BHB PRESENTS: SING-SONG SHOWTIME
Saturday October 6th 2018 Abbotsford Convent, Melbourne
WHAT IS SING-SONG SHOWTIME?
Sing Song Show-time is an uplifting one-day master-class in singing, performance, and courage, with ARIA Award Winning musician Clare Bowditch.
HOW DOES IT WORK?
In the morning, Clare plies you with tea and cake and teaches you everything she knows about singing, performing, and the cultivation of internal courage.
In the afternoon, you and Clare and your new choir get dressed up and put on a live show in front of an audience of your most supportive friends and family (their entry is included as part of your ticket).
WHO IS THIS FOR?
The event is designed both for beginners (especially those who doubt their ability to sing or perform in public), and for professionals who want to deepen their ability to connect with audiences and share their voices in a bigger way.
Think one-part “School of Rock”, one-part “The Artists Way”, one-part ninja training, one part heroes-journey, and one part best-friend’s club. It can be for you, or it can be for a friend, colleague or loved one.
In short – it’s for anyone who doesn’t want to die with their music inside them.
We often get asked if this is a women’s only event and the answer is a definite No. Having the guys adds so much to the choir and the day in general, but it is a little lop-sided with usually only 10% of participants being male. Participating in a choir just seems to resonate more with women but we would love to re-balance this.
SOUNDS AMBITIOUS. HOW DO YOU KNOW THIS WILL WORK?
Because Clare’s done it before. In fact, Clare has been teaching rooms of strangers to sing together in only minutes for over thirteen years, ever since she took “Community Singing Leadership Training” with Faye White here in Victoria, Australia. Since then, she’s had the joy of teaching whole Opera Houses and stadiums of people how to sing songs together in only minutes (as any one who saw her supporting Leonard Cohen in 2010 can attest). The last Sing-Song Showtime was a stunning, sold-out, joyful success. We hope the same will be true for this one.
A few words from CB herself
“What are you going to do with your one wild and precious life?”, so asked poet Mary Oliver.
For years, people have tried to tell me that they can’t sing. In supermarkets, after shows, strangers have told me again and again, “I wish I could sing”.
And I tell them the truth. If you can talk, you can sing.
As a child, in fact, that’s how you taught yourself to talk: through singing songs, mimicking voices, experimenting with the sounds that came out of your mouth.
As children, performing our songs in front of other people was a source of joy, not fear.
As adults, many of us forget our ability to sing, and our joy of performing.
In doing so, we miss out on something very deep, powerful, joyful; something that connects us to the rest of the human race.
To be clear: it’s not your fault some of you feel this way about singing.
Perhaps your feelings were prompted by a thoughtless comment from a teacher or family-member, or perhaps it’s your in-born perfectionism that did it: your “not good enough” stories, your fear of being publicly shamed.
Whatever the cause, the longing remains: something in us still wants to sing.
I know this because I lived it.
Although I always loved singing, in my early career I went through years of truly crippling performance anxiety: so much so, I suspected I would be best giving up my dream of being a singer.
I thought, in fact, that my fear was a sign: a sign that I wasn’t good enough, that I wasn’t meant to be on stage, that I didn’t have what it takes.
One day, it occurred to me that my fear of singing in public was really just a metaphor for my larger fears in life: the fear that if I showed you who I was, if I spoke my truth, if I made myself vulnerable, I would be criticized.
Learning to share my voice with the world turned out to be my heroes journey.
I was fortunate to have many very kind mentors, people who taught me that it was this vulnerability, this ability to share my voice, that would become my source of strength and courage in the world.
At “Sing-Song Showtime”, I’d love to share what I was taught with you .
Yes, the day is about singing, and learning to perform in front of audiences, but it’s also about learning new songs, making new friends, sharing delicious food together, sharing our stories with each other, and best of all, it ends with an invitation to join me and your fellow-singers in a live performance in front of a supportive audience of our families and friends.
Sound scary and exhilarating? Perfect!
Here’s how the day goes: 
- You arrive, make a cup of tea or coffee, and we introduce you to your new band.
- CB teaches you how to find your voice, and move through your fears, the same way we all have to when we’re taking the risk of letting people know us.
- Together you start an instant choir and sing your hearts out, real good, (regardless of “skill level”!).
- It feels so good, you wanna do it all again.
- But first you eat, and talk, and make new buddies.
