10 June 2012

Thursday 7 June 2012

On Thursday afternoons I have my singing lesson. I've been going to see Angela since 2010 and she is wonderful. Like so many people I grew up with those around me giving me a hard time about my voice. As a particularly vulnerable teenager I took their comments to heart. I have always longed to be able to sing, but a life time of listening to the voices convinced me I couldn't.
Angela has helped turn that around. I am still working to overcome 20 years of negative voices, but slowly I'm winning. There have been some set back; insensitive people with natural talent who seem to think that if you can't sing naturally and easily you shouldn't bother trying.
The latest 'attack' set me back quite a bit and shook my confidence. However, as part of this new decision to enjoy life I decided (frankly) bugger 'em. Who am I going to listen to? My singing teacher - a conservatory trained professional singer? or someone with an inflated opinion of their own talent and importance? or 20 year old voices from insensitive teenagers?
I have decided to listen to my singing teacher. And for the first time in a long time I truly enjoyed my singing lesson and I've been enjoying singing at home a lot more to.

The woods would be very silent if no birds sang except those that sang best. Henry van Dyke

1 comment:

Jeri Dansky said...

As someone who got put in the "speaking chorus" way back in elementary school, and has been a non-singer (in public, anyway) for 50 years, I was delighted to read about your experiences with singing. Please continue to listen to your wise teacher, and go for it!