If you want to develop character and respond instead of react when people want to give you what they call constructive criticism, take a singing class!
 
During singing classes, you are required to be completely open and sing from who you really are.  Most people feel that singing is only about the sound that they are producing, but it is much more than that.
 
When you sing in front of an audience, you cannot hide. Your facial expression and body language will TELL your audience exactly what is going on inside of you.  So, in order to sing a song properly with the appropriate emotional content and proper technique you need to sing for REAL by being vulnerable.   
 
Being vulnerable in front of an audience is something you need to get use to so you can feel comfortable sharing who you are and knowing that whatever people say about you is their opinion.  What you say and think about yourself will always be more important than what others say and think about you.   
 
Others can critic you all they want, but YOU are the person putting in the effort, doing the work and taking the risk.   As a singer you cannot be concerned about what other people think about you, you have to know that you are sharing something wonderful, YOURSELF, with the audience.  No one else is like you, no one else does and thinks like you.  You are worth sharing.  If you are willing to stand in front of people and sing a song from your point of view with your own interpretation, for real, then you are courageous.
 
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man (woman) who points out how the strong man (woman) stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man (woman) who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself (herself) in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the
triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he (she) fails, at least he (she) fails while daring greatly. So that his (her) place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”     -Theodore Roosevelt
 
Singing classes build character and develop skills!  
 
By Roxanne Goodman