Tips, Tricks, and Magic Sprinkles

Sunday morning musings...

So what are the magic tips and tricks for singing?

Lean in...
Closer...

Guess what?

There are none.

There are no tricks or magic sprinkles to immediately fix or find something vocally.

Just like the quick weight loss and quick muscle gain are hoaxes,  so are the snake oil promises in vocal technique.

There is nothing glamorous,  or bright and shiny about the WORK.  And that is what technique and voice building and vocal behavior is.  WORK.

There is nothing glamorous about getting to the gym and sweating it out.

There is nothing glamorous about bleeding feet in a ballet class.

See where I am going with this?

Creating behavior,  creating technique,  creating knowledge, is EXCITING.  It's worth the sweat equity,  it's worth the focus,  it's worth the investment - only if you believe it is.

As a teacher,  I can't believe it for you.  I am there to give you the tools,  to find you where you are,  to figure out what you need and how to get you there.  However,  YOU are the one who has to do the actual WORK.

"Methods" and "quick fixes" are usually a "one size fits all" mentality.  They never last.  It's a patch job in desperation.   Will it work for minute?  Sometimes.  Does it last?  No.

When something new is accessed in the voice studio,  it doesn't make it behavior.  It means you can ACCESS it - which means the possibility now exists to create the full behavior!  Doing it once, hoping it works,  doesn't make it work.

Your WORK and your FOCUS and your COMMITMENT will give you an opportunity to create it fully and allow you to summon it at will.

If you call yourself a singer,  then sing.  That means honing, learning, discovering, re-discovering, creating, focusing,  asking questions,  and working at it every day.

Whatever you ARE,  DO that.  It is action-oriented not hope-oriented.

Whatever you HAVE,  DEVELOP that.  Saying you have it,  isn't enough.

If all you want is glamour,  without the sweat equity,  then I suggest you take a look carefully at Mr. Sondheim's lyric from "Ah, but Underneath":

Sometimes, when the wrappings fall,
There's nothing underneath at all...


Dare to make mistakes.  Dare to ask questions.  Dare to recognize where you are.

Dare to ask for help.

Dare to ask why.

Dare to be more than a trick or a hope or a wish.

Dare to have substance, and clarity,  and focus.

My hope for you is that you find truth through your technique.  That you keep exploring MORE to allow your artistry to have a place to reside fully.  That you can access it,  summon it,  and CREATE magic.

Magic DOES happen.  It happens BECAUSE, not in spite of;  it happens in action,  not in fluke;
it happens when you have done the work,  and it has SO much more power and portent than you would even imagine - because, it's YOU.

So,  as your fairy godmother,  I do not wave a magic wand.  I see you.  I mirror what I see.  Now get sweating and find your truth & your honesty!

  Create your own magic.

Then, OWN IT.

but can you belt that?

Happy New Year!

Here comes the audition season in full swing!

So - how's your terminology?

This is why I ask:  there is a great deal of terminology in craft, and singing is no different.  We toss around words like "belt",  "mix",  "placement",  and hear "breathe low",  "project" and on and on.

Do you REALLY know what these mean?  Or are they just getting in your way.

First thing,  you have to know your instrument.  Your physical instrument.  Where are the damn parts?  What do they actually do?  How are interconnected?  How athletic do you have to be to access what you need?

Second thing,  you have to figure out how to translate what you are being told.  Many of the words we use, or the words we hear,  are not literal,  but as singers, many of us translate literally.  At least I am guilty of that.  It got me into lots of trouble.

Then I studied anatomy and acoustics and said "DUH".

I am not saying you have to do that - but I am saying that if you say you are a singer, you better know some stuff,  not just toss around the words.

So many of the terms we use as ass-backwards anyway.  Just like stage direction.  Until you really understood "down stage right"  you went the wrong way and had to think about it!

The "terms" are thrown around by singers, teachers, coaches, casting directors, directors - everybody in the industry.  You are not going to tell me that they all have the same definitions.  They don't.  After 30 years in this business, THEY DO NOT.

So,  what's a singer to do?

You MUST find the reality of your instrument.  What happens physically?  How do I translate that?  How do I access that?

