Article originally posted on Medium.com
I recently connected with a friend from high school who has gone on to be something of a
musical composing genius. Asked if she would give me an honest review of my music course called Singing By Ear, where I teach people how to listen to artists, identify their singing “thumbprint” so to speak, and then sing like them — she gladly did.
However, when it came time to give me her feedback, I was terrified. What would someone so classically trained and technical think of my little humdrum course?
What if she tells me I’m a fraud because I didn’t include anything about music theory?
What if she makes fun of the way I present my course because it’s not written in musical notes?
Will people think I don’t know what I’m talking about?
“It’s great!” She announced. “The world needs this. Especially the academic world. They have an accessibility problem and this course makes singing accessible.”
I can’t tell you how much I needed to hear those words.
Only months earlier when I was approached about putting together this singing program, I hummed and hawed.
Sure, I’d had a Billboard charting dance hit, several hits in the trance music industry, had performed all over the world and published over 200 song titles. I was known as a vocal chameleon who could sing Celine Dion to Joni Mitchell to Patsy Cline…but was that enough? Where were my formal credentials?
Again, back to that word. Accessible.
The thing is, there are a lot of people out there with learning disabilities, like mine, who struggle to learn new languages, including the language of written music and the theory that goes along with it. And in many cases, we let that hold us back.
Not anymore. I want my lessons to be as accessible as possible. You don’t need to care about music theory, you don’t need to know how to read music, and you certainly don’t need any special instruments or gadgets.
All you need are 10 minutes a day, your voice, and the desire to want to hear the world a little differently.
If that’s you. I think I can help.
