Yes, us singers. We are a great group but…we also exhibit more emotions than any other performing musical artist…instrumentalists to be exact.

The studio I teach for had the usual spring/summer recital this past week. One of my students, who is doing well and certainly not singing in her first recital, had a meltdown! Oy!!!! She had had a minor one a couple of recitals ago but nothing much. Bounced back pretty fast.

Now here’s the thing. When a singer has a meltdown, usually in tears, you as a voice teacher not only have to calm the person down in order to perform reasonably well but…you’re also faced with the dreaded phlegm! You know, that mucous in your sinuses and throat. The stuff that makes singing mushy and uncomfortable because you are coughing up…phlegm! Ugh!

So the studio Director and myself eyeballed and slithered a bit along the side aisles of he hall configuring when she could sing since she was scheduled to sing FIRST! Ack! We decided on last. Ha!

During the program, which is a bunch of younger children…beginner singers and pianists plus one guitarist…she came around and ended up being in a good mood which helped my anxiety calm down as well. She did sing well. Had a couple of glitches but got better as she went through her two songs. And that’s the point! You might stumble over something in performance…it happens to all of us. But you keep going and make it better as you move forward. Both her parents told me she sounded good…I was behind her accompanying on the piano. So I was thrilled!

One thing about being in the creative arts is that you give from your heart and your guts! I call these “personal achievement” careers. Same with dancers, artists, makeup artists, Olympic athletes, etc. Your job is you! You develop your talent, dig deep and use it. Yes, it takes a bit to make a full-time living at these jobs…I always say “music doesn’t pay the mortgage.” But you have no choice really. Your talent chooses you as much as you choose it. I know I would be most unhappy probably for most of my life if I hadn’t gone into music. And I’m not rich or anything. But I am happy and I can make music all the time. I don’t have to retire from it. Maybe from certain aspects of it like running around on stage singing arias in my favorite opera (it’s exhausting), but I can tone it down a bit and still sing, and play, and conduct choir, and teach. We musicians are musicians our entire lives. We start as children learning an instrument and move through life growing up into music and then deciding on what we really want to do musically as an adult. Then we make music until the end!

So back to my student…having “growing pains” as a young singer is not unusual at all. We have growing pains throughout our regular lives. And one wants to present the best we can do showing our accomplishments and growth in our chosen field.

The point of all of this isn’t that we have difficulties, it’s how we recover from them and grow as a person…and artist. We move forward and get better. And that’s growth. And that’s the point!

Ahhh yes…us singers…drama queens. Ha!

https://makingmusicwitheve.weebly.com

https://www.avon.com/repstore/eczaja