A Dream Achieved

So, when I moved into my new house, one of the new additions I got was my mom's piano. This thing has been in my mom's family for who knows how long. It's mostly in tune, should probably get it checked out one of these days, and the A right below middle C likes to stick, but it's a good little upright, probably better quality than most of the pianos in ACU practice rooms. It's a Baldwin, if you're curious.

So anyway, now that I have a piano, I've been making sure I spend some time (almost) every day playing and singing with it. I practice scales on the piano and do vocalise, and I always spend some time with fun, Broadway music (although I CAN'T FIND MY RENT BOOK, YOU GUYS, WHERE IS MY RENT MUSIC).

I noticed a few days ago that I was having what I call a "high C day". Usually, these days are few and far between for me, and once I realize I'm having one, it pretty consistently ends once I start some heavy singing (by heavy I mean in terms of duration, not in terms of pushing. I'm not dumb, y'all.) So, in a true nerd fashion, my very first instinct was to bust out my Seasons of Love music (I've got that ONE SONG in another of my B'way anthologies) and sing that awesome descant line, and I nailed it. Was wonderful. I ended my practice for that day, in the best mood ever and went about my business.

Then the next day was a high C day. And the next. And today.

I can't even really describe how I'm feeling right now. I've always been kind of a "fake tenor". In choir, I love to sing tenor II because the harmonies are usually much more challenging and rewarding. In my voice lessons, I would sing out of a "book of tenor solos" but none of them go above a G (maybe one A, but I can't think of an example). In vocalise, I could arpeggiate pretty high, but I always considered those "private" notes, not ones I'd want the public to hear.

In the musicals I've been in, I've never had to sing higher than an Ab. Every once in awhile I could pull off an ornament or a turn with a Bb or B in it, but it was never something I could do consistently.

So what I mean by a "fake tenor" is, I can sing these high notes, but only when I'm really working. I had to use a huge amount of air, and I couldn't really control them very well dynamically.

But now that I'm doing serious work on my voice every day, I'm building real technique and ability. This is a milestone I never ever thought I would achieve in my life, let alone this soon after college. I'm happy and excited and deeply joyful that this has finally occurred.

This how I imagine people who talk about having transcendent experiences with God feel. I'm still about an inch away from straight up agnosticism, but I am absolutely putting the credit here in the fact that I was designed to have this potential. It was my work that achieved it, but my work wouldn't make a difference if I didn't have that starting point.

Christ in a crepe I'm talking about religion. Someone shoot this blog before it goes bananas.