You ask questions:  of your teacher  (you DO have a voice teacher, yes?),  and then translate with your coaches and then further translate when you are in the audition room and a casting director, or music director, or director asks for something and you have to be present enough to figure out what they are asking and then what they are REALLY asking.

You have a set of vocal cords.  One larynx.  Resonators that are shaped by YOUR body structure and soft tissue.  Breath.  Physicality.

You don't have a bunch of "different" voices to "put it into".  YOU HAVE ONE VOICE.  You have numerous registers,  but ONE VOICE.  Until you fully discover how to access this,  you can be frustrated when you are asked to sing in different styles.

Style informs tone.  Your voice FIRST.  Wrap the style around that.  Don't think you have to change your voice to access a style!

Learning to find this authenticity gives you authority in your audition and in your performance.

So,  I dare you to toss out terminology that is getting in your way;  embrace terminology that allows you to access YOU fully and consistently;  Develop the physical awareness of HOW you sing;  Explore what defines a style as opposed to "putting it into an xyz voice" to sing a style.  The stylistic definition will then give you permission to still sound like YOU!

When you are given an adjustment or asked for something in the room,  be present enough to figure out what you are REALLY being asked to do.

Industry/Casting are not pedagogues.  We cannot expect them to have the detailed knowledge of how a voice functions or how it develops or how it works.  So guess what?  YOU have to have it.  You have to know how to translate casting language,  which often uses the same words pedagogy does,  into the language YOU understand to access the end result they are looking for.

An ongoing issue is being asked  "can you belt that?"

What do they really mean?  Really belt?

Not necessarily.  If you try to do what they SAID,  you will often be met with "no, that's not what I wanted."

So, guess what? YOU have to figure out how to translate what is being asked.

Often times,  "belt" is associated with a vocal INTENSITY.  If the voice is lacking energy/intensity/vibrancy,  casting or a coach will say "you gotta belt that more".  They don't know what they are asking, but they know it if they hear it.

YOU have to translate that,  figure out how to discover that intensity and vibrancy,  and adjust to show them you can translate it.

And on and on it goes...

Make a list of those "terms" or those "adjustments" you are told or being asked for;  then see if you can explain them out loud or in writing for yourself.  If you can't, take them to your teacher and riddle it out together.

You aren't in this alone!  We all want you to succeed!  Casting wants YOU to be the person they can hire - they really do.

If you aren't prepared,  if you can't translate,  if you haven't found your authenticity yet,  you need to keep discovering that.  You must learn to KNOW YOU; to DO YOU;  to BE YOU in the audition room and in the coaching studio and in the voice studio.

Learn to listen;  learn to translate;  learn to stay present;  learn to see exactly where you are, and
what you need to do in access everything you are growing into.

Your voice and where it resides is all about YOU.  It's not about mimicking a voice;  it's not about putting it into a voice;  It's about finding YOUR voice and how your voice can begin to inhabit the styles you wish to sing in.

Do you and keep committing to that while you study and discover,  while you audition and discover,  while you perform and discover.  Don't dial it in - stay present and engaged!

What is Vocal Technique Anyway?

happy Fathers Day!

First and foremost,  you aren't going to learn to sing from this blog post.  You aren't going to get any 'vocal tricks'  (because they don't exist!) but I hope I can give you some solid information and clear some things up.

Lately there has been so much misinformation,   pseudo-information,  kinda true kinda not information,  being thrown around via blogs, or websites, or YouTube videos.  The age of immediate information via the Internet is always a double-edged sword as you still have to wade through it to find what is real,  who is offered the knowledge and does it make sense.

There was a blog post that was being talked about that dismissed "classical style".  Two words that have no meaning unless they are connected to something.  The young man making these statements has since made his blog "private" which is probably a very good thing,  and sadly doesn't realize what he doesn't know.  I am not linking anything of it here. 

Many singers and teachers are not clear enough about what technique is and how it layers fully.

To dismiss a style or genre just because you don't do it, or understand it,  has no validity. 

When asked if I "teach opera"  or "teach music theatre"  or "teach pop or jazz",  I respond with:
"I teach the singers who sing in these genres."

