A few years ago, I was invited to sing for a choir, for a concert they were practicing for! It was a whole new lot of choristers and very new music I was going through. I followed what I’d always done; sung out and in doing so made a mistake, and watched startled as a member in front turned around and glared! “You made a mistake!” he said as I grinned at him.
“I know!” I said later, “Which is why I have come to rehearse with you all!” “To make mistakes?” he asked grinning now. “To learn from them!” I said smiling back. “If I hadn’t sung out, your conductor wouldn’t have pointed out where I’ve gone wrong!” He smiled and nodded.
We parted as friends but as he walked of, I remembered an incident: In my unforgettable college days, a boy who sang next to me in the college choir never made a mistake. Not once was he pulled up by the professor who took us, but one day this lad ceased to be a member of the choir. He and his voice were never missed. The professor told us later why he had let him go. “He did not sing loud enough for anyone to hear him” said the professor, “as he was scared people would hear if he made a mistake and laugh at him!”
And my mind goes to another little boy at a skating rink, where he is learning to ice skate. People watching him are concerned as he keeps falling, “Son!” says an observer kindly, “Hold onto the fence, then you won’t fall!” “Sir,” replies the little fellow, “I have come to learn to skate, and have to keep trying till I stop falling! If I hold onto the fence I will never learn to skate!” I went home that day after the rehearsal, opened my music score and duly noted the place I’d bawled out where my voice was not needed to be heard! But I know I won’t do it again, because in making that mistake, I know where I went wrong. In life, learn to sing out loud in whatever you are doing! And no doubt you will make mistakes and get corrected, but by doing so you will become perfect.
The best of public speakers, chefs, and other professionals will tell you about their many loud mistakes, and like them, remember to be heard, rather than allowing others to hear your thundering silence because you were too scared to err..!
