Voice Lessons at BMI!

Hi friends! I just came back from a trial voice lesson at the Bahrain Music Institute and I was pleasantly surprised with the experience. The teacher seemed really nice, and though the set up was kind of weird (they schedule 2 students in a room for an hour and they each have 30 minutes with a teacher and 30 minutes of practice time) she was very informative and helpful. It was also interesting to get an indication of where I sit in terms of ABRSM grading for voice. She thinks I am at grade 5 judging by some of the pieces I showed her, but as there is a sight-singing element to the examinations, I would need to really hone those skills if I wanted to sit that level exam. We went through some sight-singing exercises and I am working very comfortably at a grade 1 sight-singing level. I will be sure to try and practice those skills! The main reason I recently started to seek out a teacher is that I found out how little time I have to prepare for auditioning for a performance degree at university. I will need to submit my audition by the end of June, as I will be travelling during the official audition dates at the end of July. Unfortunately I will have to do a video audition, for obvious reasons. I thought it would be good to get back into regular practice and have the guidance of someone who knows what they are doing. She's no Megan though. *cries*

I am also hoping to start beginner guitar at this music school, but that all depends on how cheap I feel. (Dad, you could always help me out on this one...$$$) So far I have just been self-taught on guitar for 6 months, which may have been a poor decision, but it's definitely a cheaper one. (Notice a theme here?)

Also I just wanted to mention a cute moment at school last week:

The teacher I'm with often starts the day with asking her students how their weekend was or how they are feeling today etc.

Teacher to a student: "How do you feel?"
Student: I feel like a sunny day sliding on a rainbow!

I just thought that was the most poetic and innocent thing I had ever heard. Lyrical gold. Kids say the darn'dest things, don't they?