I love to sing. Both my parents were singers, and I grew up surrounded by music and singing. I made my high school show choir as a sophomore (which was unusual) and chose music over foreign language when my high school schedule would not accommodate both.
When I went to college I was suddenly a big fish in a little pond. I auditioned for BYU's Young Ambassadors--the university's signature "show choir"--but didn't make it. I didn't even make the concert choir, just the women's chorus. (You can tell by the way I worded it that this felt like a consolation prize to me.) I drifted away from choral singing, but fortunately had lots of opportunity for solo singing at church. As a full-time missionary, I even sang a solo on Thai national radio (which sounds like a bigger deal than it was!).
Over the years I continued to have opportunities to sing at church and even at school, where a teacher friend and I perform at school talent shows and lead the winter singalong for students. When I returned to choral singing three years ago, it was like being reunited with a dear friend.
A few years ago, I had the thought to make a recording for Dallas for Christmas. A teacher friend of mine has a soundproof recording booth, and Dallas and I went to his classroom after work on Mondays over several weeks to make the recordings. I'd step into the soundproof booth, and Michael--an amazing accompanist--would begin playing. It was just me and his keyboard, but it was such an incredible experience to sing. It became "incredible squared" on playback, and I could hear my own voice, paired with his accompaniment.
As near as I can tell, Michael loves to tweak recordings at least as much as I love to sing! A few weeks later, he sent us digital copies of the ten songs I had recorded with him. What had been my voice and his keyboard now included full orchestration, percussion, and even--in some cases--background vocals. He made me sound good!
This experience led me to draw an analogy between my singing/recording experience and our lives here in mortality. Although I like to sing, I'm not perfect. I'm not even close to being the best singer I've ever heard--not to mention the singers I haven't! But a friend with some interest, talent and expertise in sound recording/mixing took what I could do and turned it into something amazing, far beyond what I could do on my own, and vastly exceeding my expectations.
Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles said it like this:
"[The Savior] can reach out, touch, succor, heal, and strengthen us to be more than we could ever be and help us to do that which we could never do relying only upon our own power." https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2014/04/bear-up-their-burdens-with-ease?lang=eng
That's what the Savior does. We bring the best we have to offer--imperfect but earnest--and He transforms those offerings into something amazing. And if we let Him, He transforms us into more than we ever imagined we could be.
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| "Music Note Bokeh" by all that improbable blue is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 |
When I went to college I was suddenly a big fish in a little pond. I auditioned for BYU's Young Ambassadors--the university's signature "show choir"--but didn't make it. I didn't even make the concert choir, just the women's chorus. (You can tell by the way I worded it that this felt like a consolation prize to me.) I drifted away from choral singing, but fortunately had lots of opportunity for solo singing at church. As a full-time missionary, I even sang a solo on Thai national radio (which sounds like a bigger deal than it was!).
Over the years I continued to have opportunities to sing at church and even at school, where a teacher friend and I perform at school talent shows and lead the winter singalong for students. When I returned to choral singing three years ago, it was like being reunited with a dear friend.
A few years ago, I had the thought to make a recording for Dallas for Christmas. A teacher friend of mine has a soundproof recording booth, and Dallas and I went to his classroom after work on Mondays over several weeks to make the recordings. I'd step into the soundproof booth, and Michael--an amazing accompanist--would begin playing. It was just me and his keyboard, but it was such an incredible experience to sing. It became "incredible squared" on playback, and I could hear my own voice, paired with his accompaniment.
As near as I can tell, Michael loves to tweak recordings at least as much as I love to sing! A few weeks later, he sent us digital copies of the ten songs I had recorded with him. What had been my voice and his keyboard now included full orchestration, percussion, and even--in some cases--background vocals. He made me sound good!
 |
| "day048" by hdaniel is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 |
This experience led me to draw an analogy between my singing/recording experience and our lives here in mortality. Although I like to sing, I'm not perfect. I'm not even close to being the best singer I've ever heard--not to mention the singers I haven't! But a friend with some interest, talent and expertise in sound recording/mixing took what I could do and turned it into something amazing, far beyond what I could do on my own, and vastly exceeding my expectations.
Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles said it like this:
"[The Savior] can reach out, touch, succor, heal, and strengthen us to be more than we could ever be and help us to do that which we could never do relying only upon our own power." https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2014/04/bear-up-their-burdens-with-ease?lang=eng
That's what the Savior does. We bring the best we have to offer--imperfect but earnest--and He transforms those offerings into something amazing. And if we let Him, He transforms us into more than we ever imagined we could be.
