Voice lessons learned

Today I had my first formal voice lesson since college -- make that, since my junior year in college. That was eight years ago -- yikes! Last semester I had the exciting opportunity to perform in the graduate student ensemble of Robert Xavier Rodriguez, singing a series of Scottish and Irish folk songs set by Beethoven. This semester, among other things, I'm singing this:



I get to sing it in English, but language aside, this is still quite difficult, and in a style I haven't performed in consistently for the aforementioned 8 years since college voice lessons.

So, I'm excited to be beginning lessons again, and I'm always happy to see how I will apply what I learn to the kind of singing that I do on a more regular basis. As a teenager, I took a lot of pride in having never had lessons, but now I understand that there are things that I can't see or hear about the way I sing that take another person to point out and help with. I also understand now that a voice teacher can't really change your voice; he/she can only give you the toolbox. Also, you would never expect a professional athlete not to work with a trainer, so why shouldn't singers have trainers, too?

At any rate, with everything going on with school (including learning this music), there's just not as much time to play the normal gigs, but I wanted to let everyone know that I'm still performing music, just in a different way.