I taught my one class and one clinic today. The diploma of worship and music students are great, I really enjoy teaching them. I had them sing a piece for me today. They have beautiful voices. There are only three students left of the five. I came to find out Rojith does attend NTC anymore. He was a having a hard with understanding English and decided to go home. Samuel went home to visit his mother while I am here. She has been very sick. Samuel was very interested in the classes and was super disappointed that he had to leave. I hope in the end everything will work out for Samuel. For now the three students that remain are making great progress. Aradhana has really come out of her shell. She wasn’t hesitant at all to sing for me. Which surprised me because she’s quite timid. Lazar and Titus have very pleasant voices. Out of all the students I’ve taught so far, they have to be the most malleable and responsive. I also had my regular afternoon clinic for non-music major students. I had a whole new batch today. They had tons of questions. I like their questions because it keeps me on my toes.
From the beginning this has been quite an experience as far stretching. I know I had to stop talking about missions and get out there already. When the opportunity to combine music and missions came along. I felt like it was something I needed to really think and pray on. I’ve never given classes in vocal performance, legitimately. I had to rise to the occasion and study up. There is so much to factor in when it comes to your voice. Using personal and textbook knowledge I managed to pull something together that works for the students to understand and apply. I focused mainly on teaching them about proper vocal health, breathing exercises, the anatomy of the voice in connection with the whole body and general music theory. I pretty much had to give them a semester class in an easy to swallow 3-week capsule. So far so good is what I hear. Bejoy (the music director) told me he was getting a lot of positive feedback. I was ecstatic to hear the students were enjoying the classes. It motivates me to work all the more harder.
After the afternoon clinic I stuck around to jam with a few of the guitar students. Woringam in particular is an amazing guitarist. We sang everything from Delirious? to Nickelback and even taught me some new chords. Voringam will be helping me lead worship for Sunday morning chapel service. I’m looking forward to it. Time got away from me because we were having such a great time. I forgot that we’re leaving for Nainital, India for a World Vision retreat. Everyone I’ve mentioned to about my trip has sung the praises of how beautiful it is. If it’s anything like Dehradun then count me in.
