“I have a new student. His name is Adriano. He’s Italian and he has a mind-blowing natural voice.”
Ian, my back then vocal teacher, was ecstatic about this guy. And he had all the right to be so.
The funny thing was…
Adriano didn’t even wanted to take voice lessons. He came to Ian for acting classes (which he also taught). But after the Italian tenor told him that he’s mostly doing musicals…Ian wanted to check out Adriano’s range. And got goosebumps when Adriano hit a high C with an ease only a few pro singers have under their belt.
Hearing all that I felt a bit…demoralised.
Because after one year of studying with Ian, I still struggled with my higher notes…and my pitch problems. Those were the moments where I seriously questioned if it even made any sense.
Sure, I was passionate about singing. But I had to put so much work into it…only to see little improvements.
Anyhoo… I moved on and got over the prodigy Italian tenor.
After some years, destiny showed me why there are always two sides of the medal.
“What happened to this Italian guy?” I asked out of curiosity one day.
“You know what? He actually quit singing.” Ian replied.
I couldn’t believe it. That made no sense at all to me. Well, turned out, Adriano, for the first time in his singing career, faced some vocal issues.
Which is something every singer has to deal with some time.
The only problem was…
Adriano had no idea how to solve these issues. He simply wasn’t used to his voice not operating naturally flawless. He panicked.
Unable to face this nightmare of every singer…Adriano gave up.
While Adriano freaked out and tossed his career into the trash…I kept on polishing my instrument day after day.
And here’s why I’m telling you all that…
When you find yourself envying some natural born killer singers…just don’t. Although not so obvious, there’s a huge advantage in learning it all from scratch.
Here are just a couple of reasons why you should start learning how to sing…even if you think you have no talent AT ALL.
1) You not only learn how to use your voice… but navigate it like a fragile rowing boat through the storm.
2) When you start at ground zero, the only way is…UP!
3) On your way from a shitty voice to a great voice you will encounter every roadblock possible. By mastering to overcome them there’s nothing you haven’t seen…and learned how to solve.
So, what do you think?
Isn’t it an almost unfair advantage starting this journey as a terrible singer?
Yeah, I mean it.
Enjoy the ride.
Felix Cerny