Tag Archives: Challenges

Do The Thing

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“You must do the thing you think you cannot do.”

Eleanor Roosevelt

Some of my favourite quotes come from the former First Lady. In addition to the one above, the other one I often seem to live my life by is “Do one thing every day that scares you.”

This year has been no different.

Earlier in the year I was asked if I would be willing to run a music program one day a week for some of our higher needs senior students. Of course I said yes but not without trepidation. Anyone reading this blog will know (even from the title) that I am in the habit of doing things for which I possess no formal qualifications. Teaching music is no different.

So why me? Because from my first days as a casual relief teacher, I have tried to incorporate music into my lessons. I became rather well known for walking in and out of school with firstly a ukulele, then a small guitar, followed by a small suitcase of other instruments and finally a very large suitcase (big enough to incur regular comments of “Moving out of home, are we?”).

What I lack in a piece of paper, I make up for with love and passion – for special needs education and for enabling these unique students to experience live music.

It used to be that qualifying as a teacher required you to learn some sort of instrument but in these days of the internet, Spotify and YouTube, music in classrooms has become something professionally recorded. Experiencing someone singing and playing live and having the opportunity to make music too is an unusual occurrence for those outside the expensive private school system.

So, once a week, I would take over a therapy room and spend the day singing and making music. Like most things I do, I made it up as a went along, admittedly stressed every week that it wouldn’t be good enough. But when one term turned into two which turned into three when the second term was disrupted by lockdowns, it was clear that my program was working. I wish I could share the joyous photos of my students. It made my day, my week, my year.

Last week I was asked if I would be willing to run my program again next year. Of course, I had to think about it first. For about a nanosecond…

But, dear Eleanor, things didn’t end there. It got a lot scarier.

Through a random conversation with one of the teachers, I found myself writing a graduation song. The thought of performing it at the ceremony was terrifying but I needn’t have worried as surging COVID-19 cases and increased pandemic restrictions meant I wasn’t able to attend after all.

Hahahaha…. No worries….

Instead of performing it live, I was asked if I could record it so it could be used by the speech therapists to create the graduation video that would not only be shown at the ceremony but also shared on the school Facebook page.

Oh sure.

How do I do that, exactly??

Thus I embarked on the “do the thing you think you cannot do” journey of the year, buying a microphone and googling “how do I…?” questions every day.

I did it. I did the thing. It wasn’t perfect but I did it.

You can watch it here: https://fb.watch/a2gyEj9kE2/

(It took about seven takes to get that first shot. Seven times, climbing up the frame with a guitar on my back. We laughed a lot.)

PS I’ve been commissioned to write a song for next year’s graduation class too. I think I’ve started something. Scary things every day.

How about you? When have you done the thing you think you cannot do?

Triple Threat

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Have you ever heard of the term triple threat?

No, not that triple layered chocolate mousse cake with the ganache icing and chocolate biscuit base.

No, not the punishment your parents declared they’d unleash if you did that thing you really weren’t supposed to do.

No, not living under a local/state/federal government all of one political persuasion that you don’t support.

I mean the one in theatrical terms. A triple threat is someone who can act, sing and dance. Think Hugh Jackman.

Mmm… Hugh Jackman…

(The #1 pick in this list is also one of my favourite clips. Definitely worth finding to watch the whole thing.)

The musical movies of the 1940s and 1950s were obviously full of triple threats – Gene Kelly, Donald O’Connor, Debbie Reynolds (yes, okay, so my favourite musical film is ‘Singing in the Rain’), Judy Garland, Doris Day, Fred Astaire. (Did you know Fred Astaire’s first screen test report read “Can’t sing, can’t act, can dance a little”?)

Just imagine being able to do all three of those things.

Imagine having to audition for a musical by doing all three of those things.

I don’t need to imagine it. I did it.

Correction: I tried to do it. I am not a triple threat.

If the reactions of the production crew are anything to go by, I think I can act and I can sing (I have a piece of paper to prove it) but I most definitely cannot dance (and I knew that going into this exercise).

Back in the dim dark ages when I used to do musicals, you didn’t have to be a triple threat. If you were happy to plonk yourself in the chorus, you didn’t even have to audition. As long as you could sing in tune and move about a bit, you got the gig. You only had to audition if you wanted a part. And you only had to dance if you wanted to be one of the dancers.

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HMS Pinafore with my sister and brother-in-law in 1984. No dancing required.

Sometime in the last thirty years, things got more competitive and now most of our local theatre companies require you to audition with the triple layer horror cake of acting a monologue, singing a song and demonstrating some dance moves even if you just want to be in the ensemble.

I don’t know why I do these things to myself.

Really, I just wanted to go back to theatre so I could hang out with a group of great creative people again after a three year absence. I could have just volunteered to work backstage and skipped the humiliation.

But being a Jack of All Trades has always meant having a crack at almost anything so that’s what I did. I had a crack.

And cracked the egg all over my face.

Side Show title

I didn’t get in. Unsurprising really. Unlike poor acting or a weak voice, bad dancing can’t be hidden even in the chorus.

So I have two choices. Wait for a musical that doesn’t require dancing (perhaps an ensemble in wheelchairs) or move on to trying out for straight plays and think about other ways to push my voice.

Either way, there are boundaries to be pushed and comfort zones to be breached and this Jack of All Trades will always be ready to have a crack at something.

With a cloth handy to clean up the egg.