More than Singing Lessons - Unlocking The Power of Expression

I just needed to put this somewhere and get it out of my head.

This time last year I started teaching singing lessons. I'm known in my circle and community as a singer. And randomly one of my friends asked if I would teach her how to sing.

I'd studied music and took a singing teacher certification a couple of years back, so I said, "Sure". Surprisingly it went really well! She liked it a lot and actually paid me money for her next lessons, lol.

Long story short, I decided to start teaching on this platform called Wyzant and by January I had 9 more students, who actually kept coming back every week.

I was grateful for the growth, but I felt like an imposter and I didn't really like teaching people "how" to sing.

I never learned "how" to sing. It's a natural God-given gift. To be a better teacher I started taking a couple of singing teacher courses, so I could get a better understanding of what singing is.

However, I just didn't like it.

And one lesson was the "straw that finally broke the camel's back".

It was with one of my younger students who was just discovering her voice and was initially pretty shy. As we continued her lessons, she started coming out of her shell and discovered she wanted to write and sing some of her own songs.

This excited me!! It was no longer about just teaching her to sound better or sing louder. It was helping unlock her creativity and bring it to life!!

My other students wanted to sing other people's songs and sing LIKE other people. But she wanted to express herself using her God-given instrument.

That's when I discovered that didn't want to teach people "how" to sing. I wanted to help them "to" sing. I wanted to help them unlock their creativity and expression.

I stopped teaching singing lessons after that and walked away from all of it.

I wanted to create a space or community where people would come and feel safe to express themselves through singing. A place where I can help them unlock their creativity.

This hasn't happened yet. I'm not entirely sure how or what to do. Or even why anyone would want to do it.

But the thought came back to me today and I needed to get it out of my head. Maybe there's something to it. Maybe not...