My voice teacher was relentless. One of those naturally gifted people with incredible range and a natural ability for tones, she sang like an angel, but I found her less than angelic. She was able to correct my tone-deafness and get me to sing on-key after almost an entire year of work, but then she fired me as a student. She told me that I simply did not have the type of voice that would ever make it in a high school choir, and that I should focus on another hobby. Those words devastated me. I had spent months mowing lawns, earning money for her lessons, and I had done all of the silly exercises she prescribed. She had helped me gain a voice that was tolerable, but that still was not pleasurable for most people to hear. I decided to stop my voice lessons and to restrict my singing...
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