Sunday, March 18, 2012

Why the Fear?

Sunday musings...

I have seen this via facebook statuses/stati,  heard it in emails enquiring about voice lessons,  listened to it in the studio...

It hides in excuses, true ignorance,  avoidance,  and more excuses. It is simply fear.

Why are we afraid to pursue what we know we need?

What can we waste energy making excuses about why we don't have the training,  the knowledge, the accessibility into a discipline , and not just use that energy to CLAIM IT fully?

If you want to sing, NEED to sing and would be a better artist if you learned HOW to sing - why are you not doing it?  Why are you not committing to it fully?

As with every discipline,  singing takes time, focus and development.  It takes physicality, athleticism, practice.  It takes study, realization, understanding,  gestation.  Just like the discipline and craft of dance, just like the discipline and craft of acting.

If you call yourself a singer,  why aren't you studying?  Why do you make excuses?  Why do you blame everybody else?

Study isn't simply going to one lesson, or several lessons.  You aren't going to learn how to sing in 4 lessons,  you are not going to learn the craft of voice nor the pedagogy of technical behavior overnight.  You aren't going to learn ANY craft by wandering in once in a while.  It isn't just the time in the studio with a teacher that understands the voice.  It is about what you do between those lessons.  Development is ongoing.  Development comes from a desire and passion to KNOW; TO LEARN;  TO EXPERIMENT;  TO STEP AWAY FROM THE WALL and actually DO what you say you want, or DO what you say you do.

Do not give me the excuse that you've had horrible teachers. We all have.  We survive or we don't.  That is a choice.

Do not give me the excuse that you haven't had the training.  Then train.

Do not give me the excuse you didn't know.  Now you do.

All of these excuses and all the energy it takes to make them could easily be put into positive motion by one simple choice to DO it.  What stops it?  Fear.  Fear of what?  Learning something?  Being a better you?  A better artist?  Or is it fear of making a mistake?  Fear of not being good enough?

So I ask, why would you decide through fear to NOT study and still pursue a career?  What do you have to say to yourself to walk into an audition knowing you are not truly prepared?  Knowing that you really don't know what you are doing?  What do you say then?

Is the fear partially afraid of being found out?  The delusion of excuses may persuade your psyche that you are fine the way you are for YOU, but it becomes evident very quickly that you are not fine to everybody else. 

If the desire to learn, to be a better self,  to be a better artist simply doesn't motivate you, then why are you doing what you are doing?  Why are you hiding in plain sight? 

Saying "well I don't need to study" reveals your ignorance and your arrogance.  It won't be forgotten.

If you are in a discipline where voice is crucial to your ongoing development in the business, you are responsible to develop it.  The business isn't.  A teacher isn't.  A coach isn't.  YOU ARE. 

The first question is "why am I not studying?"  Answer it honestly.  Recognize what the answers reveal about you and what they prevent you from doing.

Do you know what the business requires of you?  Are you meeting those requirements?  The competition of self, and the pursuit of getting a job is exhausting.  If you aren't in fighting shape to bring the best you,  why are you doing it?  Is an excuse going to get you a job?  Is potential going to get you a job?  Will you be able to keep that job or get subsequent jobs if you cannot DO it?  Who is responsible for that?  You are.  You and only you. 

If you need to find a teacher, find one.
If you need to find a new teacher, find a new teacher.
If you need to build audition material,  find a class, find a coach, find a teacher,  that will do that with you.

You cannot build audition material if you don't know your voice.  You can't know your instrument if you haven't studied to discover what it is.  You don't know what it is til you claim it.

There is no room for fear.  Fear find us when we linger in ambiguity.  If we focus,  and make a commitment to SELF and follow through,  the ignorance of fear is shaken off because we have claimed knowledge and a journey that leads to more.

Are you going to commit yourself to fear?  Or are you going to commit to YOU and do whatever it takes to discover that artistic journey that leads you into a discipline you need to develop?

No excuses.  Fear or forward.  You decide.

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