- Then sing some more.
- You ask a lot of questions about how to make a career singing or how to run your own choir and be totally famous or how to live with the fear of your heart-beating-so-fast just before performing that you almost wee yourself, and so on (no topic off limits!).
- You tell CB and her crew what they’ve missed and speak your deepest fears to people who actually get it.
- And then we draw it all together like the gosh-darn pros we are and put on a little show (your entry includes a couple of free tickets for friends or family-members who want to join us for the show).
- We PUT ON SAID SHOW! WHOOHOO!
- We then swap numbers, high-five each other, pose for selfies and continue on with our lives with a smile on our faces
- You have a day you’ll never forget, and a feeling in your heart that you may not have had before.
This is for:
Anyone who loves singing.
Anyone who wants to cultivate courage.
Anyone who needs support in confronting their fear of standing up in public.
Anyone who is afraid they can’t sing but wants to try.
Anyone who wants to improve their skills around performance, and their on-stage confidence in general.
Anyone who needs an injection of “good-times” in their life.
Anyone who needs a reminder of their courage.
Choir leaders and amateurs, left-brainers and right-brainers alike.
Places are very limited, and the last one sold-out very quickly.
We look forward to seeing you there!
DATE: Saturday 6th October
TIME: 9:30 AM – 6PM
LOCATION: COMMUNITY AND LINEN ROOM, ABBOTSFORD CONVENT
COST: All inclusive $280 (full price), or $228 concession.
Those in need of financial assistance due to low-income, please shoot us an email with your details to marty@storybaker.com (we have a number of tickets set aside for just such an occasion!)
To capture all of the information we need for each attendee such as dietary requirements, names and email addresses, tickets can be purchased only one at a time. Please repeat the ticket purchase process for more tickets.
* Each person who purchases a ticket will be emailed instructions about how to invite one or maybe even two buddies to join us in our audience at 5pm at the Convent, where we’ll be putting on our show! I’ll sing some songs, you’ll sing some songs, we’ll sing some songs together! I’m so excited just writing that, I got the ‘biberacies”, which is a slang Dutch word for “butterflies in the stomach”, or some such! Oh the Dutch, they’re so funny! Forgive me, I’m just excited – this is gonna rock. Cb xo
Your ticket includes:
- Masterclass in singing, performance and COURAGE.
- An exceptionally awesome day.
- New BBFs
- Morning tea
- Lunch
- Afternoon tea
- A couple of free tickets for friends and/or family to come to the show
- Tea/coffee.
- Your chance to perform in a show with CB and your new make-shift choir.
You need to bring:
- A big-hearted attitude
- A fluffy cushion
- A water-bottle
Places are very limited, and this will sell-out, because it’s so good, so get in quick.
Clare has a beautiful, buoyant, effusive energy that fills the room. It is infectious and contagious. You cannot help but be lifted by it. Clare is one of those rare souls in the world who truly is as you believe they will be, genuine, compassionate, authentic, and warm, with a wicked sense of humour. She holds the space beautifully and offers a safe and supportive environment for anyone who wants to stretch themselves, try something new, or move out of their comfort zone. There were a million laughs, tones of heartfelt moments, and a sense of joy that filled the room in this workshop. Clare also knows one of the ultimate truths in life…sometimes you just need an impromptu dance party to stop you taking it all so seriously. If it speaks to you, take the leap and get yourself to this workshop, you will love every minute of it.
Briony Roberts
I attended last Sunday’s Sing, Song, Workshop and just wanted to say that the day was amazing. I felt like I walked away with many skills for improving my singing both in technique and how thoughts about my singing impact on my performance. Clare is such an inspiring woman and brings such presence, honesty, courage and humour to the room. I think she should be so proud of what she brings to her music and to how she helped many people on Sunday to realise their full potential in being brave.
Samantha McDermott
Hope you’re well after the weekend. I had a fantastic experience. My sister Gilda was the one who found your session and booked us all in, I was nervous and excited to see what the day would bring and I was so blown away by the whole experience 🙂 It felt magical to be around people who love singing as much as I do, and just spending the day harmonizing and vocalizing felt SO good!! I would like to add the food was spectacular, especially the Mexican salad!! Couldn’t get enough 🙂 Thanks again for a really memorable and unique experience, hope you continue to do this great work 🙂
Mailen Farag