Long ago in the far-off kingdom of Paris lived a young aspiring singer/actress named Heather. She loved the arts in every form from visual to dramatic to pageantry. The arts were essentially her life. However, Paris was not exactly the best place to hone one’s artistic skills…
Wait… Did you think I meant Paris, France?… nope.
Paris, Kentucky.
Yeah, yeah, enough with the “far-off” crap. That’s only true because it seems to be in the middle of nowhere. Now, don’t get me wrong. Paris is actually one of the most beautiful cities in America, but the fact that it’s in Kentucky somehow gives it a negative connotation to the rest of the world.
Growing up in Paris actually wasn’t as bad as so many of my friends made it out to be.
I see now that my sister and I were some of the lucky ones for many reasons. We grew up on a small horse farm that allowed us to fall in love with horses by grooming them, riding them leisurely and competitively, watching mares give birth, playing with the foals, etc. It gives you a whole set of life skills at an early age, most importantly: responsibility.
I was also lucky because my parents were both music teachers. Having a teacher in your household who’s good at their job also gives you a whole set of skills you never knew you needed. Having TWO teachers as parents kind of forces you to behave in school… needless to say I was a [mostly] focused student who had a passion for the arts that surrounded me.
If you know me now, you know that I am incredibly outgoing, typically too loud, sometimes too outspoken, but always knows when it’s time to work. However, back in my grade school days, I was the most backward-ass kid, especially in performance situations…
I knew I could sing, but because it was always someone else’s idea for me perform, I never wanted to. I even had people offering me bills as a kid just to get me to sing a line of “Hit Me With Your Best Shot” by Pat Benatar. Of course, my backward-ass brain refused. I wasn’t necessarily nervous, just embarrassed! The only time I would perform was for the camera with my sister. We had some pretty amazing renditions of Britney’s “Oops!…I did it Again” and BSB’s “The Call.” Unfortunately, they all resulted in us fist-fighting by the end of the video due to “artistic differences…” Every time I tell this part of my childhood, people always say, “Wait, why were you of all people nervous?! You’re so outgoing!”
Listen y’all… I. Don’t. Know. #backwardassmind
I eventually got over that awkward performance hurdle and participated in musicals, dance events, and singing competitions. I was even accepted to American Idol Camp in 2008 in California put on by the producers of the show itself. What a cool experience! Then the singing competitions… the more singing competitions I did, the worse the results became. No matter how well I sang, I could blow the roof off the place, and never won a single prize. Nothing. So many young performers have sensitive pride including myself, so those results discouraged me to no end.
As an unintentional form of expression, I started songwriting in high school instead. Guitar and piano were my only comp instruments. The only recording capability I had was an old Toshiba laptop and a 1990s computer conference call microphone. I only ever submitted a song one time to a competition, but it won an award! Finally, something I knew I had to look forward to doing with my talent and skill. Unfortunately, after the pressures of the millions of extra-curricular activities, the tons of organizations, and the multiple AP classes per year simply to have a decent college application, this part of my musical life sort of died.
Fast forward to C-O-L-L-E-G-E!
Northern Kentucky University. Ever heard of it? I didn’t either until two months before high school graduation… I remember applying because I thought I was going to be a trumpeter-turned theatre star, and I was impressed by the fact that they had a female trumpet instructor. Biggest selling point? I got in for FREE.
Many of you know that in college I was back and forth about being a successful trumpet player, an opera star, a theatre performer, etc. All of these have music in common, but what they also lacked was my own creativity. I became so incredibly unhappy that I was always regurgitating someone else’s work while putting my interpretation of the character or the piece on it. I felt like such a fake artist. Faking my way through opera, faking my way through theatre, faking my way through trumpet playing. I had so many amazing performance opportunities like singing as a soloist in Bulgaria and Austria to performing in the semi-finals of the National Trumpet Competition as a soloist and singing backup for Morgan James. Although I felt like I was putting on great performances, I never felt like I was in the right place. I hadn’t found my creative voice.
Fast forward to NOW…
The past few months have made me feel that I’m finally finding it. I am finally finding my creative voice. My niche. Whether or not I am successful at it right away, I am finally doing it. That’s all I can ask of myself at this stage.
I’m surrounding myself with people who are supportive and helpful at the same time, people who use tough love as a way to get me off my ass because they care, people who may be in the same spot in their careers as I am, and people with words of encouragement.
The point of all of this is to say I am diving into the music industry full force (or at least as much as possible because ya know, life). This is something I should have done back in high school when songwriting was first becoming a passion of mine. My guitar and piano comp skills suffered for a while, but I’ve been working pretty hard lately to get them up to where they were and beyond. So WOO! Celebrate your small victories. I’ve been songwriting like it’s nobody’s business, and I cannot wait to share it with the world. Charting/tracking/mixing/mastering takes so much time, but I am going to be documenting and sharing it with you along the way.
One of my good friends let me in on a fun little phrase to remember:
Document. Don’t Create.
…those are actually a celebrity’s words, but who cares who said it? It is simply the beautiful truth.
April 12, 2019
Heather Hale 
April 13, 2019 at 12:26 am
Nice story. Best of Luck. You ‘ll make it. Take care & enjoy. I Like, I Share, & I Follow. By the way: I like your wordpress theme.
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April 15, 2019 at 6:57 pm
Thanks so much! Means more than you know.
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April 15, 2019 at 7:30 pm
No probl. I’ll give you an advice, despite the fact that I avoid to give people advices, since they tend to misunderstand the motivation, which means they think I’m either crazy or a smart ass. .. lol . Anyway, all i want to say is this : don’t forget to write posts using pics of yours and videos of yours since you’re a singer. You have nice pictures and videos , copy paste the url in your posts. Additionally, upload a picture on the Gravatar, and ADD your social media on the Gravatar. Go profile to your wordpress profile, scroll a bit down and you ‘ll see the title “Profile Links” and the ADD button to the right. Add your social, whatever you have from facebook, insta, you-tube, a product you sell, a CD, your sound-cloud account. You can write a description too. One day you ‘re gonna say: Outosego was right, the Unknown, the crazy, the smart ass, the No -One. Cheers.
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April 13, 2019 at 10:31 am
It’s always exciting to see and hear what you are doing🎶🎭🎶🌹❣️
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