Do You Know?

It is March.  Thank the Universe.

Spring is now possible, even though as I type, there is light snow falling.

This post is really about the questions you need to ask in your technical and artistic development.

I am always amazed, and yet not surprised at many singers' lack of knowledge of their instrument.  This can be for many many reasons honestly, so this is a general overview.

I was asked last week if I could tell singers and developing artists one thing that could help them,  what would it be.

And here it is, without hesitation: ASK QUESTIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

DO NOT BE AFRAID TO ASK QUESTIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(enough exclamation points for you?)

No one expects  you to have all the answers.
Nobody has all the answers.
Questions lead to answers or exploration or more questions.

That's what this is all about!

Sometimes you have to ask a question to simply find out what question to ask!  That, too, is fantastic.

From a purely technical, behavioral perspective,  do you know what building your physical instrument is going to take?

Do you know when the actual vocal mechanism reaches maturity?

Do you know what "reaching maturity" actually means?  (hint:  you aren't done when you mature!)

Do you know what the process is for YOU as you progress toward vocal maturity?

Do you know HOW you are building the instrument?

Do you know how the support mechanism works for YOUR body?

Do you understand how the basic vocal mechanism functions?

Do you know where your lungs are?

Do you know how to care for your instrument?

Do you recognize the athleticism of your vocal instrument?

Do you care?

Are you afraid to ask questions?

Are you excited to ask questions?
 

As a teacher, my job is to find the singer where she/he is.  Not to start them again.  I have to figure out where you are,  and access what you know, what you don't know, how you learn, how you respond. 

Guess what?  As a teacher, I ask LOTS of questions:  of you; of myself; of my research, of my experience, of my knowledge, of my intuition.

In asking lots of questions to discover MORE,  I expect the same of you.

It is YOUR instrument.  It is YOUR development.  It is YOUR journey.  YOU are responsible.

Development isn't passive, it's active.  It's action-filled.  It's exciting, and frustrating, and annoying, and thrilling and amazing.

Remember that person who never asks direction and thinks they can figure out how to get there and they never do or it takes all day and a tank of gas?  Remember how much EASIER it would have been to simply ask the gas attendant how to get there, cause he lives in the area and would actually know????

ASK QUESTIONS.  If you don't get the answers that help (not always the answers you are comfortable with btw) then go find someone else that can answer them.

You are never beholden to someone but rather, responsible for you.  You are responsible for your development,  and therefore, responsible to ask the questions, to find more questions, to discover more answers, and in more answers, more possibility.

So if you don't know.  ASK.

Ask some more.

Asking questions reveals a desire for truth and understanding. 

If you know WHY you can replicate the behavior.

If you don't know why,  you wander around,  and find yourself back in the same place wondering how you are still there.

So, do you know?

I think it's time to start finding out!

Why Do You Sing?

Musings this Sunday morning...

It's a simple, yet highly personal and highly complex question.

Why do you sing?

Don't try to answer too quickly.  We are always looking for "sound bites" and pat answers.  This is not that type of question.  At least, not to me.

Why do you sing?

YOU.

Not, why do you THINK you sing.

Not, why did you START singing.

Not, who do you sing for?

Why?
You?
Sing?

Often these are the questions, or this is the question we forget to remind ourselves of as we journey through the development of the craft of voice,  of being a performer, of developing our artistry, of juggling and struggling to make ends meet as we pursue the business of show, or not.

We can feel so discouraged, or angry, or grouchy, or disillusioned, or bitchy because of the business, the struggle, the rejection,  the tiny morsels when you are really starving - that we forget the answer to this question;  if we ever truly claimed the answer in the first place.

How would you feel if you didn't sing?

What would you do if you decided NOT to sing?

Perhaps those questions can help to create an angle to allow you full access into why you DO sing?

The clearer you are about why,  the more focused your day becomes.  The more focused your day becomes, the more open the journey becomes.  The burden becomes lighter.  It is a burden CHOSEN by you,  not placed on you.

We all have a choice.  If you are trying to pursue a career,  you can often feel as if all the choices are not yours.  In fact,  the choices of why and how and when in many cases are still very much in your control and in your power and decision to DO something about them.

