Sunny Thursday

Felt much better today ~ thank God for speaking to me through Ai Hua's sermon today. It sort of hit the nail on the head, if you like.

Had classes in the morning at MBTS... followed by Scallop porridge and Yoo Tiao... and then a bit of studying before vocal training and work. 

Voice lesson today was a little less grueling than last week's. 

We are still working on my breathing patterns (why does it sound like antenatal classes?), my posture, getting my lower abdominal muscles to contract correctly and throwing my voice without straining something (this came in handy when I had to preach). I realize that voc. training is very much a sort of therapy.... rather like Pilates, in which you work on conditioning the body. Like Pilates - intense concentration, muscle control, centering of energy, precision of movements, good posture and the right breathing techniques are required in singing. My teacher spent many weeks laying down all the foundations and correcting my bad habits, before I was allowed to do any singing - but I won't say that I've arrived yet, because I haven't at all. I am still having loads of trouble, Old habits die hard. After all I've been singing with many bad habits for almost as long as I have lived - and nobody really spotted my problems till now. Itty-bitty problems, they may seem... but pinpointing them and zapping them actually makes a whole lot of difference! I am also working on being more relaxed, since my teacher smilingly commented last week that I am too serious. 

Her exact words: "You learn fast because you are serious about everything you do and very focused... but you are too serious! You need to relax, or your singing will sound stern."  Hmm. 

Anyway, we've begun on me singing in Italian - so that I start afresh and won't have much chance to develop bad habits, now that I am under strict supervision. Lascia il lido, e il mare infido......

Work has been awesomely fun as usual. One of the girls, J, even brought her charming, furry friend to sit in our class today. His name is Carrots. I am sure that he enjoyed himself in our class.

Carrots even got to pose for a photograph. He must be feeling like a celebrity now.

"Hi folks! *Blows flying kisses*"

I must say that teaching those in the 4-8 years old age-group is really fun even whilst it is often hard work especially with regards to laying good foundations. I love the fact that the kids I teach are so comfortable and spontaneous in bringing their treasures and "friends" to class for me to appreciate and say "Hi" to. Makes my life extremely interesting. These kids are very, very honest too - the things they say sometimes are so sincere and unadulterated that they either make me burst into laughter or enable me to hand out "spot-on" encouragements. I can be as silly as I want with them (of course within boundaries) - and nobody would bat an eyelid. What precious moments and blessed times!

Signing off for the day. Addio!

<3