Sinead Leach’s first Paths to Songs blog
Sitting on a bus rolling slowly through Angus, on one of the last days of summer, I was fairly scared of the prospect of what was to come. I had been in contact with Christine Kydd to arrange our first meeting, but the prospect of meeting a completely new person and then of singing in front of her was pretty daunting. Thankfully Christine is lovely, and I quickly felt at ease.
Although I should say that I still found the experience distinctly odd. Singing in front of a single person is somehow more intimidating than sitting in front of a whole room of people, and when I did sing I was at a loss at where in the room to fix my eyes. I suppose my point is that given that this is a method of learning that many singers have experienced throughout the years, I’d expected it to feel natural and yet I felt more anxious than I normally do.
I could blame this on the fact that I’m far from a Music student. I instead study Arabic and International Relations, and have never had a singing lesson. However this is no excuse. I’ve been singing traditional songs since I was a child. My sister and I would always make up harmonies over the washing up, and my current flatmates can surely agree that I can still often be found singing around the house.
The afternoon really was very pleasant, asides from my initial anxiety. Cups of tea were had and then having explored Christine’s record collection and borrowed a handful of CDs I headed back to St Andrews with plenty to be working on, and already excited for our next meeting.
My homework for next week is to compile a list of all the songs I know without wordsheet, which is reminding me of all the songs I used to know properly, and now only half remember. It’s a lesson to me to be more organised, and perhaps less lazy, and list writing seems a pretty good first step to that goal.