My First Concert

On the 22nd May, 2021 I checked off singing my first solo performance in front of an audience. I survived my stroke 3 years before, on 14/05/2018. It was my father’s 70th birthday. I had left middle cerebral artery ischemic stroke which affected my ability to communicate. I didn't speak for a week. I have Aphasia & Apraxia. Aphasia is a language is disorder that affects a person's ability to communicate, is not problem with intelligence. Apraxia is having difficultly planning & co-ordinating the muscles used during speech. The word finding was the hardest with the Aphasia. With the Apraxia, the fatigue was absolutely debilitating. Having to get the muscles moving in unison was really difficult. So, I began singing lessons in August 2019.

Singing uses right side of the brain. "When we speak, the left-hand side is involved – the part that controls word formation and sentence structure. But when we sing, it is the right hemisphere that we rely upon, to produce the rhythm and melody of music." Gerald Brookes, the Guardian.

Within a month of singing lessons I noticed I was speaking more fluently & clearly. As I continued with singing, the fatigue I felt in the first year of my stroke was dramatically reduced. I was no longer slurring my words by the end everyday, slowly in began to decrease every second day & then every third day and finally at end the working week I was experiencing fatigue. Then COVID hit. Wearing a mask all day at work from Monday to Friday, talking on the phone behind a mask really put pressure on speech. Singing lessons became via Zoom.

Then at end of 2020 there talk of concert. I thought to myself, why not make singing solo in front of an audience a rehab goal. I chose "Imagine" by John Lennon. I had sung the song in choir thirty years before. The choir leader told me to mouth the words. So hence, I never thought I could sing.

So here's is the link to my performance, you be the judge: