Meet Mary –
The Curious Singer
Find out more about singing and how to sing better.
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Are you an average hobby singer who loves making music?
This is the perfect website for the average “wannabe singer” who loves singing of all kinds. Are you in a choir or chorus, or do you love warbling in your car and kitchen to your favourite tunes and generally have a song in your head 24/7? Here is your place to shine, be heard and learn how to sing better.
Do you want to find ways to get better at singing and performance?
Yes – don’t we all! We all know home and work life gets in the way as a hobby singer, so my blogs and videos are quick snippets you can pick up at your leisure. If you can improve a little at a time, you’ll progress and be one step closer to your goals.
By sharing helpful tips and real-life stories with your friends from the blog on this page, perhaps the cumulative improvement effect on your singing group (if you are in a choir, for instance!) will be noticeable.
Do you want to hear about real singing experiences from experts in the field?
Everyone starts off as a beginner. In the same way, you learn to walk and talk. So be like a child and learn from those who have walked before us.
Come on this curious adventure with me. I will be attending music events and workshops, visiting people who make music and talking to those we admire (who know more than I do!)
Who am I? – Mary Williams
I started singing as soon as I could talk. I was known as Miss Chatterbox from a very young age. Singing along with the Mary Poppins film was something I took very seriously. In fact, the VHS tape eventually broke into pieces.
I learned the recorder and joined the school choir from the tender age of seven. This progressed to playing the flute, oboe, jazz, rock band, madrigal group and chamber choirs. I admit I was the ultimate nerdy music room kid by the time I started secondary school.
Hanging out in the music department had a useful extra effect that stopped me from going outside on wet breaks and lunchtimes. Therefore my teenage me always kept my hair and clothes dry and didn’t get in trouble as I was so busy with a purpose. It was a place where I belonged, and here I safely explored music – the good with the bad. I even waved my arms at the other pupils sometimes in the Junior Choir as a sixth former.
I kept up the music and performing in my life after school and have taken part in theatre productions, Gang Shows, bands, flute playing at weddings (always Annie’s song!) and as an ad-hoc Karen Carpenter tribute act. In my day job, I am a digital marketing consultant with My Type Of People Marketing and love running around the block a lot “Jeffing“.
Barbershop, choir and A Cappella Music
I particularly love A Cappella and Barbershop music, and I LOVE the experience and family vibe around this genre. I discovered this after a twelve-year singing break bringing up my children. Then I stumbled upon a club in 2012 after missing the connection with what I loved. And here I am again, helping people to sing better.
On my travels in the last ten years, I have sung in Harmony Brigades in the UK and Germany, attended choir workshops, participated in choruses and quartets in competitions and performances and studied to become a music director of my lovely chorus Avon Harmony A Cappella and Zest Choir.
I sing in several choruses, including the gold medal-winning The Bristol Mix. I’ve not done badly in the quartet field either, which is still a “work in progress” for me. My best moment so far was winning International Silver at IABS 2017 Convention with Dave and The Divas in the lead part.
I enjoy experimenting to strengthen my strengths and improve upon my weaknesses. I am not afraid of failure. “Winning “is more about progressing forward and being kind than being seen as the best. My happy place is knowing that I can grow and improve.
And here I am to share this with you. It may be messy at times, but that’s how exploration is.
Kudos to everyone who wants to be a curious singer with me. Hopefully, it’ll help you and make you smile.
