musing for fun – caeblogs

So…I’ve been singing a lot. And I mean a lot, a lot. A minimum of three days a week, if you count practise and actual performances. Okay when I put it that way it sounds like I actually do nothing other than sing all day. It only comes to about six hours in total each week, but that doesn’t include commuting time, socialising time (yes, there is the occasional pub singing session after rehearsals), and I still work a full day’s job (all those new beautiful buildings won’t draw themselves). It’s all choral stuff, which takes the pressure off a little bit, but when I made the commitment to join a community choir last year, I had no idea it would be so time consuming.

I’d been singing with my church choir for years (which was pretty much a turn up, pick up hymn book and sign along affair) and thought it’d be fun to sign on to something less hymnal. Only criteria was it had to be a non-audition choir, preferably for people who can’t read music (seeing as I can’t), so when I stumbled upon the London City Voices choir online last summer, I reckoned I should give them a try. Despite my nerves and lack of musical expertise, the first practise I arrived at blew me away. With no need to read the musical notations on the pages we were handed (save for the words, of course), the very enthusiastic musical director ran through some of my favourite songs – a mashup of Toto’s Africa and Rosanna and then a rock medley which included Smells Like Teen Spirit and Alone – and I was hooked! Nine months later, I’ve hardly missed a session.

Thing is, although I’m loving it all and having the time of my life (other than a bunch of charity events, we sang on stage with Damien Rice last November at the London Palladium – need I say more?), I have to admit it’s been eating into my writing time. Did I mention the church choir also hired an equally enthusiastic musical director so it’s no longer a turn up and sing set up. I’ve even (reluctantly) been roped into doing some solos! Seriously! Anyway all this means I sooooo don’t feel like switching on a PC at night after a long day at work, plus nearly two/three hours of singing and socialising. So my writing has been cut back to a few hours a week. Bummer for the world, I know, heehee.  But for the second half of 2015, I’m hoping to be a bit more disciplined and work out a balance to get the pen (ehem, keyboard) flowing again. It’ll definitely help that most of my TV shows take a break over the summer. I won’t mention how many hours of my life are wasted wondering if the zombies will get Rick or when the dragons will wise up and eat Daenerys. Wish me luck!