In a message dated 6/19/01 5:56:29 PM Central Daylight Time, promero@w... writes: promero@w... writes:
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Listen here, I am a student at a community school of music, I am (0r was at the time) 42 years old, had had voice surgery to remove a polyp, and had only studied seriously for nine months when I went to a regional NATS competition (we didn't do state that year for some reason). I felt TOTALLY out of place but wound up placing 2nd in my division-I even won $35, which, by the way didn' t even pay for my accompanist but I was thrilled nonetheless. Even if you don't win or place, and believe me, some very fine singers don't do either, NATS is worth it just to get the judge's critique sheets back-they sometimes see things that your own teacher misses, and their observations may also reinforce what you think is good about your voice. One thing that kind of threw me, coming from this warm loving supportive environment that I come from was the judges' demeanor-I have since come to understand that they have a job to do and they are very serious about it , as they should be, but being the showdog performer that I am, I wanted them to smile and nod and otherwise act like I was extremely entertaining. It doesn't work that way, so if this is your experience, don't let it throw you.
My teacher firmly believes that singers make great strides when they have a specific goal, e.g., NATS or some other competition. Just preparing for NATS is a good experience. Also, If you go in with the mindset that you are going to do your absolute best and get the most you can from the critique sheets and not worry about winning anything, then you can't help but meet your goal, and if you do place or win, well then that's gravy! SO, my point is, that if some old lady voice rehab student like me can cook up enough guts to do this, then you can too!! BTW, where are you? I am in the Alabama-Georgia-Florida region, our NATS is in April. We didn't go this year because it was just too far away-in Florida, about a 14 hour drive from here. Even our State comp was too far for us, it was in Mobile and we are about 8 hours from there, so we didn't do that either. I was sort of sorry we didn't get to go.
Best of luck and keep us posted! You will be glad you did this. Leslie
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