At my voice lesson today, I continued to work on learning a song that I once had down: as I mentioned earlier in my journal, as I’d gained technical skill I found that I “lost” the song somehow, and have been trying to figure out how to put it back together with my voice where it is now. There’s been definite improvement, but the song still isn’t where it once was. And I found myself wondering aloud: what exactly will I have gained, when I’ve put all the pieces back together again; and in what ways will whatever I do gain make it worth having for a time lost something I already once knew in large part, and could have gone on knowing?
My voice teacher (who also writes) thought about that for a while and said something along the lines of: but this time it will be deliberate. It won’t be just work by accident.
In other words I suggested–and she agreed–I’ll have control over what I’m doing, this time around; and be able to apply that control not only to the song in question, but to other songs as well.
At the very end of the lesson, I startled myself with a few lines that had all the projection and tone of my original version, but with an added clarity that hadn’t been there before. So that might be part of what I’m working toward, too.