"Holy crap! That was actually beautiful!"

Qiana's story of confidence-building through creative techniques
--Liz Jackson Hearns 

Qiana has been a student of art most her life through church choir, dance lessons, singing lessons and soon, her first opera performance! Finding the confidence to keep building toward her goals and uncovering new ones along the way has been a journey of self-trust and self-exploration. Here are some of her thoughts about singing lessons, why she decided to start and where she hopes to go next! 

I've been taking lessons with Liz since September of 2014, and I started because I wanted to become a more confident singer. I used to sing in my church choir and loved it, but was always worried that someone would hear me. Not exactly something you should worry about when you're singing in front of other people. I thought I could start to overcome that worry if I knew more what I was doing as a singer. 

Some of my goals when I started lessons were about building confidence singing in front of people, especially as a soloist. The experience is so much different when you're singing solo versus singing in an ensemble as a choir. I also wanted to be able to sing un-amplified in a good sized space and be easily heard. I'm not planning my debut at the Lyric or anything, but hey, wouldn't it be cool if I could sing there and be heard in the very back row?! 

Along the way, of course, some new goals have popped up. Since I started lessons, I have a much better idea of what I want to do when I'm singing and how to control it. And I'm getting better at actually being able to follow through with those new techniques when I want to, and build good vocal habits. Which leads to a new goal--not being so nervous (stage fright) when I sing. Part of that goal is just doing it more to get more comfortable. But also realizing that when my technique is secure, if I'm in a blinding panic while performing, my body will just go on autopilot and sing the way I've practiced thousands of times. And much more frequently, I listen to myself sing and think "Holy crap! That was actually beautiful!" It's nice to like my voice and not merely tolerate it!

Liz is constantly cheering me on and getting me to try new, weird things. One of the weirdest was bending over at the waist and singing upside-down in order to work on my breathing, to feel what it's like to breath really deeply. And it worked! I haven't been able to completely reproduce the feeling while standing up normally, but it gives me something to aim for. Another weird thing is doing my Kevin McCallister impression from Home Alone to help my mouth find a more oval shape as I'm singing. I do this one all the time when I'm practicing. It's still weird to just be there with my mouth wide open, but I can tell it's helping. 

Liz asked me to talk about some of the awesome changes that have happened at the studio, since I was one of the very first students. The biggest change is the new North Center space which has made meeting and interacting with other students easier. Seeing other people perform at open mic nights has been an unexpected way of learning new things. And it's also been neat to see all the new teachers. It's been great to be able to do workshops with some of the other teachers and try out different techniques. I did a workshop with Katherine and was laughing the whole time!

Working on my voice like this, I think anyone could benefit from lessons. If you're thinking about it, do it!! In addition to learning good techniques and understanding theory, there is something liberating about having a place to sing songs you love in full voice. Let your voice out to run and play!