Out on Facebook, Fred Leewenburgh wrote a comment on Rebecca's page, when she remarked that Arta and she were still at the Lake, while her broken shoulder was getting stabilized for travel. He said:
-------
Did you know your Mom gave me my voice back?
This was an amazing thing for me to hear.
Why?
Because when I was in grade 4 music class the teacher asked for volunteers to sing. I volunteered. Afterwards the "music teacher" said that I could not sing and that I should never sing in public again.
From that time on I never tried to sing again in any kind of formal setting including church choirs. In church I would sing but generally rather quietly. I did however sing to myself or along with the radio if I was alone.
To hear Arta say that I had a rich/nice baritone voice gave me such a boost that I began to be more confident in my singing. I knew that she was talented in music and her opinion was valued. While I did not go on to be a "great singer" she gave me the confidence to sing out loud. Later as I grew older I would practice singing while driving between Calgary and Edmonton. I would put in a cd and try to sing as close as I could to the performer, often hitting the repeat button numerous times.
Much later I was chatting with a friend who was exceptionally talented musically. She could sing and play the piano. She was talking about how quite a few people would ask her to play for them for a musical number in church. During that conversation she made the offhand remark that she would sing a duet with me. I took that as a compliment and more proof that my 4th grade so called music teacher was neither musical or a teacher.
Please thank Arta for her remark. I never thanked her for that boost she gave me .
ReplyDelete"Sometimes when I am walking around my own home, can hear someone singing, and think that's weird because i live alone. Then i realize it is my own voice I just heard.
Re music, Fred, when I hear my voice and I don't realize I have been singing, that is when I know I am very happy. This could partially be because have been trying to learn the lyrics to one new song a day (or a week if the song is hard). I pretty well missed the 70s and the 80s (at least, the pop songs from that period), since I was busy keeping the recipe for bread in my head, and wasn't thinking about memorizing lyrics. As soon as there were grandchildren around, I began memorizing all the songs from the book "Sally Go Round The Sun" so that I could seem to be (for them) a more interesting grandmother. In fact I was remembering this morning that I taught one little set of 5, 6, and 7 year olds "The Twelve Days of Christmas". A very pleasant memory for me now.
Thanks for the lovely story, Fred Leeuwenburgh I love the sound of the human voice. I wouldn't have asked whose beautiful baritone voice I heard if that were not the case. So touched that you connect my name with music and with having a voice. Any singing teaching would be thrilled to have heard such a story, and I got the story just because of a bit of hot bread with honey and butter. You, Fred,surely chose the best set of music lessons possible: put on the music, sing along, and match the tone! Thanks for the memory.