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From:  leskayc@a...
leskayc@a...
Date:  Wed Jun 20, 2001  1:10 pm
Subject:  Re: [vocalist] Fear concerning NATS


In a message dated 6/19/01 5:56:29 PM Central Daylight Time,
promero@w... writes:
promero@w... writes:


>

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





  Replies Name/Email Yahoo! ID Date Size
12767 Re: Fear concerning NATS peggyh@i...   Wed  6/20/2001   4 KB
12771 Re: Fear concerning NATS promero@w...   Wed  6/20/2001   2 KB
12773 Re: Fear concerning NATS Amy Hespenheide   Wed  6/20/2001   2 KB
12774 Re: Fear concerning NATS Jeffrey Snider   Wed  6/20/2001   2 KB
12795 Re: Fear concerning NATS Linda Fox   Thu  6/21/2001   2 KB
12797 Re: Fear concerning NATS dclark   Thu  6/21/2001   5 KB

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