What I Learned When Trying Out for The Voice

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I grew up with music. I sang songs I made up, along with the ones on our record player, as a preschool child. I listened to my mother play the piano. When I was six years old I began taking lessons myself, plowing through the John Thompson red books until I finally graduated to “31 Popular Songs You Love to Play.” It was the 1970’s, so that book included such timeless hits as “Theme from The Love Boat” and “Muskrat Love.” Don’t hate. I see you over there playing Uptown Funk. On the piano. Because my mother was musical and we were Baptist, I also sang in the children’s choir. I had a solo in the Christmas Production in third grade. By 6th grade I was tied of piano and decided to try the flute. I kept that up until 9th grade, when I traded in the flute for a baton. Oooo, sparkly! However, I never traded in singing. Voice was by far the easiest instrument because I always had it with me, and my lack of fine motor skills didn’t affect my ability to hit a high note.

In the summer of 1982, at youth camp, I got bored one day and wrote a little song while playing the old piano in the chapel. It was called “Jesus Is Only a Prayer Away.” It had three chords and sounded like a rudimentary Boston song, if Boston wasn’t very musical. The youth director asked me to sing it at chapel that evening. The music director got wind of it and asked me to sing it at church when I got back…