My STEP Signature Project was a five-month journey of learning to play the piano and build on my singing skills. During the project, I had 19 weeks of singing and piano lessons with my instructor, Nick Taylor.

Before the start of my project, I thought that I couldn’t sing any song I wanted to and sound good/effortless like I had seen other singers do. Now that my project has ended, I learned that staying true to my voice, keeping in mind technique, and modifying the song to fit my voice (changing notes to be in a more comfortable range) disproves my original assumption.

I also feel like I better understand the mindset I need to have while singing and playing the piano. For singing specifically I need to think about breathing from the diaphragm. For both singing and piano, I need to stay relaxed and believe in myself.

In the initial lesson, my instructor adjusted my breathing technique. He told me to sing from my diaphragm and not lift my shoulders when taking a breath. This new technique has become very natural for me. It has allowed me to not let air escape and it creates a fuller sound. I think that this is what created the biggest difference in my voice.

Each lesson I would warm up my voice. There was one warmup that stood out to me, though. It’s descending and goes “ya, ya, ya.” The goal of this warmup is to relieve any tension I may have; the instructor said that I should sing it as if my mouth was injected with Novocaine, a numbing agent. This gave me a visual of how I needed to sing and prepared me for more singing.

Also at the initial lesson, my instructor talked about imitation, which is singing like the actual singer. I sang “The 1” by Taylor Swift at my initial lesson. After I was done, he asked if I could sing it in full voice/not breathy. At first, I thought that it wasn’t going to match the song stylistically, but the result was much better as it was more supported and suited my voice better. He then picked songs that were from Broadway/movies. One song that I worked on, “On My Own” from Le Misérables, was probably my favorite song that I sang during lessons. It allowed me to work on supporting low notes just as I do high notes. It allowed me to belt and develop a character all while keeping everything supported. I think the contrast of the two songs made me realize that I can sing whatever song I want, I just need to sing with my voice.

Throughout the project, I always felt that my playing and singing were better if I was relaxed, and I thought about what I needed to do without overanalyzing it. I had never played the piano before, so I was learning a brand-new skill. About halfway through the lessons, I got a supplemental piano book that had more challenging pop songs in it. Sometimes keeping the rhythm was a challenge for me. In addition to staying relaxed, I just had to believe that I could play those songs and keep practicing.

This project is significant to my life as it allowed me to become more confident in my voice and add to my musical skills by learning piano. Music is something I value, I listen to music, sing, and now play piano to relieve stress. I like that I can resonate with music, and I can adjust the genre I want to perform/listen to based on my mood. This transformation carries over into my personal, academic, and professional plans as it has helped me feel more confident in my musical abilities, thus adding more happiness to my life.

I am in the practice room where I had all my lessons!

This is my keyboard and piano books that I practice with at home!