My vibrato showed up while I was bouncing around in the car on the way home. Also, my students did me a solid by encouraging me to sing in front of a live audience for the first time. You’re the best, Chinook!
Media Logs
Vlog
Github Study Respository
Link to my Github repository containing music notes.
General Session Records
| Date Session | Duration (Minutes) | Public Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 2025-11-19 | 20 | Sliding lip trills. Octaves. Low notes. |
| 2025-11-21 | 20 | Low notes. Sliding lip trills. Octaves. |
| 2025-11-23 | 20 | Low notes, sliding lip trills, octaves. |
| 2025-11-27 | 20 | Sliding lip trills, vowel study, low notes. |
| 2025-11-29 | 20 | Vowel study, low notes, sliding lip trills, octaves. |
| 2025-11-30 | 20 | Vowel study, low notes, sliding lip trills, octaves. |
| 2025-12-01 | 20 | Sliding lip trills, octaves, low notes, vowel study. |
| 2025-12-02 | 20 | Sliding lip trills, octaves, vowel study, low notes. |
| 2025-12-03 | 20 | Sliding lip trills, octaves, vowel study, low notes. |
| 2025-12-04 | 20 | Voice hurt. Watched music lesson videos. |
| 2025-12-05 | 20 | Octaves. Sliding lip trills. Vowels. “I’m Still Here.” |
| 2025-12-06 | 20 | Octaves. Sliding lip trills. Vowels. “I’m Still Here.” |
| 2025-12-09 | 20 | Octaves. Sliding lip trills. Vowels. “I’m Still Here.” |
| 2025-12-10 | 20 | Octaves. Vowel study. “I’m Not Here.” |
| 2025-12-11 | 90 | Singing along to “I’m Still Here” with Caleb Hyles. Sliding lip trills. Octaves. Vowel study. Watching music lesson video. Watching intro videos to justinguitar.com |
| 2025-12-12 | 135 | Sliding lip trills. Vowel study. Octaves. Low notes. Watching singing videos. Watching guitar videos. Singing “I’m Still Here.” |
| 2025-12-13 | 120 | Guitar: eidelweiss chords and a short lesson on playing F chord. Singing: Eidelweiss, singing, vibrato. Sliding lip trills and vowel study. Singing “I’m Still Here.” |
Memories to Share
Best Students Ever
Last week, my amazing students at Chinook did me a great kindness.
When I was growing up, I played saxophone. My enjoyment of that activity led to many public performances, so I am accustomed to playing music in front of an audience.
However, the element of having an instrument to facilitate music changes the nature of the event. An instrument such as a saxophone is the result of mathematicians, artists, industrial designers, and thousands of other people over hundreds of years. When you play an instrument, a significant amount of the work is done before you begin. Push a button and the correct note sounds.
Singing, on the other hand, does not have this advantage. When you activate your voice to create a note, it’s just you and your biological makeup.
The level of vulnerability between singing and virtually any other instrument is noticeable. When you stand up to play your instrument, you can hold it in your hands for comfort. When you stand up to sign, your hands may be entirely empty.
My students encouraged me to sing last week. I was embarrassed, of course, because I am essentially a complete beginner in this art form. My students insisted all the same; one of the other students in the class even promised to sing after me if I sang first.
I gave in and performed Eidelweiss, with my students as my audience. The song went well enough for a beginner. My students gave me some encouraging applause after it was over. The other student also sang a beautiful rendition of Castle on a Cloud, from Les Miserables.
Chinook students are amazing. What a fun memory.
My Vibrato Showed Up
On Saturday, our staff members had a holiday party. I brought along my guitar just for fun, even though I don’t know how to play it. I figure that if I wait until I feel like I know what I’m doing to play around people, I’ll never get there. Therefore, I might as well try. While people chatted, I sat in my chair fiddling with the chords for Eidelweiss.
One of my co-workers knows how to play the guitar and sing quite well, and she responded to my request to play by performing some beautiful songs. That was one of the highlights of the evening.
On the way home from the event, I was humming Eidelweiss and my vehicle was bouncing on the snowy roads. The bouncing of the vehicle made my voice naturally wobble, and from there came vibrato.
Hearing some semblance of vibrato coming from my own voice was pleasing. I enjoyed singing in the car very much, and when I arrived at my home I took the time to record my voice while the memory was in play.
Even Prescription Drugs are Scary
I ran across this film on YouTube.
In the film, a little Kiwi discovers yellow drops on the ground. When the Kiwi drinks the drops, he (gender?) experiences a psychological high much like a drug addict. As the Kiwi continues to drink the drops, he starts to have less high moments, and the natural world becomes dark. At the end of the film, the Kiwi lives in a dark world and the experience of drinking the drops offers almost no high, or even any benefit at all. The viewer is left to wonder what the Kiwi will do next.
In my life, I have struggled with severe depression. At times, the depression has become quite extreme and I have needed intensive medical attention.
As a part of my treatment, I have taken a prescription drug called Clonazepam. This prescription medication provides a relaxation response that, in my case, helps me to go to sleep and get a good night’s rest.
Clonazepam is a powerful drug and has a high addiction capacity. I’ve always used it responsibly and have hardly ever needed it over the years, except at times of extreme stress. Whenever I take it, I notify my prescribing doctor so that I’m not taking it in isolation. As soon as the stress passes, I stop taking the pill.
What amazes me is that, even when I have not taken a pill for over a year or two, the pill still frequently comes to mind.
After every bad day, a part of me always asks once I walk in the door of my house, should I take a Clonazepam? There’s some part of my mind that has learned of this “easy way out” of stress.
Just take a pill, the voice says. It will all go away. Don’t even think about what comes after. You deserve it.
I’m grateful that this prescription medication has fit within the realm of my own strengths and capabilities. The biological technology of our modern day is miraculous.
All the same, I find the potentially addictive nature of even prescription medication to be frightening. I saw that film about the Kiwi and wanted to share my experience.
What are your thoughts, reader?
Artificial Intelligence Transparency Report
No artificial intelligence was used for the writing or performing portion of this blog post.
I used Google’s Gemini AI to help me create and manage my sql database for tracking relevant data. For example, I used Google Gemini to write a script that exports my singing data records from my custom PostgreSQL database and format the data as an HTML table.
How You Can Help
I need your help to become established as a teacher and storyteller.
Here is a link to a blog post that describes how a supportive reader can help me in my quest.
In short, you can…
Buy a copy of my children’s novella, Westly: A Spider’s Tale
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