"It's not just me"

I manage to get Rohan as my regular singing teacher.  Although he now sings with a rock band, his background was in classical music.  He's sung with the State Opera and studied with a tenor (Thomas Edmunds) who (coincidentally) sometimes sang as a guest with my school choir.

This means that we have some shared terminology, which helps a lot, because I've got a lot to learn.

And he's only a few years younger than me.

Rohan gets me to sing upward scales.  I struggle with the higher notes.  I can belt out the low notes but my high notes are thin and reticent.  There's a "crack" in my voice between the low and high registers.  I have always regarded this as my own personal failing, but Rohan tells me that most people have this problem and vocal technique will fix it.  I need to work on bridging the gap; with practice I can learn to meld the two voices and smooth over the bumps.

This is a complete surprise to me.  It's not just me - it's a problem that can be fixed.

It's like when I discovered that fear of public speaking is a trait of human nature; most people struggle with it but it can be overcome with practice.  Realizing that "it's not just me"was liberating.  No more excuses - get up there in front of the Toastmasters group and make a speech.  Everyone in the room is there for the same reason.  They all feel nervous about speaking in public.  We all share the same anxiety and it binds us together in our quest to improve.

After several weeks, Rohan asks "Did we test your lower range?"  No, we didn't.  He gets me to sing lower scales.  When we reach G below Middle C, he starts to laugh.  He says "You could keep going, couldn't you?"  Yes, what's hard about that?  I can easily sing a low C.

Then he says "So, why are you trying to sing high?"

I explain that there are no songs written in my range.  I've struggled to find songs that I can sing.

He says "You've got two octaves - just change the key of the song."

He picks out a song and lowers the key - a lot.  I sing the song - it's comfortable and I can sing it freely.

He tells me it sounded good and I should never feel ashamed to change the key.

This is the turning point;  I start looking at songs I'd love to sing, that I've always thought I couldn't.