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I had my first vocal lesson on Saturday!
The teacher stopped midway through a warm up and said. "Oh, this is going to be fun," which is amazingly encouraging and an awesome sign in a teacher. :)
Being something of a dork who absolutely hates thinking she might egotistically over-value her own skills, I seem to have under-rated myself... quite a bit. A lot of that is that I have so little vocal skill I don't know what's good or bad, but I even downplayed my sense of pitch, on the grounds that when trying to sing in unison (or an octave up) from E I wander. Cue vocal teacher saying "Well, your sense of pitch is great, and it should be -- you've been playing violin for almost twenty years!"
(I'm not sure if I mentioned before, but the person I'm taking lessons from is a jazz singer and violinist whom I've seen perform before. I saw her perform with someone I know a bit, and after the show he introduced us and had me play something on her violin*, so she's totally familiar with my skill level there).
Anyway. At some point the voice lesson (d)evolved into therapy. "So, WHY do you think your voice is bad? Did someone tell you that?" Etc. Finally I said "Well, not really about singing, but people always say I talk too much and I'm sometimes too loud..."
"Yes! You project and you're confident. It's fantastic. Just don't do it at the movies."
The rest of the lesson went between teaching my body to do new things, which is always interesting (Do I have conscious control of this muscle? What the hell is my throat doing? etc.) and wrestling with my contradictory vocal personality issues. Half the time I'm terrified of sounding** like a total dork, and the other half I'm a fairly confident person who doesn't CARE if she looks like a dork and is used to making herself heard.
(I've managed theater set design in high school, performed un-mic-ed in crowded pubs, and have an obnoxious little brother. I can be LOUD.)
My daily required practice is to go LALALA over and over. Luckily my housemate uses headphones to game.
*Technically, her violin is a 7/8s (a slightly shorter scale-length than a full size). She didn't warn me of that when I played it, and I adjusted my fingering to be in tune within a few bars. No wonder she didn't believe me when I said my pitch was off... :P
**I think this may actually be more complex than that. I'm not worried I sound like a dork. I'm worried that people will hear me sounding like a dork and think I think that I'm not a dork. Or something.
The teacher stopped midway through a warm up and said. "Oh, this is going to be fun," which is amazingly encouraging and an awesome sign in a teacher. :)
Being something of a dork who absolutely hates thinking she might egotistically over-value her own skills, I seem to have under-rated myself... quite a bit. A lot of that is that I have so little vocal skill I don't know what's good or bad, but I even downplayed my sense of pitch, on the grounds that when trying to sing in unison (or an octave up) from E I wander. Cue vocal teacher saying "Well, your sense of pitch is great, and it should be -- you've been playing violin for almost twenty years!"
(I'm not sure if I mentioned before, but the person I'm taking lessons from is a jazz singer and violinist whom I've seen perform before. I saw her perform with someone I know a bit, and after the show he introduced us and had me play something on her violin*, so she's totally familiar with my skill level there).
Anyway. At some point the voice lesson (d)evolved into therapy. "So, WHY do you think your voice is bad? Did someone tell you that?" Etc. Finally I said "Well, not really about singing, but people always say I talk too much and I'm sometimes too loud..."
"Yes! You project and you're confident. It's fantastic. Just don't do it at the movies."
The rest of the lesson went between teaching my body to do new things, which is always interesting (Do I have conscious control of this muscle? What the hell is my throat doing? etc.) and wrestling with my contradictory vocal personality issues. Half the time I'm terrified of sounding** like a total dork, and the other half I'm a fairly confident person who doesn't CARE if she looks like a dork and is used to making herself heard.
(I've managed theater set design in high school, performed un-mic-ed in crowded pubs, and have an obnoxious little brother. I can be LOUD.)
My daily required practice is to go LALALA over and over. Luckily my housemate uses headphones to game.
*Technically, her violin is a 7/8s (a slightly shorter scale-length than a full size). She didn't warn me of that when I played it, and I adjusted my fingering to be in tune within a few bars. No wonder she didn't believe me when I said my pitch was off... :P
**I think this may actually be more complex than that. I'm not worried I sound like a dork. I'm worried that people will hear me sounding like a dork and think I think that I'm not a dork. Or something.
