To: "'VOCALIST'" <vocalist>
Subject: Fear of Singing!
Date sent: Tue, 4 Jan 2000 11:36:11 -0600
Send reply to: VOCALIST <vocalist>

I guess it's my turn to write to everyone after joining last week and
reading everyone's input. I am a soon to be 25 year old light lyric
soprano, who loves to sing and is terrified to perform, even just in front
of my fianc=E9! I started voice lessons for the first time four years ago=
at
a local college and found that I was able to sing art songs and pick up
other languages with ease, but felt pretty self conscious while performing
at recitals. I quickly fell in love with opera and started concentrating =
on
singing arias. I always looked forward to my voice lessons, though, and
felt like I was really doing something great for my body and soul. About =
a
year or more into it, though, I started feeling very overwhelmed and burnt
out, what with working full time as a receptionist (harsh on the cords aft=
er
awhile) and trying to do school and recitals, etc. I ended up quitting
lessons over a year ago because I just got too discouraged and didn't know
if I was really cut out for it. Now I miss it so much that I have called =
my
previous voice teacher and begged her to take me back. Gratefully, she
agreed, and my first "start-back" lesson is this Saturday. My problem is
that for whatever reasons, I am so completely terrified to sing in front o=
f
anyone but her. I'm not sure what happened over the last year or so, but =
I
don't sing in front of anyone, and it really hurts me not to be able to ju=
st
open up and do what I am ironically most passionate about. Am I the only
one? Has anyone/is anyone gone through/going through this, too? Please
advise, I'm getting desperate and am afraid to tell my teacher just how de=
ep
rooted my fear really is. I'm hoping that maybe easing in to it and doing=
a
couple of recitals will help. I'm not sure though....