A life lesson in singing class!

Since joining Dublin County Choir in January, I’m also taking one-to-one singing lessons with a terrific teacher. There are so many physiological aspects to singing that I wasn’t really aware of, but as with most other things in life, much of it is in “the mind”! I had a lot of new things to remember, not just proper breathing technique, but other things like using your nose, changing vowel shapes, dropping the jaw… never mind the notes and lyrics… oh and being relaxed! I was making progress, but not consistently, and I gradually realised what was stopping me. I was worried about this “new voice” I was finding, whether it would be really me, whether I would sound like I was “pretending to be a classical singer”, whether people (or I) would think I was “putting it on”. My breakthrough lesson was last week, where I got a better more consistent sound, when I forgot about what other people might think, and concentrated on the kind of sound I wanted to make. So the physical techniques are improving with practice, but they really all only connect when you’re focused on the end result – how you want to sound… and the piece I’m working on ? It’s called “Unexpected Song”…

So are you using your voice to its full potential, and if not, what’s stopping you?