Recently, I decided to dust off some old dreams and re-purpose them into fun hobbies. I began singing in January 2011 and in March 2011, I began playing the acoustic guitar. I am fortunate to have an old and dear friend who fronts a local band. This band is a rock/funk/jazz/fusiony kind of group and plays original music. I am their official backup vocalist and we have our very first gig coming up this weekend! I started rehearsing with this band before I had any real vocal skills and my friend was well aware of my limitations when I started. I have been diligent in my training and practice. I bought a series of online lessons from a well known internet and Hollywood vocal coach named Per Bristow. These lessons have been incredible! Not only does Per teach me how to strengthen my vocal cords and to loosen up the various muscles in the mouth, throat, neck and face which shouldn't be involved in the act of singing but often are, as compensatory muscles, he also helps build self-esteem, courage and diminished stage fright. As anyone who knows me can readily attest to, I have no fear of the stage. I have performed many times in different settings. I played alto sax for many years and was a member of every music group in my high school and I also played at the University of CT, in various orchestra, jazz and marching bands. As for singing, what I lack in talent, I try to make up for in stage presence. But...it is one thing to hog the mic at Karaoke night, ham it up for all those present, kind of refuse to let anyone else have a turn, if they do get a turn make it a duet with me...and it is another thing altogether to be a part of someone else's ensemble. I don't want to disappoint my band mates or lessen the overall sound of the entire band and because of that, I have a bit of nervousness to conquer before this weekend.
When singing at home, I can accompany myself on my electric keyboard but my piano skills are quite rusty. My mom played piano and sang very well. There was an upright piano in my home while growing up but I never had formal lessons. Like the other instruments I play (sax, flute, guitar) I taught myself. Unfortunately, acoustic and electric pianos aren't all that portable. Needing another way to accompany myself, I decided to learn the guitar. I have no shortage of willing instructors, between my band mates and various friends who already play very well. I also use the resources on guitartricks.com which I highly recommend. I bought a $60 parlor sized guitar at ToysRUs, while shopping there for birthday gifts for a cousin. I reasoned that if I like the guitar and stick with it, I can get a nicer model down the road. Well, I have that nicer model now and I am officially in love with my new Tanglewood acoustic/electric guitar with built-in tuner. It has lovely inlaid mother-of-pearl accents and sounds great! I am looking forward to the time where I can also strum my guitar on stage while singing backup vocals but for now, seamless chord changes are what I am working on.
I haven't worked much, outside my home, for the past several years. I quit my IT job in 2004 to concentrate on starting a family. I was not having luck with that and thought work stress may be a contributing factor. Because my income wasn't crucial at that time, I left the corporate world and switched to consulting work which I still do from time to time. After years of fertility struggles, economic changes and my many personal turmoils/dramas of 2010, I started looking for steady work again. The problem is that I still have no idea what I want to be when I grow up. As a kid, I would answer the question of "What do you want to be when you grow up?" by saying I wanted to be a rock star and I was serious about that. I saw myself as a non-OD'ed, non-heroin-addicted Janis Joplin. Actually, I was too young to understand her death or the lifestyle of a rock star but I knew I wanted to sing like her. Needless to say, that dream was not nurtured by my parents but it never really died. No, I don't foresee a late-blooming music career in my future but I do know that I am not as talentless as some people convinced me I probably was while growing up. My family didn't want me to be any kind of performer. Music was a hobby, not a career, in their opinions. I was encouraged to be a professional something or another in order to make a lot of money and live that American dream. "Be a doctor! Be a lawyer! Be anything except a performer! You are too intelligent to waste your brain and life as a struggling musician." These are the things I was told to sell me on that capitalistic American Dream. I can now say, "Been there. Done that." and that American Dream isn't all it's cracked up to be. I've been a fan of live music all my adult life and at times in that adult life I've really perfected the rock star lifestyle. Now, I trying to acquire the chops to go with it, although the lifestyle isn't exactly my style anymore...thank goodness. Whatever it is that I am doing with my recent troubadour hobby, I really enjoy it and am improving by leaps and bounds. My next musical goal is songwriting. For a very long time there has been a song inside me waiting to get out!
Rock on Fiddleheads!! :-)
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