I played bass and guitar for a few talent shows, but my first time singing in "public" was at a family reunion. I wanted to do the song "Jack Haggarty" with my wife. She is a professional quality singer, having majored in music, sung in A Capella Choir at the University level, etc. She didn't think it was very necessary to rehearse, I guess, because we only ran through the song once or twice. We alternated verses, I strummed along on guitar, and the performance was dreadful. My wife was humiliated. She said we didn't sing on key, and frankly, most of the audience (my extended family) weren't paying attention anyway. My cousin did come up and congratulate me on the song. I apologized for being off key, but he told me that it wasn't I, but my wife, who was singing off key. In fairness to her, she couldn't hear the guitar very well - the acoustics were miserable. I've never told her what my cousin said, but it gave me the confidence to keep trying. It was several years before she would agree to perform with me again - and that time we rehearsed several times, and ran through the song (Neil Young's "Harvest Moon") again once or twice in the actual venue with the sound equipment, before the audience arrived. This time even my wife said I did good. I'm still very much a beginner - every time feels like my first time - but I'm gaining confidence. By the way I'm in my 40's now.

Jon W.