Soft tone

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"A soft tone is the foundation. If you don't have a soft tone, you can't sing," Jarmilla explained. Jarmilla is my new voice trainer. She lives in a big, wide-opened house in Kroondal, with an avenue of trees introducing her house. She leads me into a corner of the open-plan house where stands a grand piano, and she asks me about myself, and tells me about herself.

Jarmilla is Czechoslovakian. Her husband and her now consider themselves South Africans because they have lived here over 40 years. And she wouldn't move from Kroondal. She is happy here. And so am I! I think I must have the best of luck to have this marvelous teacher just 10 minutes away from my workplace. She truly is marvelous - we start the lesson despite my 20 minute delay. I never saw the "Rex" sign so I kept driving another 8km when I should have turned right. Got there with 8 minutes to spare, but she still took me on. So grateful!

You know when you are doing something and you just know with absolute certainty that there is absolutely nothing you would rather be doing. Well, that was me - doing voice training exercises where you repeat sounds like MamamamaMamamamaMamamama and go up and down the scales, and obey when she says "close your mouth" and "make like you are yawning" and "breathe in through your nose" and "higher". Thank God she also said "Very good" a couple of times to encourage me.

In the car on my way home I was telling God that I had never been this excited before - in my life! And surely that must have been true. Because this is something I wanted to do since ... and now I am going to sound like a real teenager ... forever!

The time has finally come, I thought on the drive home. And I am over the moon. Howling at the moon. Thanking God for Jarmilla. Then promising God not to make her into an idol. Then attempting "Midnight", then cursing myself for being too ambitious, then wishing I had a drum to roll. A soft tone, I keep thinking, I just need to practise my soft tone this week!

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