Music surrounds us constantly--we hear songs on the radio, in movies, on favorite TV shows, in commercial jingles, people singing in the car, in the shower, at karaoke bars, we sing Happy Birthday, Jingle Bells and Deck the Halls, we expect our restaurant staff to sing Happy Birthday and perhaps make up their own special rendition, we sing to babies, we hum, we la la la through the day...music is a human attribute, and yet, so many people believe they "can't sing." Where did people get the idea that singing is something we either have or don't have, and that this variance occurs at birth? I consider it part of my job to dispel this myth. Like any other talent, some people do have a natural inclination and ability to sing, but I believe anyone can learn to sing, and everyone can learn to sing better.

When I was 5 I sang songs to my crayons. When I was 6, 7, 8, I sang to "Sleeping Beauty" and "Jungle Book" and any other Disney movie cassette soundtrack I could convince my parents to buy. When I was 9 I took voice lessons from a very sweet woman named April, but was so shy that I would only sing while she sang (knowing she couldn't really hear me then) and my only repertoire was "The Little Mermaid," performed over and over and over and over...I'm sure it was monotonous for her, but it never was for me! When I was 8 and 11 I took piano lessons until I realized practicing was such a key element. When I was 15 I sang in the general high school choir, and auditioned for the advanced when I was 17--was too shy, barely let out a squeak, and obviously didn't make the cut. At 16, I begged my friend Michele to teach me how to harmonize. We sang duets and I could never quite hold my own. When I was 18 I finally began official voice lessons. I signed up for the general college choir. At this point, I could hold a tune (most of the time), but I had no idea about breath support, or palate control. The typical soprano F hurt every single attempt. I couldn't sight-read, had no concept of key signatures or vowel alignment. Basically, although I'd always been interested in music, and enjoyed it around me, I was certainly no natural talent.

Over the course of the next 8 years, I started from the very basics of vocal technique, and worked through a music minor, then music major, then grad school--each step of the way, I studied and practiced and learned and developed new skills, information, and thought processes that would help propel me into the next level of "vocal talent." For me, the ability to sing was learned as a very slow, work-saturated process. During the graduation celebrations at my undergrad university, one of my professor's called me a "genie." She said I knocked on the door of the music department one day, popped out of my genie's lamp, and said "I want to be this now!" I wanted to be a singer, and that "poof" transformation took years to hone, sculpt, and train. But by the time I graduated, and she had witnessed this entire transformation, my professor recognized the diligence this development had taken, but proclaimed that I had, indeed, reached my goal.

In her autobiography, world-renowned opera singer Renee Flemming describes her vocal problems early on, and how happy she is, later in life, that she struggled through those early problems, and as a result, learned about her voice. She believes so many untrained and uneducated singers experience a crash in their career and simply can't bounce back--they have no concept of the complicated inner-workings of their voice. She considers her talent learned, and feels fortunate she can always rely on her knowledge of the voice to overcome any vocal challenges to come.

So, my questions to you are: Have you always loved to sing, but feel like you're a little off-key, or can't quite reach that high note, or can't quite stay in sync with the karaoke machine? Are you a high school student who desperately wants to study music in college but can't quite comprehend the leap to get there? Are you a college student who wants to "make it" in the music business, but are unsure of the path and its prerequisites? Are you a professional singer who just lost control of your voice somewhere along the way, and you need to learn the foundations of vocal technique to gain skills you will rely on for the remainder of your career? I invite any singer, trained or untrained, to stop in my studio to see if I just might be able to teach you something from my bag of tricks (and yes, anyone can learn new tricks).

	BUON CANTO VOICE STUDIO Private Voice Instruction by Marisa Gray Atha, Soprano
	Music Story