
It has been three months since I received the scholarship so here is my update.
It has been a tough couple of months health-wise but hopefully, things will get better now.
This AAAF scholarship has helped me a lot in so many ways.
To begin with, it helped with my music studies this year. I have learned many new singing techniques to help with my breathing and for holding notes longer. One of these techniques is called the iron gate. This is for when I am doing my counting vocal exercise. It helps save the air that you have in your diaphragm. When you are using the iron gate technique, you say a number, and then you lock all the air back up by closing your mouth.

The other way it helped me is that now I’m able to have more time in the studio with my teacher.
Thanks to that I am able to learn harder songs for my exams now. I have been learning some amazing songs by various artists and from various genres. Some of them are by ABBA, some from musicals, and I have also learned some rock songs by Avril Lavigne and classics by Olivia Newton-John.
These songs are all part of my preparation for my grade 3 vocal exam, which will be coming soon. I will also be doing another grade at the end of the year which wouldn’t be possible if not for the scholarship – so thank you AAAF for allowing me to have that.
But the biggest benefit to all this is how much I have improved not only in singing but also in how much more focused I am. It is a lot of work to prepare for exams and I had to learn to manage my time better to fit it all in.

I am more focused, but also happier. Singing makes me happy and forget about the little troubles or snarky comments from kids at school about my hair. So I really hope I’ll be able to keep singing for more years to come.
Hopefully, on my next check-in, I can share the results from my vocal performance exam with you all!
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