Skip to main content

Life Lessons from Singing

Getting ready to perform in WSU's concerto night 2015
I love to sing! It is something I have always loved and a talent I have developed throughout my life thanks to my amazing parents and teachers. I have learned many life lessons along the way as I've learned how to sing. One of the greatest lessons I've learned is to be confident in myself and my abilities.

I think we all struggle with confidence at times. I know I do. The main thing I struggle with is confusing confidence with pride. I thought growing up that I was being prideful if I believed I was good at something. Actually, I'm still growing up and still get confused over the matter! In fact last Thursday night is when the whole pride vs. confidence thing really became clear to me, thanks to an amazing choral conductor I get to work with.

I am currently singing in a community choir in Provo called Millennial Choirs and Orchestras. It is an amazing choir. I am super impressed with the quality of the directors, music, and singers. It is also very intense and challenging! We are required to memorize all the music and the directors are only satisfied with perfection... which I actually love because I love growing as a singer.

We have a performance coming up this week so we have been working really hard to have our music ready. Some members of the choir...including myself at times.. have been feeling like they can't do it or that they aren't enough. I think our conductor knew some of us felt that way and he said something that made so much sense to me about confidence and pride.

He mentioned that society today is confused between confidence and pride. He then asked us as a choir to shout out words we associate with confidence. Here is what we came up with:
  • preparation
  • bravery
  • hard work
  • dedication
  • determination
  • strength 
  • worthy
He then asked us to do the same thing for the word pride:
  • comparison
  • selfish
  • stubborn
  • un-teachable 
  • arrogant

What I noticed is that all the words for confidence are positive and good and all the words for pride are negative. Confidence is a good thing! In fact relating it back to singing it is essential. I think nothing takes more confidence than performing in front of an audience. 

My amazing voice teacher Evelyn Harris that I have been studying with for about 7 years also taught me the importance of confidence. She coined the term "confident humility." She taught me in a way that built my confidence and self worth while still helping me grow and improve as a singer. She always believed in me even when I didn't believe in myself! And yes all those things can be done at the same time!!! We can be confidently humble and grow and become better without feeling discouraged and disliking ourselves.  I have found that change and growth work better when I am confident and believe in myself. Our little ones, husbands and all around us grow better that way too. Are we building them up with our thoughts, words, and actions? In order to build others up, we have to build ourselves up first. 

One last quote I just remembered! It kind of makes me laugh. Growing up when my mom would ask me to do something hard like practice the piano or clean my room I would say "I can't!!" She would always reply with this "Cans come in cans not it can'ts." My parents taught me that in order to accomplish something, I first had to tell myself "I can!" 

Whatever you are are trying to accomplish in your life... I believe you can!

Be you-tiful,

Cheryl




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

When God told me No

I am a singer. My grandma was a coloratura soprano and that’s what I classify my voice as too. Very recently I was working on singing in a concert with a tenor who graduated from Juilliard. I was going to perform 2 arias. An aria is basically a fancy word for a solo song in an opera. I was going to perform “Bell Song” from Lakme and the “Queen of the Night” aria from the Magic Flute by Mozart. Both arias are extremely difficult and only a very skilled coloratura can sing it well.  My voice teacher who I have taken from for years was preparing me for the concert. She is my mentor and has always told me that I could have an opera career if I wanted. That is what all of my teachers have told me. But I decided to choose a different life! I have two beautiful girls and a rock star husband. My biggest dream in life was to be a homemaker!!! That is what I am and I absolutely adore my “job” as a mom! My second daughter, Gracie, is only 9 months old. I didn’t realize it at the time but right af
5 comments
Read more

The Greatest Force in the World

A few days ago, I pulled my baby in my bed after she woke up from her nap and laid down with her. We had a rare moment where we were both still together. Usually when Oaklee lays down with me, she digs her fingers into my mouth or nose and pulls my hair. This time she put her hand softly on my face and for a little moment we looked into each others eyes. I could feel her sweet, pure spirit and this quote came into my mind.  "When God wants a great work done in the world or a great wrong righted, he goes about it in a very unusual way. He doesn't stir up his earthquakes or send forth his thunderbolts. Instead, he has a helpless baby born, perhaps in a simple home of some obscure mother. And then God puts the idea into the mother's heart, and she puts it in the baby's mind. And then God waits. The greatest forces in the world are not the earthquakes and the thunderbolts. The greatest forces in the world are babies."                                               
4 comments
Read more

Current Bio

Cheryl Fowers is a graduate from Weber State University with a Bachelor of Arts in Music. During her college career, Cheryl had the great honor to play the prestigious role as Queen of the Night in Mozart’s Magic Flute. As a junior, Cheryl performed for concerto night with her sister Olivia singing The Flower Duet from Lakme. As a senior, Cheryl was the recipient of the esteemed Craig Jessop Scholarship. Towards the end of her college career, Cheryl was again chosen to perform as a concerto night soloist where she performed Bell Song from Lakme. Around that same time she was excited to find out that she was also expecting her first child. Soon after she graduated, Cheryl and her husband Chad welcomed their first baby girl in the fall of 2015. Cheryl and Chad welcomed another baby girl into their family in the summer of 2017. Cheryl loves being a mom and considers it her greatest and most fulfilling “role.” Apart from being a mother of two busy little girls, Cheryl owns and oper
Post a Comment
Read more