I am not a singer or a concert pianist. When I was younger, I did take a couple of years of piano. I could sit and listen to someone playing the piano all day long.
There is an enjoyment of listening to someone sing. I especially love music where someone tells a story and you can feel the emotions that they are going through.
I did try singing in the church choir, but I felt that I couldn't carry a tune. I felt embarrassed. So of course, I quit. Growing up, my personality was if I couldn't be good at it, I would just no longer do it. As I have gotten older, I have tried to stick with something and keep on persevering even when I wanted to throw up my arms and say no more.
With maturity, I have learned that sometimes you have to go through valleys to reach the mountains.
I have a friend who told me that everyone can sing. They just have to find their voice. Last week, I took my first voice lesson. My instructor began the class with talking about what I wanted to accomplish from these lessons. The one thing I want to accomplish is to be able to sing with friends and not to feel embarrass about my singing.
It was an aha moment when I realized how important it is to exercise the voice. How do I stand and how do I breathe? We did some stretches with the body, with the neck area, the jaw, etc. We focused on warming up with vowels.
I am beginning to discover that learning to sing is like exercising my body. I need to have cardio and weights to tone up.
After my first two weeks, I still feel embarrassed. There are demons that tell me "Why are you doing this? You are sixty-four. You will never be able to carry a tune."
I am banishing those demons. Rome wasn't built in a day. I will practice. I will keep putting one foot in front of the other.
I am sixty-four, but I do have a lot of life in front of me. Who knows, maybe I could be the next candidate for the "The Voice"?
No comments:
Post a Comment