I actually started out quite confident of my singing ability. In imitating one of those pseudoopera sopranos in church from a pretty young age, I also learned to belt it out as well. I picked up 3 chord guitar & did some song leading at Girl Scout day camps along the way.

When I got to high school choir, suddenly I was being told I was singing flat. A new choir director my Senior year shuttled me off to the alto section. My confidence plummeted. I tried out for choir in college & was the only one I knew who did not even make the duffers choir. I spent my college years with very little singing, while attending an institution known for its music program.

I'm not sure of what my problem was, but weak sight singing ability was certainly part of it.

After college I got back into church choir singing. I have picked up a lot here & there about vocal production & do manage to be in tune nowadays.

I'm deeply involved in Sacred Harp singing, which has a certain kind of music education built right into it. We have many singers with school experiences similar to those mentioned here. As a consequence of my involvement I've developed lots of opinions about music education. My strongest opinion is that short of majoring in music singers are just left alone to figure it out on their own & this is wrong. That 'it' includes vocal production, reading music, following the conductor, understanding timing, singing harmony, blending, being 'in tune,' ... you name it. A lot of this has to do with learning to listen, but just telling someone to listen is not enough if you don't know what to listen for.

It took me about 20 years to realize how really angry I feel about my high school and, more importantly, college experiences. In what other area is someone not quite good enough, left alone to just try again later with no help at all? How was I supposed to get any better? Even one semester of voice lessons only had me working on particular songs, not any good overall understanding or ways to make the choir. I understand my alma mater later changed its choirs so that anyone who wanted to be in a choir was.