Voice Lessons-Tom Blackham

Let me provide some background:
My family is super musical.
I started learning piano when I was in Kindergarten and almost forcibly continued to take piano lessons until my senior year in high school.
I was encouraged to participate in band in junior high and high school...which I did: playing the trumpet.
I took private lessons on the trumpet for three years.
I learned to play the Baritone for and participated in the BYU Marching Band for my first two football seasons in college.
Every single one of my six siblings learned how to play at least two different musical instruments.
My mother is the only member of my family that only plays one musical instrument, though she sings quite well.
Almost everyone in my family has participated in school, church, or community choirs of some kind.

Except, I am absolutely terrified of singing.

It's not just singing. I'm terrified of performances in general. But with the countless years of piano recitals and band performances I've learned to stifle that fear, at least when performing those instruments.

When it comes to my voice, however, I am SUPER self-conscious.

I've always been amazed and how beautiful my family's voices were, and I've always felt that my voice was sub-par. Thanks to my musical training on the piano, I could read music easily. Thanks to my instruction on the trumpet and baritone, I knew what a good tone was, but I could not replicate it in my voice.

I've always wanted to learn the tricks to increase my range and improve the quality of sound that came out of my throat. However, I've always been too self conscious to do it,

This weekend I had to swallow my pride a bit and asked my girlfriend, who has 7 years of professional vocal training under her belt as well as numerous vocal and musical theater performances, to teach me some basics. During the forty-five minutes that we had in the practice room, she drilled me in my tone quality as I attempted to sing. It took a lot for me to just open up and sing in front of her. It took a lot for me to actually try my best and open myself to criticism, instead of shielding myself behind the feigned tone-deafness that I used in the past to keep me from performing vocal solos.

In the end, she was very pleased with my progress, though I cannot honestly say that I feel more than marginally more comfortable with my singing voice than I did before. She enthusiastically encouraged me to continue letting her help me(which must mean that I didn't sing that bad) However, I felt like I conquered one of my greatest fears that day as I stood in front of her and sang. It doesn't sound like that big of deal,  but it was very difficult. At the end of the day, however, when I looked back on it, I was proud of jumping over that hurdle.