My official debut...

... is on Friday 18th April, 1.15pm, at Sheffield Cathedral. Come see me if you're somewhere near!

I worked with Harriet on my solo tonight after rehearsal, and it now sounds a lot better. Once I relax and remember to breathe I actually sound okay, because suddenly this rich, deep voice which is not at all like my normal "choir" voice comes out. It's sort of cool. Now all I need to do is stop being so damned scared about it, really.

Weird that I can get up on a stage and sing in front of hundreds of people in my "pop/karaoke" voice without a trace of nerves, but as soon as I have to sing something a bit out of my comfort zone, I actually physically shake. Bah. And nervous does NOT do good things for my voice, or anyone's voice.

Kay, that "pretending to be an opera singer" thing does kind of help.

Annoyingly, practically everyone I know won't be able to be there. My parents are in the Canaries, my grandparents can't/won't drive to Sheffield, and Michael might not be able to get the afternoon off work. No-one cares, sob. Gits, having better things to do!!

I have to say, the Gloria's sounding pretty damn good - I rather like Vivaldi. And Harriet's doing a cracking job of persuading us to actually think about what we're doing so we become more musical and expressive, rather than just singing everything accurately as written. That's the difference between a good choir and a great one I think - being technically perfect isn't enough - and it's great that Harriet believes in our ability to take our performances to the next level.

Ah well. Time for bed.