I just don't know what to do. i don't know if i'm good enough, if i

Question:

I just don't know what to do. i don't know if i'm good enough, if i should do something better w/ my time.

All i've ever wanted to do was sing, ever since i was about 3. i have taken dance classes, singing lessons, been in local musicals, in a show choir that performed at disney twice, and in church choirs ever since. i want to go to college for vocal performance and pedagogy, but i just don't know if i'm good enough. i emailed one of my old vocal coaches to ask her what books a few songs were in because i was going to use them for my audition for vocal performance, and this is what she said (copied and pasted from the email):

"Hopefully you are getting some vocal coaching before your auditions. Have you thought of entering the music education program instead of vocal performance? I think you would make an excellent teacher."

she's always been sort of condescending towards me and my singing. she always told me i shouldn't go for performance, but that i should go for music ed. which i sorta don't want to do. i'd rather do private lessons.

and i have a new vocal coach now, and she's

Additional Details

3 days ago
(continued) she's supersweet, but when i told her i wanted to major in vocal performance in college, i could see in her eyes that she was thinking "WHAAAAAAAT?"

i just don't know. it's all i've ever wanted to do, and honestly, i can't really do a whole lot of other things. i get good grades, and i make jewelry (whoopdy doo), but everything else i've done is singing, singing, singing. i just don't know what else i'd do.

i just don't know if i should forget about it and do something better with my time and stop fooling myself into thinking i can actually go to college for this and do something good with my life through singing. i don't know what else i'd do, i have no experience in anything else. and when i apply to colleges, on the activities, it's going to have years and years of singing experience and that's it.

it's just hard. i guess i'm just sorta stuck.

3 days ago
btw i sing classical music, and that's the direction i want to go in. i can comfortably hit a high e above the staff. the colleges i'm applying to are state colleges.

i just don't want to make a fool of myself.

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: 3 days ago
(continued) she's supersweet, but when i told her i wanted to major in vocal performance in college, i could see in her eyes that she was thinking "WHAAAAAAAT?"

i just don't know. it's all i've ever wanted to do, and honestly, i can't really do a whole lot of other things. i get good grades, and i make jewelry (whoopdy doo), but everything else i've done is singing, singing, singing. i just don't know what else i'd do.

i just don't know if i should forget about it and do something better with my time and stop fooling myself into thinking i can actually go to college for this and do something good with my life through singing. i don't know what else i'd do, i have no experience in anything else. and when i apply to colleges, on the activities, it's going to have years and years of singing experience and that's it.

it's just hard. i guess i'm just sorta stuck.3 days ago
btw i sing classical music, and that's the direction i want to go in. i can comfortably hit a high e above the staff. the colleges i'm applying to are state colleges.

i just don't want to make a fool of myself. Maybe your old coach want you to be prepared for what you don't want to hear. You may have a beautiful voice and many of your friend may love hearing you but maybe she feels it is not enough. I would love to hear you if you want to send a tract my email. I love to sing also NEVER, EVER, EVER give up on your dreams. Go for it with 100% of who you are. If it doesn't work out, after you have given it your all - then make another decision, but don't change your mind before you even give it your best shot that you can. You will never regret giving your dreams a chance, even if your dreams end up a little different than what you first imagined, you will always know you honored your passion and that will help make your life very successful. If singing is something YOU want to do, and it's something that makes YOU happy, then go for it. Don't worry about what your teachers think, if it's meant to be, it's meant to be. I think you should go for it, I really do. Good luck! I think saying you are going to school for Vocal Performance is the equivalent of saying you are going to school for Music Performance or Acting. (Not that you aren't any good at singing, but that not everyone who wants to do it, makes it) Perhaps that is the reaction you are getting, and not one of them thinking you suck or aren't good enough. Does that make sense? If you want to do something, do it for yourself. If you change your plans, you will question and wonder and resent. You can always major in Vocal performance, and minor in something else that you enjoy, that you can fall back on, (education or whatever)

Best of luck to you!!! My suggestion to you is try for vocal performance and see if that's what you want in life. If you like it, stick with it. If you don't then change to another major or a different career. Also there's a test that the ACT provides which will ask you a couple of questions and tell you what you're good in. Go to www.act.org it's a career builder test I think. If you can't find it, Google it. Good luck. Greetings. if singing is your life, then sing. why limit yourself to trying to sound like someone else, which is what you have to do to sing classical music. why not simply be yourself and sing? Is like wanting to make music but thinking that only classical music from the old country is music will only get you to mimicing those who played it in the past. Why not try popular music, or ballads or love songs, country western or modern rockabilly even. you may find that you have unnecessarily limited yourself to being only a carbon copy when you could well be a original. if you have the voice and can find interesting songs to sing then you can break out of your shell and your doubts and like a flower open your pedals and let the real you shine in your own space and not someone elses. there are already how many copycats in classical music? and how much market is there for them in the modern world? not much. try opening your wings and flying instead of trying to make yourself over into someone from the past. a imitator of anyone is not very highly valued by society. Maybe you could become a new Joan Biaz or Momma Cass. or even another of my favorites Rita MacNeal
or Celine Dion, both from Canada. Both sing modern songs with classical voices. Hope you don't waste your life trying to be a imitation of someone else and become you to your full potential. like the army slogan goes. "Be all you can be" believe in your self first. Someone told Pavarotti he'd starve to death as a singer. Well, guess not.

If someone forbid you to ever sing again, how would you feel? If you love it more than anything, do it. No one believed I would be able to sing as high as I do, but I just decided I would do it. Someone said "Only the fearless can be great. You have to be willing to try things that may not work."

You still might want to try other things though. No experience is truly wasted, it helps you grow as a person. And that will give your music more depth. Good luck. What matters is what's in your heart.

The hardest thing about being a performing musician is making a living. You can sing professionally and still teach. Most musicians end up doing both - to pay the bills and to pass on their knowledge. But that doesn't mean you can't make it big.

Keep taking lessons, keep believing in yourself, follow your heart no matter where it takes you - it won't lead you astray.

If I had followed the advice of "performing is the hardest gig to do and make it," I would have never been a part of some fantastic performances, once-in-a-lifetime amazing events, or seen tears drawn out of my audience because of my "voice".

Just go for it, dig in, grab every opportunity, and reach as high as you can.

Your heart will never be the same if you don't.