Ring out the old, ring in the new.

So, it has been a while. I hope not to use "it has been a while" for a long time as I intend to try and keep on top of things this year. Don't worry, I won't bombard you with posts but they will be a tad more frequent than they were towards the end of 2015.

I was going to do a post about "The Sound of Music" - Live but Rebecca Caine did a better post than the one I was going to do so you may as well read that instead. Click here to read it. So I thought, new year, new me and all that would make for more interesting reading.

2015 was surprisingly uneventful for me. I find myself surprised to have written that as some quite big things happened for me last year. I did my one woman show/cabaret and I changed agents. Both had the potential to change my life but, unfortunately, neither did. That is not to say they weren't positive experiences, they were, but I think I had unachievable hopes for what they would do to bring about change in my life.

The agent change is definitely positive. I have had a fair amount of auditions in the 8 months I have been with them, unfortunately only 3 of them were for shows/jobs I would have wanted to get. However, auditioning is good for me so I am happy to go for anything they put me up for (within reason and as long as it doesn't interfere too much with my teaching. A girl's got to eat).

The cabaret experience was not all positive, it pains me to say. When I did "Cabaret Confidential" I felt so good about the cabaret thing and couldn't wait to put together a longer programme but the reality didn't live up to the hope I had for it. I wasn't terrible but I wasn't good. Friends may beg to differ but I was not satisfied with the material or my execution of the material and, instead of jumping back on the horse, I wallowed in self pity and self loathing and told myself I should never do it again as I would never be as good as I needed to be. I felt like a total failure.

This is not the case now. It was not, in any way, a failure. Here is a clip that should prove it.

There was a lot of good in what I produced on that night back in February and I would be a fool not to give it another go. So I will. That is actually my main resolution for 2016.

I had a notification from a Vlog I subscribe to, one I have mentioned before, Singer's Secrets, about a new post. It was all about strategies for making the most of your singing in 2016. I won't give away all the strategies here as it was someone else's post, but I intend to put all 4 strategies in motion. In particular the one where she says to set a performance goal that makes you uncomfortable and make yourself do it. I have got lazy, complacent, comfortable and I need to shock myself out of it. I almost shocked myself into action by doing a charity concert towards the end of last year. I sang for strangers and they were all very complimentary about what I did but other scary things had come up at the exact same time that zapped my energy and I put the cabaret thing on the back burner. Well things are more settled now, my mind has room to think again so watch this space.

So I hope the new year is treating you well and you had a lovely Christmas. Please keep reading and, when you feel the urge, please share with your friends. I will be eternally grateful fellow Incompetents.