Let me tell you a story. My name is Dorothy and once I was a music teacher at a local school. One sunny afternoon a young lad came in looking for singing classes, well… that’s kind of my expertise. I greeted and invited him to follow me to one of our studying rooms so we could talk more and maybe even have a free class so he could have a taste of how we did things there. No strings attached.

One of the first things we do in our intake classes is to understand why people want to sing, what motivates them to be there, what kind of music drives them, etc. His answer was somewhat cute and unusual:

— I want to gift my wife a song.

He then followed by saying he did not have much time available and whether it would be possible to focus on only one song “Unchained Melody” by The Righteous Brothers. He did not want to become a professional, he just wanted to sing it to his wife and not make her ears bleed. He was all shy and insecure but at the same time, he showed a determination that we rarely see around.

Although the request was indeed unusual it was nothing I have never done before, helping someone present a unique song in a school presentation, marriage, party, etc:

— Yeah, sure! We can do that. But this is a technically challenging song so I hope you are up for it.

— Sure, I will do my best.

We went through the subscription, pricing details, and schedule our first lesson for the following night. He really didn’t want to waste time. During the class he was always focused and hard worker, practicing more than any of my other students and accepting nothing short of perfection. Although he was not the most talented student I had, his performance was getting better and better with each class. It goes without saying that I was feeling proud of it.

Two months passed, he had already got all fundamentals and we were trying to expand his voice range. The music he wanted to sing had a challenging dynamic and the climax section required a high pitch which he was not quite ready for, and yet his determination never faltered. Every mistake seemed only to push him forward.

I feel a little bit unprofessional to say this, but I think it does not matter too much right now so I’ll just say it. At that moment I was not only his teacher but also his fan. Not because he was a good singer, he was still just an OK one, but his attitude made me cheer for his success. His purposefulness was contagious. Other teachers were also rooting for him and more often than not came to watch his lessons (which made me jealous I got to admit).