Booking the time in South Taranaki

A few days after that singing fiasco, I was talking to someone and they advised, even though you may not be able to sing, there are other ways of gettting your songs out there.

I ws intrigued, even though the dream of standing on stage in front of thousands of people cheering and singing along had evaporated, the dream of making a possible living out of songs had taken a different turn.

Asking a guy named "Phil" at my local music shop what I could do, he told me that there was a recording studio right there in South Taranaki, under the shadow of the mountain.

Still with my ten sets of lyrics in tact, I made the call and explained my situation, and booked some studio time for the next week.

Finally I thought maybe this is a step in the direction I'm meant to be taking?

Singing??

Over that next week, I wrote what I thought was ten songs, just the lyrics, no music at that stage.

I was quite proud of myself, I figured that was easy!

Of course I had very little idea about structure of songs, certain words hitting certain marks to make the song more powerful and memorable.

My next objective was to find someone who could put music to these words.

Luckily, I had a friend who had played music for a long time to enlist the help of. I gave him a few sets of the lyrics to work on and see what he could come up with.

At the same time I knew I needed to see some personal progress. So to help with my voice, I sought out a singing coach.

Now travelling to the appointment I had high hopes. Feeling nervous, I knocked at the front door.

I can't remember who answered or how I came to be inside, it was all a bit of a blur.

All I can remember is starting to sing the national anthem and then being told to come back in a few years when my voice had matured.

What a crushing blow for a hopeful pop or rock star!