"I Have Been Changed For Good"

I know you all are dying to know how my first voice lesson went.  OK, maybe you aren't, but I'm going to tell you anyway.  I'm not going to lie.  It was kind of scary walking into voice lessons for the first time.  I had no idea what to expect and this made me nervous and tense which made my throat tighten.  This made me nervous that the sound would come out strained and squeaky, which in turn made my throat tighten even more.  Its a vicious cycle, let me tell you.  Upon entering, my cousin and I were asked to take a seat, and the teacher asked some basic questions (have you sung before, what do you like to sing, do you think you are an alto or soprano).  After this Q&A, she took us over to the piano to find our ranges.  This was scary as well.  I started out facing the piano so I could see exactly where I was singing.  Not a good idea.  I chickened around G#.  So, I was told to turn around.  Reluctantly, I did so.  back up the scale I started.  This time, I got all the way to D# before I had to stop.  This was surprising to me because I was always told not to sing higher than a G when I was in choir.  I wonder why?  Apparently, I can hit way higher.  Anyway, the rest of the lesson went by way too quickly.  My cousin and I were sent home with Wicked music to practice over the week.  Fast forward a few hours.

It was Tuesday night.  I had sat down at the piano as usual to practice my lesson for Thursday.  I was expecting my cousin to be at the house any minute to practice for our voice lesson.  Well, about fifteen minutes later, she arrived.  We were both so insecure and scared of failure as we sang through the CD the first time.  However, taking away the CD, we squeezed onto my piano bench and I began to play the chords, slowly, to the song we had the most difficulty with.  We practiced for what seemed like hours, working hard to establish the gorgeous harmony in the piece.  Eventually, it paid off and we started to nail it, every time.  I would play just chords, she would sing melody and I would harmonize.  Just two voices and a piano.  We realized it was a beautiful thing we had created when we listened to our recording later. 

Music never ceases to amaze me.  I know it's cliche, but it's true.  There's so much to learn and discover about it.  I thought I knew a lot about music as it was, with knowing the piano.  But, embarking on this new musical journey has already started to teach me things I never knew about the musical world.  I can't wait to get deeper into this new endeavor to see what's in store for me.  I'm glad that I left my comfort zone, and I'm so happy to be singing to the piano instead of making the piano sing to me.