My first love was music; specifically drums. As a teenager, I listened into all kinds of rock songs, jazz drum solos, contemporary funk tunes…really any kind of drumming that I could get my hands on and try to imitate to the best of my abilities. I wanted to ‘become’ those drummers…growing my hair out to look like my favorite players; slowly acquiring the same instruments they used (translation: asking for equipment at Christmases and birthdays throughout my teenage years); and often donning the same clothes my heroes wore on stage–much to the dismay of my elders. I graduated high school feeling pretty darn good about myself, and just when I thought I knew what I was doing, I enrolled in college and discovered a whole new batch of pro drummers. Great. More painful practicing lay ahead. Awesome. (I can now say that I’m really glad I went through it all though!)
These days I’m on a similar path with voice work, and if I had to compare it to my musical journey, I’d say I’m somewhere between high school and college: I know enough to know I don’t know enough. For example, each time I finish a vocal session, I walk away wondering if I actually delivered what I THINK I delivered. As time progresses, I’m finding a convergence between these two–and that’s a good thing. I’m starting to feel as if I can accurately gauge my acting on the fly. 
I remember going through similar times in music: I’d have to listen to my drum tracks after-the-fact to really know for sure if I did the job. Later, as my skills improved, I could tell when things were going well or going awry without stopping. I’m looking forward to feeling that same level of confidence with my voice acting.
Just for fun, I’ve added a couple of YouTube videos of my drumming work. The first clip is an excerpt from an instructional video on contemporary jazz drumming (featuring music from legendary bassist Adam Nitti) released in 2000, and the second clip was taken at a concert in Japan where I performed with the R&B/pop group TLC.
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-Tom