It’s about starting over . com

I want to share an experience with you. This happened at the beginning of the 2007-08 school year and, because of everything I’ve been through and because I am the person I’ve become, I was able to do the right thing. In the past, this same type of experience has caused me to limit myself simply because I trusted and believed in others more than myself.

It was my third year at Rimon, and my second year with this particular voice teacher. I began losing my voice in the higher and lower register after singing for about 45 minutes (just the higher and lower notes disappeared). I told my teacher, and she said she couldn’t hear anything wrong in my technique. She felt that when I practiced at home (i.e., without her guidance), I was probably doing something wrong. A short time later, both the amount of time I could sing before losing my voice became shorter, and the amount of notes that disappeared increased until my vocal range, which had been just slightly over two octaves, decreased to only one after about 20 minutes of singing. I spoke with my voice teacher about this each time we had a lesson. Obviously, something was wrong and it was either physical, technical, or both. She explained to me that it’s very important that I know and accept my limitations and that, obviously, I just don’t have what she referred to as “vocal stamina,” the ability to sing for prolonged periods of time. She also explained that I have a limited vocal range. She told me with patience and in friendship, that I need to accept these limitations and make decisions based on the fact that there are certain things that I just won’t be able to do. Continue Reading »