Dear Madeleine,

thanks for helping me unlock my singing potential and free my voice. Together with the support of our maestro and another wonderful teacher in my church, because of all this I can finally, finally say:

I don't cringe at my own voice anymore in recordings!

I had the same solo for the third time this last Sunday in our Gospel service, and it was the best by far. If you like, please have a listen here. It is unfortunately rather quiet! I will have a word with our sound technician...

The song is "You Hold My World" by Israel Houghton:

https://www.youtube.com/live/FhdjNbRL1-8?feature=share&t=3955 

(sorry, Skillshare didn't let me put an embedded video here for some reason)

Everything together, microphone, posture, support, pitch, my nervosity! etc had to be taken care of, so that I could focus on transporting the MESSAGE of the song to the listeners and viewers. This was a revelation for me - once all these internal and external "blockades" were taken care of, out of the way, so to speak, the essence could shine through. I feel it is a bit like creating a sculpture. You have to take off all the rough edges and corners until the beautiful shape emerges.

Slow journey, but so worth it.

I know there is still a lot to learn and to improve, but it is a start!

I think one of the things you helped me the most with was to understand that I don't have to "force" the sound, but that I can let it happen. Also, to know where sound is happening as vibrations in the body - the first tone was vibrating somewhere behind my teeth, so I could have this as a cue for ideally getting the pitch right from the start. It was so helpful to know about these things!

If you have any suggestion for me, I am all ears ;)

THANKS for what you do, and all the love you put into it. It shows and grows :))

Warm wishes

Gesa