The City Veins

Aaron, being the optimistic person that he is, seems convinced that I can learn how to sing. He is so sure of himself that he has declared that I am going to sing on every song. We started lessons on Saturday.

The lesson started with Aaron explaining how to sing properly, including:

1) How to breathe, my shoulders should not rise. The singing breath is actually a lot like a Yoga breath.
2) I should open my mouth as wide as possible. Apparently, I should over emphasize opening my mouth to the point that I can’t actually pronounce most words. Aaron claims that a lack of pronunciation is not a problem.
3) I need to sing more in my throat, and not in my nose or the top of my mouth. Opening my mouth will apparently take care of this.
4) I need to sing louder.

In summation, how I used to “sing” was all wrong. Granted what I use to do required quotation marks so as not to offend actual singers. Unfortunately this robbed me of what meager singing skills I had. I have been diligently practicing, running scales and rehearsing the parts Aaron wrote for me, and I am making some progress.

I must say that I have gained a new appreciation for Aaron. I have always known what a good singer he is, but after about 20 minutes of practicing my voice is really tired. I don’t know how he can do a whole concert.

Our practice last Tuesday was the first that I really sang at. I figured that I am going to have to learn how to sing and play at the same time, so I should start soon. Some of the songs were okay, but for the most part I was horrible. After we finished Toe the Line, Spencer diplomatically said, “I know you are trying, but that was awful.” I reassured him that I did in fact know that my singing was horrible, and we agreed that I need to a lot more practice before I share my voice with the world.

Photo by Flickr user rgdaniel.