How the concert turned out.

As I planned to upload a video along with the post, I waited until now to write about how the concert was. I didn't get the video until Tuesday afternoon.

_{My choir members and I}

PS: I recommend that you put on your earbuds or earphones while watching the video.

When I first watched the recording without my earbuds, I hated the video and I hated listening to myself. In order to improve your singing ability, you have to listen to yourself sing. It'll help you figure out where you need to improve. This recorded video of me singing on the day of our concert sounds better when I listen to it with my earbuds.

After our final rehearsal on Saturday last week, my vocal cords started to become hoarse. I tend to lose motivation to sing when my vocals are tired and sound hoarse no matter how much I try.

During the final rehearsal, I was asked to sing my song and I was hoarse. I felt really terrible at that point because I knew the hoarseness would not disappear overnight. The most awful part of my nightmare was the fact that I had to perform the song the next morning.

I checked the time on Saturday evening when I got home and it was already past 8 PM. I prepared dinner for my son because I knew he was very hungry. We had a long rehearsal that started at 11 AM and ended at 8 PM.

_{My smiling son and I}

I searched YouTube for tips and home remedies to help my hoarse voice. I saw things like speaking less, or not at all, resting the vocal cords, drinking tea, and gargling with warm salt water.

Some specific tea was mentioned but I can't remember the name right now. However, I remember ginger because that was what I used. But before drinking the ginger tea, I added a pinch of salt to warm water and gargled for 30 seconds. I repeated this 4 times.

Another tip I saw was to breathe in moist air. Since I didn't have a humidifier, I made sure to close the window in the room. I ground two ginger cloves and poured them into a cup of boiled water, then I left it to cool off a bit before drinking it. While doing all these things, I wasn't speaking.

The next morning which was concert day, I gargled some warm salt water before getting dressed and finally left the house.

_{A selfie of me}

The normal routine was for us to rehearse that morning before performing. Even though the hoarseness was still there, I still sounded better than the previous day. In a few hours, those remedies seemed to have worked but my vocal cords needed more rest. Unfortunately, I had to perform the song that day.

When it was finally my turn to perform, I quickly reminded myself of @coquicoin's advice.

Surprisingly, it worked! As I pictured the congregation as the choir members and the event like an important rehearsal instead of a concert, I noticed that my heart which had involuntarily started beating fast the way it does each time it was time for me to perform, felt calm again.

_{My elder sister @treasuree, her hubby and I}

However, I had more troubles that day and it was hoarseness in my voice. If you listen carefully with an earbud, you will hear that hoarseness. I was happy about the fact that it was not as pronounced as it was the previous day. However, I was not so happy about the fact that it limited my range. I could hit most of the high notes because of the vocal situation.

_{My son and I}

I wonder why one would rehearse and have a successful rehearsal only to have the main performance fall short of expectations because of issues like that.

After performing my song, I felt relieved knowing that I did not have any other song to perform. Most importantly, I had fun all through.

We took a lot of group pictures after the concert and I also took a lot of selfies too hehe.

Coming Sunday, we will be having our Youth program and I am excited about that too.

Last week Sunday, we has our Youth rehearsal.

There would be lots of exciting activities. If we are able to record the program, I will share it here too.

All images are mine and the first image was designed by me on Canva.

Thank you for reading.