Why I Finally Booked My First PT Session (and What It Taught Me About Teaching Singing)

Last week I finally had my first PT session with an instructor that I’d been wanting to work 1:1 with for a LONG time! And it made me wonder why it took me so long to dare to book the session.

I’ve been suffering from knee pain for quite a while, and I knew that I needed to do strength work in order to do what I love in my free time; to exercise, dance, and keep using my body to feel good, and to be able to keep doing the things I enjoy.

I knew it was a worthwhile investment.

But still, I hesitated. And it took me more than 6 months to take the plunge.

When I went to the session, I noticed all these thoughts going through my head.

Thoughts like: 

I shouldn’t be here.

 I’m not a gym person.

I don’t work out at the gym.

I feel embarrassed and don’t know what I’m doing.

I felt out of place and like I didn’t belong.

And yet…

She was wonderful because she was really calm. She told me where to stand. She kept everything really simple and focused on correct technique. And just being there was a really big deal.

And it made me think about my own students.

A lot of them say to me: 

I’m not a singer. 

Or: I’ve been told I can’t sing, so do I even have “the right” to take singing lessons?

And it was a great reminder of how important it is to keep things really simple.

Because something that seems really straightforward to me, because I’ve been doing it for so long, is actually a really big deal for someone who has never sung before, or never sung for someone else before.

The truth is, anything new can be incredibly scary.

And I think I had forgotten that, until I was on the receiving end again.

So I want to thank my PT for an amazing session yesterday.

She kept me really calm, and she made it feel doable. I woke up this morning and could feel that I’d used my muscles, but I feel great. And I’m actually excited for the next sessions and building on what we’ve started.

And it also made me think about my own teaching.

How important it is to remember what it feels like to be a beginner; that mix of nerves, self-doubt, and feeling like you don’t quite belong, even when you’ve made the right choice to be there.