Bill Kennedy - GOD BLESS YOU!!! Yours is the reply i have been hoping for. I really am not that bad, at times people tell me i have a very nice voice, and AT LEAST i have an ear, so i am properly critical when i am off. I just would so much like to sound like Mahalia or someone quite unlike me. However, in starting this thread and stating my situation in the most negative light possible, i was hoping for people to tell me to not give up - because it is true -- the more i do it, the better i get!! (And i love it so much). Thanks for all the replies; look forward to more.