What are Your True Colors?

DEAR
     Curious:
             Have you ever been surprised at how others describe your personality? I know I have, especially when people say that I am graceful. Since when did dropping things left and right connotate being graceful?

             In any case, it's fascinating to take a personality test to see your basic traits, so I've got a simple one here for you today! It's quick, easy, and you learn quite a bit about yourself! Take a look, and discover your true colors:

             To start, grab a pen and paper, then compare all four boxes in the row. Once you have a sense of the basic idea that each box represents, score each one from 1 to 4 depending on how well it describes you. 4: very well, 3: pretty well, 2: somewhat, 1: only slightly. Do this for all five rows, writing everything down so you can keep track!

Row One

Row Two

Row Three

Row Four

Row Five

             After you've written down the numbers for each row, look back at the colors of each box, and tally up the numbers you've paired with them: all orange boxes, all gold boxes, all green, and all blue. I ended with this: Blue: 18, Green: 12, Orange: 12, and Gold: 8. 

           After you have your tally, you can read these color guides to see your personality results! Everyone is a mixture of all colors, but we will all have a certain color that defines our personality more than the others. For me, it's blue! 

    

               So what color are you? Was it what you expected? 

With A Colourful Flourish,

Joélle.

You've Got Dat Technical Something

     Firstly, IT'S HALLOWEEN!!!! I've dressed up as a jester and as Tinkerbell. How about you?

    Anyway, on to the serious shtuff. I've been thinking deeply recently (never a good thing), and I absolutely do not like the sound of my voice. Scientifically, that’s normal. But still, shouldn’t I at least be able to cope with it a little? I am a singer, for sadness’ sake. Sheesh.

    I was discussing things with my vocal coach a couple weeks ago, and she said, “There’s really not all that much I can teach you. I’m just here to direct you and coach you here and there.” That made me feel like my hard work all last summer had paid off, but then I started thinking about it in a different way.

    I know I can sing. Don’t get me wrong. I’ve got a good ear, I can play a bunch of instruments, I know how to sing in key. Technically, I’ve got it all down. The problem is, I just don’t have that extra ‘oomph’ that some people talk about when discussing singers they love. My voice in general? Really quite average. There is nothing extremely special about it; I don’t have some sort of cool tone, I don’t have funky vibrato, I don’t really have super unique styles. Which, of course, bothers me greatly.

   I have a friend who is a fabulous singer, and she has a lovely voice- you know, one of those voices you can only be born with. Quite honestly, I am SO JEALOUS. However, her mother often mentions how she concentrates on her songwriting instead of her technical singing (the stuff I have down). Ideally, if you glued our DNA together, we’d be a singing machine: natural talent and technical knowledge all rolled into one.

    I know I beat myself down sometimes, but I suppose it keeps me humble. After realizing how I feel about all of this, am I going to stop singing? Hell, no! I am going to continue working even harder than I have been to get to where I dream of being: onstage; in a recording studio; working with other artists. Yes, I don’t have an amazing voice. But I can learn how to do amazing things with my voice. Music is my obsession. I even believe it may be my calling, so I’m going to keep following it until (or unless) something else calls me. Though truthfully, I hope nothing else calls me.