Hi friends. This week's theme is something you want to learn/wish you knew how to do. There are a lot of little things that I wish I could do (ride a skateboard, sew or knit, perfectly cook rice so it's cooked but not mushy) but I thought I'd use this post to talk about some things that feel a little less attainable to me.
1) Learn sign language (or any language besides English): Out of the three skills/activities I have listed, I think this is the one that I'd be the most likely to pursue. I just think it's a good thing to know. Especially for education. If I had more time at Smith I would have liked to take an ASL course at UMass but who knows maybe when I graduate I'll work at it.
2) Get better at singing: This might be a surprising one considering I'm in choir haha, but honestly I've never really viewed myself as a singer. I think I can carry a tune pretty okay which is how I did acapella in high school and how I'm doing choir now but compared to people who train their vocals I know nothing about singing.
Something that I feel like is not really talked about unless you take vocal lessons or are in some sort of class is how much of singing is psychological. Of course, being able to sing on pitch is important but I think there's an unnecessary amount of weight put on that sometimes. You've probably heard this before but your voice is just like any other instrument. If you're trying to play a C but doing the fingerings for a D it's just not gonna happen. Singing is the same way. If you're trying to hit notes but don't know how to breathe properly or support the note it's probably going to be really difficult to sound the way you want to sound. And it wasn't until I joined choir that I started figuring out what some of those things meant in terms of what it feels like to breathe correctly, or what it feels like to lift your soft palate, etc.
I guess this is all a long winded way of saying I think it would be fun to go back to the basics and actually learn how to sing. I've learned a lot in choir just from singing with people that are better than me and from having a teacher who has a deep understanding of choral music, but I wonder what it would be like if I did lessons or something. Lessons are pretty expensive though so for now, I think I'll stick to those "vocal coach reacts to *insert name here*" videos, there's a lot of good info in those too.
3) Some form of dance: I don't know much about dancing but I think it would be cool to learn how to tap dance. Kind of like with languages, I'd be happy if I could do any form of dance but if I could pick I'd pick tap.
I don't have much else to update you guys on. I've been trying to get better at using my manual camera settings so here are some attempts at that:
So far, I'm finding it challenging but I kind of like it because I can make the pictures look closer to what I actually see.
Anyways, have a good weekend everyone!!!!
I’m also interested in ASL! I knew a bit when I was a young babe but I forgot all of it (except the alphabet for some reason 🤷🏾♀️). Maybe we can learn a bit of it next semester together :D Singing is an interesting skill. Cuz hypothetically anyone can “sing” but it honestly takes that je ne said quoi in order for it to actually be beautiful. And I think singing coaches and singers know what that je ne said quoi is. So I think the fact that you know what it takes to actually sing makes you a singer at least in my opinion 😊 Dancing is a great skill! I think it’s a great way of expression, imo. Also, I like…
I really want to learn asl too it would be so easy to talk to people from afar lol. And I think dancing is important! Tap dancing would definitely fit you! You know despite it’s very white reputation it has very African roots (kinda like country music). And i love the pics my fave would have to be the rooftop ones. Idk why but it evokes a sense of home and the fleetingness of summer, do you feel that ?