Teaching an old dog new tricks

I have been singing all my life. In church in choirs or in the bath I have not been afraid to lift up my voice and sing. In small congregations I have given a lead by belting out the tune at full volume to help others sing along. In the choir I sang the bass line and was able to keep the line not least because I was always beside someone else singing the same notes.
But over the last few months things have changed. I joined the amateur dramatics and I have had to start again. For a start in the chorus you don't stand with the other basses - you are all mixed up on the stage so you have to try and keep your notes and listen out for others singing the same as you are whilst hearing mostly those singing  something totally different.
There is the times when members of the chorus come forward with a one liner solo. I was expecting to stand at the back of stage and grunt but no! I have two one liner solos to sing! There will be 400 people who have paid money for this! My previous experience hasn't really prepared me for this.
So yesterday I went for my first ever singing lesson. I learnt about warming up, how to stand, how to breathe and how to recognise my natural range and some tricks for trying to extend it. If only I had done this years ago I might have been on stage at La Scala by now - no perhaps not. But after that half hour I felt more confident and better equipped to do what I thought would just be a fuinl leisure time activity. So it is never too late to learn.... I hope.