Today I took my new friend (the one I went to the swimmeet with) to get her car. She was talking about different activities to do and she mentioned joining her in the church choir. Well.. I don't sing. I've tried to sing and find my voice hopping all over the place.. high.. low.. sideways. She reassured me that nobody judged anyone and to give it a try.
Then she said.. "Please please please". How could I say no?
I arrived early, as she suggested, to meet the choir director so he could have time to hear my voice. He came up and I realized he was the organist who had a phenomenal voice. I gulped.
Choir Director: "Why do you want to sing choir?"
Me: "Ohhh.. my buddy said I should give it a try!"
Choir Director: "Do you ever sung in a choir?"
Me: "Absolutely not!"
Choir Director (looking increasingly perplexed): "Have you sung at all??"
Me: "Nope.. oh wait, in grade school, once."
Choir Director (bewildered): "Anything.. else?"
Me: "Well my daughter takes lessons with so and so and we sing in the car. She'll say the first word of an easy song and I'll sing the rest of the verse. It felt like I was hitting the notes" helpful smile
Choir Director: "Ohh I know so and so. Let's just try a few things."
We then went to the piano and he had me do scales. I've listened to my daughter do them so I knew what they sounded like. Someone who shared a common wall when I lived in Florence, Italy used to do his vocal warm ups EVERY morning. He was so loud, my roommate and I would get frustrated. Then we finally ended up singing along with him.
The choir director, who'd been in musicals, etc. kept looking at me, somewhat surprised and kept going up the scales. The notes were getting higher and higher and instead of my voice squeaking and cracking the note would fill my mouth/head and come out. We then went lower where he said my voice was more comfortable and went down down down. He commented that my voice was better than many of the people there.
He's been teaching and said he never would have believed that I've never had a lesson, never been trained. Talk about getting excited! He put me with the sopranos, since they needed more, telling me to just give it a try. When the choir members came in he introduced me, thanked my friend for finding me and extolled my most recently found virtues saying I'd never been in a choir or sang.
I was a bit nervous having no idea what or how to do this. My friend who is a soprano would hum in the key or level I had to be which helped me greatly because I was clueless. It felt like singing through cotton candy. It was made more interesting because I didn't know the hymns. Then we sopranos had to do a something which is a harmony or a part... and I'm like.. huh???
I did the best I could, having no idea what I was doing. At the end he told me considering everything I didn't know I did great! I'm so excited to be working with this guy and learning something about myself. I brought home the hymnals to practice on the piano (do I still remember how to play?) so I have a clue.
Before I left I asked him to show me on the piano where I should be singing.
This is sooooooooooooooo cool!
When I got home I was bubbling with excitement as I told my daughter. She was looking at me with a big smile. "You're really jazzed about this, aren't you?"
I still can't believe I can do something I never ever thought I could and always wanted to!
