My Story: Singing in Piano Class

 I think I'm just about out of musical memories as a student that would make good "My Story" posts. I have many music memories, but most of them would not work well in story format. They're too general. Like formally serving dessert and trying to keep the chocolate off my white sleeves at a Mother's Day handbell concert. Or the many Festival performances I participated in, and the exciting years when I made it to the Gala Concert (now called the Showcase Concert). The frustration of trying to capture the feeling of a song that I had been given to work on. The thrill of a performance. The joys of playing in church over the years. Yes, many memories, but not many good stories that I haven't already written about. Consider this the last "My Story" post until further notice. 

   When I was taking lessons under Mr. F., as I prepared for my Grade 10 exam, he instructed me to create a practice sheet for him to write notes on with different categories. One of the categories was "Solfege." Though I was a Grade 10 student, I had no idea what that meant. But I was about to find out.

   One day, he set down a sheet that he had created in front of me. I scanned over it -- and began to panic. 

   It was a numbered list of exercises. I think it was at least the first ten that started with the word, "Sing...." 

   Sing part of a scale. Sing a major scale. Sing a minor scale. Sing the bass notes in a cadence. Sing. Sing. Sing. 

   Now, I had a policy. I did not sing. 

   Oh, I sang in church. I had no problem doing that, because everyone else was singing and no one would notice me. I also sang with gusto at home. At one point, I thought I sounded like my favourite Gospel singer, and thus had no problem singing in front of my friends -- until I heard a recording of myself. Gasp! That scratchy, annoying voice was mine?! That was nothing like my favourite singer!

   That's when I started not singing in "public."

   Now my teacher was asking me to sing. In front of him. 

   Well, not being the kind of student to refuse my teacher, I swallowed my nervousness and did the first exercise or two for him. He was pleased. So, at home, I began to practice my solfege.

   Over the next year, my ear for music improved dramatically. I'd always had a decent ear. But suddenly I went from being decent to getting a perfect score on the ear-training section of my exam. 

   Another interesting thing happened. 

   A year or two later, I was at a youth retreat with a friend of mine. There was a lot of singing going on, mostly hymns that were different than the ones I was used to. It was the only time I had the fun of singing in a choir, if only for a week. We also started our mornings with some singing. But almost all the songs were unfamiliar, and I discovered something interesting: I could sight sing. Because we were singing from hymnals, I was holding the music in my hands, and I could follow the tune and mentally "hear" it as we were singing. My friend whom I went with was very impressed, and promptly published the knowledge to the other girls staying at the same place we were. ("Sarah didn't know any of the songs we sang this morning." "What? I couldn't tell. You sounded like you knew them!") I firmly believe that I developed the ability to sight sing as a result of all the solfege. 

   Incidentally, right now, I'm currently taking voice lessons. It is helping me develop a warm tone and get rid of the scratchy effect. ;)