At the beginning, from me

Greetings

My name is Rebecca; most people know me as Becky. Quite a bit has happened in my musical career, however, it all began in a very mysterious manner.............

Being a vicar’s daughter presented me with challenges and teachings in music that I was very grateful for. 

I began playing the piano at the age of 9yrs. Since money was tight, I had to wait and decide between dancing and playing the piano. Well of course piano was chosen. 

From the age of 9yrs I lived in Hangleton East Sussex, where my father was training to be Vicar, my mum was being a fab mum! and this is where it all began really. He became the best priest and father ever! he was my rock & apple of my eye.

I took my first piano lesson, I was so excited and couldn't wait to get onto the keys. As I progressed through the piano book, my piano teacher was always giving me new pieces to learn. The first grade I took was grade 3 piano with ABRSM. My piano journey took off and I found myself always on the piano and making up songs. Little did I know that this beautiful instrument would lead me to where I am today.

Moving on to Mike Oak...again a huge chapter... The Vicarge!!! There will of course be a blog on this adventure, but here is a little glimpse into my early years. 

From nothing, my mum built the Church Choir from scratch into a thriving 30 strong choir of adults and children. We had an organist, but she was a little slippy on the keys! I was in the Church Choir gaining awards in RSCM and enjoying life. 

I remember once, my dad said to me: Darling, can you play the piano for this church service as the lady is sick? I panicked and was only 15yrs at the time. It was a low key service with many light-hearted Tazie hymns and I had to learn two songs. As this was my first time playing with people singing, I developed my first skills of accompanying. Despite my fear, I succeeded. The terror made me more confident in myself. Therefore, when huge Church festival services were held, my father often asked me to play the whole Church service. This was a huge undertaking!

It was my first Sunday to play the Church Organ. My father instructed me to treat it like a big piano. It was soon apparent to me that hymn playing was an art, and it was a very nervous experience. The word soon spread and I began playing for weddings since our church organist used to play incorrect notes in the wedding service, (I cringed) But I then played for more services and occasionally for practice sessions of our church choir. 

This was all secretly working towards my dream job, but I did not know it.

THE BAND

My next BIG adventure was joining the 6th Hove Scout Band! What an exciting time this was. I was in a sit-down band for six weeks learning my Baritone when I was 12yrs, and a man named Neil said to me, “Why would you want to sit down and play when you can run around a field and play?” I was intrigued and I attended my first band practice. This changed my life and made many wonderful memories and friends that I will never forget (I will return to the band in another blog). My brother, who I thought would be a priest but is actually one of the best funeral directors out there!, joined the band after me and he had two left feet! but soon he ran the band into great success and became a good brass player. 

How did the band help me?

Aside from teaching me discipline and pride, I also learned how to master my baritone, and I was able to perform very well. As I attended competitions and had solo performances in front of large crowds that filled stadiums, nerves and adrenaline were constantly present; however, I used those things to get through the performances. You will read in my other blog about my marching band days, and I was also asked to write the brass line and musical pit scores! Again, I was thrown into the deep end when a guy, named Simon, said to me, “Becky, treat brass and xylophones/ marimbas as a single large piano!” 

Just to give you a taste when I arranged my first music show score for the Band, I was given a tape...YES you heard right. In this, I had to listen to the orchestra score for the music we were playing and arrange it into a 12min show with a brass line and music pit. I had to learn on the job and learned very quickly that in marching band / drum corps music, you require impactful music, hit points, and loud parts, as well as soft sections, story telling, and solos to accentuate the mood of the piece. 

This was just the beginning of my arranging skills that has prepared me for where I am today .It was another moment that had an impact on what I do now, and I wasn’t even aware of this.

Then I became the pianist for Scout Gang Shows and again learned on the job, but boy, oh boy, it is so much fun to play little snippets of music and comedy music to tell the story on stage and at rehearsals. I accidelty fell into this roll as the original pianist died! Bless Dicky. (That’s the name I knew him as). Then again....wait for it.......There was the staff meeting and I was asked the question.....“Becky you can play the piano can’t you”? ...."er yes” (this was a nervous answer, not knowing what was about to happen) “Right then that's settled..... Becky will play for the Gang Shows!” The rest is history. 

Band rehearsals, Scout Gang rehearsal/ shows, arranging music, learning each note, band completions, music graded exams, church choir practices, has been endless weekends for me, as well as later in life working full-time in the week. 

I am thankful for all the opportunities in Girl Guiding and this path led me to running my own Guides and Ranger units and dealing with young adults and listing to them and helping their fears and watch them over come fears. My mum got me into Brownies and I got 30 out of 32 badges and got loads of Guide Badges and awards and this let me to going to Finland to represent the UK and work on projects. I went to Mexico and helped build mud huts for the poor. So many opportunities I was able to do and again all secret teachings. 

In the past I worked for a company called Rock Choir for 12yrs, from the age of 36yrs, where I acquired a lot of knowledge of teaching and leading people in voice. I enjoyed every aspect of my job. Due to the absence of sheet music, it was a very different way of teaching, but soon became apparent that this method of teaching was preferred by many choirs (other than church choirs), my background.

But come to think of it in my path of Girl Guiding trained me for this. For years I taught girls to learn campfire songs, taught them songs I had made up, was teaching them harmonies and no sheet music was ever involved, it was all taught by ear and me singing a phrase followed by them repeating to me. 

I led campfires (again, just what I naturally did following footsteps of my mum. And it was here in my first week of Rock Choir training I realized that teaching a choir requires this approach. I enjoyed every campfire I spent with my family and friends because I was surrounded by the joy of leading so I took this approach to lead choirs. 

As I mentioned, all of this served to train me for the future by overcoming fear and preparing me for performances that I was not aware of, dealing with adults and children in every way, helping and nurturing and teaching was my path. I became a very good listener and lots of children were very comfortable with me and many stories go down in history. But I seem them today as adults and think WOW see.....you CAN do it!.

A woman who once asked me: "How do you stay calm during performances and never seem to be nervous?" Well, How much time have you got, Bless dear Gill,she looked at me puzzled....I said my past has brought me here. ;-)

As a result, I am leading my own choirs: Sing for Happiness and Euphoric Harmony......& I LOVE IT

So my next blog will be my marching band days and how this inspired me into the love of music arranging. 

Becky ;-) Make sure to read my next BLOG>>>>