Shortly after I started first grade, I started taking voice lessons from a teacher in town named Joe Kincaid. “Mr. Joe” had a lot of students that had success in talent shows at the Mid-South Fair in Memphis. My cousin Sammy was one of his success stories. Sammy lived next door to us, and we sang together around the house. We also sang together at church with my mom accompanying us. Several of Mr. Joe’s voice students were kids that were my mom’s piano students.
I had a spiral bound steno pad where someone wrote the lyrics to the songs I was learning. When I started, I didn’t write them myself because I wasn’t fast enough or didn’t know the words that well. Reading music was never a part of these lessons during the few years I was involved in the program. I would learn the tunes by ear and memorize the lyrics. We would have at least a couple of shows a year. There would be big numbers that everyone would sing together. There were also performances by small groups like quartets. Then there were the solos. I never participated in any small groups. The main things I learned during these lessons was to become comfortable with being on stage while performing. Stage fright was a normal part performing. I found the earlier in the day of the performance I started getting it, the better it was by the time I was on stage. Now I find that I’m usually the least comfortable on stage when I’m in front of people that I know.
I also remember one country themed show where I participated in some simple square dancing. While I’m comfortable dancing around on stage, I’m not good at following choreography. Its best that I leave the dancing to the professionals.