Voice Lesson #15

Well, today was quite a frustrating lesson for me. I told myself, "ok, Caroline, this is the week you show your teacher what you can do...what all of hers and your hard work is doing!".. Well, it didn't quite work out that way. I was squeezing from the throat and trying to pull my chest voice up, everywhere we went with the singing. UGH!! I know I can do so much better...I do at practice, all the time! I told her this and she absolutely knows that I'm telling the truth...Praise God! It's that mental barrier that I just can't seem to break...BUT I WILL!! Philippians 4:13 says, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.", and I know this is true! One of these days, I'm going to go to my lesson and my teacher will shocked at what I have become capable of! Until then, however, I will keep chugging along. Today, we went over some new exercises and she gave me some interesting things to do at home, to try and get the tension out of my throat. A couple of these exercises with be a challenge. One of them was, today! It was a vocal exercise for agility, but she is hoping that it will free my head voice up. They are are not easy, but hey, nothing worth doing is ever easy! Tension is still a major source of my troubles..but also, the shape of my mouth with vowels and breath support. If I could get rid of all the tension, and get the vowels and breath support correct, we'd have a winner! My teacher is so patient, though, and I am so grateful for that! I think her patience helps me to not get as frustrated and I probably would..but I do get pretty annoyed with myself, anyway. I talk to myself, in my head, when I'm there, saying things like, "what's wrong with you?, you know you can do this better than that!", or "what's your problem? you did this so much better yesterday..you look like you're making no progress at all!". My teacher is very good at calming my nerves though.. she always seems to know just what to say to help me feel less foolish than I start out feeling. I continually have to remind myself that this is a JOURNEY, not a race. I will get there, when I get there...and I am definitely making progress, which is a wonderful thing at any speed. I just thank Jesus all the time for the privilege to be able to this at all, my brilliant teacher, and my super supportive husband... I am blessed! Thank you, Lord!