Second Thought Tuesday

Quite a quiet time at college this week due to my absence through illness and also my ever emerging weakness of missing important details of up and coming events at college. This has been brought to my attention more recently as I have highlighted a few weaknesses in my action plan for development as a west end singer, and have recently noticed a couple of these noted weaknesses rearing their ugly heads and creating havoc in my life. I think if I am to successfully apply myself as a west end singer then I must review my action plan and start to work on the weaknesses I have already identified as well as maintaining my strengths.
I have noticed that I have become a little lazy lately and think this is due to the comfort I have felt in completing so much work earlier in the year. I am confident that I am noticing any trends that emerge from my weaknesses and have been quicker at finding a remedy which has seen me regain my momentum and get back on track with all the tasks laid across various plans in my life.
Last week I finished my planned research of Phantom of the Opera and have now moved on to my final show, We Will Rock You. For each show I have researched I have noticed that I am looking out for more detail and have noticed huge variances in vocal technique and also the balance between vocal ability and general stagecraft. This research has been the most important part of my project and without out it I would not have been able to develop my vocal and acting skills to enable me to successfully be employed as a lead in a West End show.
I have also had further involvement with Rocky: The Musical and see this as another important factor in my development. I have been impressed by the direction given by Rob and also enjoyed working with Elaine on the musical pieces, which she has a very good understanding of. Rob and Elaine are the writers and directors of the musical and seem to have a good level of experience and knowledge in the field which I intend to pick up on.
In my first study lessons I am working on a Robert Burns song, "O' Gin I Were A Baron's Heir" and also "Mi Mancherai" from the opera "Il Postino". These 2 songs give me different challenges that will contribute towards the development of my vocal range and projection, both of which I hope to improve as part of my plan to gain employment as a lead or understudy.
In session skills I have discovered the frustration of a singer waiting to work as I spend all of this class waiting on a backing track to sing over. I have managed to numb this frustration by asking the sound engineers in the studio lots of questions about their subject from which I have learnt a lot about the variety of recording techniques across different instrumentation. For me this is making the best of an undesirable situation and I know that these type of skills are just as important as musical or acting skills when performing as a west end singer.
I have eventually managed to establish contact with the amateur musical societies I have been pestering and now hope to arrange some involvement in the coming weeks. This good news motivated me to create the questionnaires for my vocal tutor and previous musical director. I hope to quiz them on the desirable skills and requirements of a typical west end singer and use this information and experience to add to my development.
I will return to my ever increasing workload and bid you all well until next Friday,
Daniel