 So, why do you sing?  I mean, really?  Not the answer that your teacher wants to here;  not the answer you give your parents;  not the answer you think everybody wants to hear after this length of time trying to be a singer;  not even the answer YOU think you should give to make yourself feel better,  feel important,  feel crucial.

The answer is often in the shadows when the lights are off;  in whispers;  not because you are ashamed of the answer,  but the answer becomes too personal to reveal to anybody else BUT YOU.

Nobody needs to know why you sing.  People will speculate.  People will tell you THEIR answer. 

Your answer is really all that matters if you choose to answer it honestly,  and claim it fully.

There is not a right or wrong answer.

There is only YOUR answer.

Your answer then reveals TO you about you;  and where you are supposed to be next;  and what the next question is;  and who you ask that question of.

The question AND the answer will keep you grounded as so much around us is trying to give us artistic amnesia.  

Keep asking the questions.  The REAL ones.  And keep clearing space to find the REAL answers.  Nobody has to approve,  disapprove, like or dislike.  The question is real,  and it deserves a real answer, that only YOU can provide.

Ask it,  discover the answer.  YOURS.

Google is your Friend...

Sunday musings...

Perhaps it is being of a pre-computer generation,  where "pounding the pavement" literally meant getting up,  and taking materials into casting offices;  where searching meant going to the library,  knowing the Dewy Decimal System and finding books with information;  when you sent inquiries via hand written letter with a stamp on it and waited for the response;

What I am finding lately,  is that the computer generation - information literally at your fingertips - is separated not by your talent per se,  but by your ability to type in your question to a search engine or not.

What has not changed,  and will not change,  is the human aspect of this:  curiosity,  and the willingness to do the work to find the answers.

Whether it is literally pounding the pavement,  or whether it is discovering the right questions to ask and where,  THIS is what often separates the wheat from the chaff.

Nobody can hand you a career.

Nobody has all the answers.

Nobody can do your work for you.

YOU have to do it.

So how do you start?

Sit on your bum,  in your pjs with your coffee beside you and begin a list of questions of things you want to know.  Let that list develop as things occur to you.

So often,  I see this "list" posted on facebook pages,  or forum message boards.  This my gentle snowflakes,  is your INSIDE list.  Nobody sees it but you.  Don't share your inside list.  You need to absorb that list and let it gestate internally with a pen and paper or on your hard drive.

As the list develops,  then start asking the questions by typing them into that search engine called Google.  Yes,  Google is your friend.  Google isn't going to say "that was a really stupid question";  Google isn't going to laugh at you;  make fun of you;  chastise you;  Google is simply going to provide you with some valuable sites it feels may answer those questions.

Then,  YOU pour over the "answers" and see if what you are reading helps your query.  Maybe it leads you to another question.  Maybe it fulfills the question.  Maybe you gain information that can allow you ask an even more specific question.

The questions you pose via anonymous forums or message boards reveal much about you.  First,  nothing is that anonymous.  Second,  the world is small.  Six degrees of Kevin Bacon remember?

How do you want to be seen?  Does your question reveal that or does it reveal something else?

If a question you ask of someone or a place is something that the more knowledgeable see as an easy "Google" question,  you are marked as lazy,  clueless,  and a whole bunch of not particularly nice words. 

People in our business are more than happy to help each other,  if they see the person asking is doing their work and finding their answers!  We are the first to smack you upside the head if we see you asking questions that are easy to Google and show your unwillingness, inability, or pure laziness, to simply type and hit send.

No question is stupid when it comes from common sense,  your ability to reach out and find answers, and truly want to know. 

Even though things have changed in how quickly we can access information,  some things have not.  It still comes down to your ability to research,  to discover,  to know how to ask the right questions,  to recognize and follow the breadcrumbs.

Don't give up.  Keep asking the questions.  Ask those questions in the right places, and absorb the answers.  Don't make excuses for the answers if you asked the question.

So pour another cup of coffee,  take a big breath,  and begin the "inside" list.  Then open that browser,  and type in that question and hit send.  You will be amazed at what you find!

Ever try to exhaust Google?  I dare you!  It will then lead you to the human beings that can specifically answer your SPECIFIC questions based not on your lack of knowledge, naivete, or laziness,  but rather, based on your research and your discoveries.

THAT is what we want to see.  Performers and artists that are willing to DISCOVER for THEMSELVES.