that wasn’t much of a problem because the organisers of the festival pitched up the backing track for me on the day of the performance.
The second song I decided on was ‘Ben’ by Michael Jackson. I’ve always LOVED Michael (one thing you should know about me before we carry on, I love a lot of people) – and ‘Ben’ is one of my favourite songs of his. I also think it suits my voice perfectly (not to brag, but I think I sound a lot like child MJ), plus I thought its ‘melancholy’ mood would contrast well with the joyfulness of ‘Top of The World.’ This was when I figured out how I could incorporate comedy into my performance! Let me tell you how.
Development – How I Made The Performance My Own
I recently learnt that ‘Ben’ is essentially a love song sung to a rat (which is a bit strange, but it was the 70s’); and this fact came into my head one day whilst I was staring at Marvin (remember him from earlier?). I suddenly thought – wouldn’t it be funny to sing, not to a rat, but to a rubber pig instead? So, I tried it (exchanging ‘Ben’ for ‘Marvin’) – and something just clicked. Bingo!
The next few months, and final weeks before the Festival, were spent practising and refining my chosen songs – particularly ‘Ben’ (now ‘Marvin.’) In order to make the performance my own, I made a few subtle changes to the latter song to fit my interpretation – for instance, I changed some of the lyrics, for example e.g. from ‘with a friend to call my own’ to ‘with a pig to call my own,’ and, (my personal favourite), from ‘I’m sure they’d think again, if they had a friend like Ben’ to ‘I’m sure they’d think again, if they ate some pork like Marvin.’ To up the humour even more, I decided to hold up a ‘McDonalds’ sign after the words ‘you’ve got a place to go.’ (Get it? Telling a pig to go to McDonalds? No? Just me? Hmph, tough crowd!).
Rehearsing and Refining
Below are some audio recordings of me rehearsing (caterwauling my way through rather) my songs for the performance.
The Final Performance!
How’d It Go?
I think the final performance on the day went quite well! As I expected, the inclusion of Marvin went down a storm (particularly with Hannah!) and definitely gave an extra dimension to my act. A lot of members afterwards came up to me and said that they’d really enjoyed my performance, that it effectively showed my skills as a singer and entertainer (which is what I was aiming for), was creative, and really funny! Alys, one of the workshop leaders of UCAN, was kind enough to write a review of my performance in more detail; I have included her comments before.
‘The UCAN Festival is always a wonderful yearly celebration for UCAN, it brings together many of our blind and participially sighted members from Wales and beyond, a creatively-packed day in Cardiff Bay. During the day we hold a variety of arts workshops, followed by the excitement of watching our talented members perform through a variety of art forms such as drama, dance, singing, comedy and music.
This year we were lucky enough to have Samiya Houston, a talented young lady from Abergavenny. Samiya had chosen to challenge herself to perform two songs on the public stage at the Millennium Centre, something she has never done before. The performances were part of her Silver Arts Award. UCAN has been an arts award centre for just under 6 months and had already been recognised as a Centre of Excellence by Trinity College, London, the charitable organisation who runs and assesses the Arts Awards. Samiya is the first member of UCAN to do her Silver Award.
After months of planning, research and rehearsals, Samiya’s performance day arrived and she didn’t show any signs of nerves. Her first performance was outstanding, a lovely version of Top of the World by The Carpenters. Samiya had clearly rehearsed the song well and sang it clearly with great emotion. It resulted in the audience joining in for a sing-a-long at the chorus, though this did not take away from Samiya’s excellent performance. The next song was most unexpected, not as a performance choice but because Samiya had changed the song and made it her own, not only by adding a wonderfully comedic twist to the performance and introduction of the piece but by renaming it from Ben (by Michael Jackson) to Marvin, the name of her plastic pig – a character quite well know among UCAN participants who had met the pig on regular intervals during our Zoom drama sessions. The whole audience, whether they knew Samiya and Marvin, or not, were really entertained, they laughed and sang along and thoroughly enjoyed Samiya’s Arts Award Arts Challenge! Amazing Samiya, I think you have now set a precedent for future performances and have a clear future in both singing and comedy.‘
On reflection (and after watching videos of the final performance) I think that I was a bit pitchy in places – however, I put this down to nerves (contrary to what Alys might think, this was a bit nerve wracking – I’d done it before!). However, I don’t think that detracted much because the audience didn’t really seem to notice it, and I enjoyed myself – and as I always say, as long as you’re enjoying whatever you’re doing, that’s all that matters really! The audience absolutely loved it (especially the aforementioned Marvin) – the applause and cheers at the end were deafening. More than that though – you might recall that earlier I said that I hadn’t really had many opportunities to sing solo before; so seeing and hearing that people enjoyed themselves really boosted my confidence – and now I’m determined to come back with an even better performance next year! So, do I think I’ve achieved my Arts Challenge? You bet!