There IS a distinction.  To teach or sing a certain style or genre ASSUMES you already have access to your instrument fully enough to wear that style.

THIS is technique.

Technique is the true access to the behavior of the instrument in order to work with it fully with ease and clarity in order to move into the genre you say you do.

Great technique develops as behavior.  Physical behavior that is developed over time,  and honed and crafted in subtle ways as one grows and develops in one's craft.

Great technique is not a quick fix.

Great technique is not SEEN - but allows a style,  a genre,  a character to have a place to revealed fully.

Great technique is going to allow you access more of your physicality in order to do what you say you do or what you say you want to do.  It should lengthen your singing life,  not exhaust it.

We often call great technique,  be it voice, acting or dance,  "classical".   Why?  Simply because we are working for a balanced neutral to fully access the FORM of what we do.

The form of what we do always begins and ends with the athleticism of the body,  the breath and the alignment.  Its function is to find a balance of resonance in the vibration of the tone we produce.  Its function is to find a full elasticity of register,  of range, of dynamic;  to develop a physical and buoyant legato as well as an ease and finesse of movement.

Notice, NONE of these things have ANYTHING to do with style.  Style then informs that form.

Vocal behavior must come first.  It must be what we go back to in order to discover without value judgement, what our instrument does and what it needs.

What do great dancers do no matter the style they are dancing?  They go back to the barre.  Back to neutral.  Back to the basics.

If you are an opera singer then you can develop further operatic technique,  and stylistic technique depending on the genre and the composer.

If you are a theatre singer,  then you can further develop specificity to traditional legit technique, or contemporary legit technique,  or belt technique.

If you are a jazz singer,  then you can further develop specificity to register technique, mic technique, use of language technique.

And on it goes...

So often we put the cart before the horse.  We try to develop stylistic technique into the physicality before that physicality has had time to develop,  to understand and to create a place to reside.

This is when we often have to "redo" our technique.  Discovering physical behavior is a constant in our lives as singers.

Asking WHY we work the voice the way we do is crucial in developing the physical knowledge of what it allows for.  If we don't know WHY we cannot make it behavior.

A teacher's job is to find the singer where they are - physically, emotionally, intellectually - and where they are in their physical behavior technically and how they process.  It's work!

As  a teacher,  I am going to demand as much from myself to find you as I do from you to ask the questions to find you too!

So let's consider calling vocal technique what it really is:  an athletic physical behavior that develops the body and the vocal mechanism to allow full access to the instrument in order to begin to develop authenticity in the styles and genres we want to sing in.

Let us not confuse the term "classical" with anything but developing FORM.

Is your voice building or isn't it?

Can you access what you say you do?

Do you have the physicality to access the stylistic techniques in order to be authentic in that style?

Find your instrument first.  THAT is alpha and omega of vocal technique.  It doesn't have a value judgement.  It doesn't have a style or genre.  It's just about you.  What YOUR instrument does when it finds its truest form and can access itself fully there.

You aren't going to know what your voice can do until you actually create a place for it to reside!

So,  drop the wrapping of the style for a moment,  as scary as that may be,  and dare to find what what is REALLY underneath....


https://soundcloud.com/susan-eichhorn-young/10-ah-but-underneath

The many kinds of "singer" and study!

So many kinds of "singer" out there - and I am not talking about genre.

How do we define a "natural" singer vs an "organic" singer vs a "musical" singer?

Again, I hate boxes and labels so this is always difficult for to make generalizations so let me just begin to shape ideas...

I believe truly and honestly that singing by a physical definition is an athletic activity.  Some singer simply have the physical athleticism to do this.  Some do not.

Just as there are "natural" athletes and "learned" athletes there are singers in the same vein.  They both must have the physicality.  The "natural" athlete also has easier access to that physicality,  whereas the "learned" athlete has the physicality but may have issues they need to develop or overcome in order to access that physicality.

So it could be said for singers.  Some have the physicality and nothing in the way to access it.  This, to me, is the natural singer. However, this does mean that the natural singer KNOWS what they are doing.  They just simply do it.  Until they cannot. 

The "learned" singer must discover how to access their physicality.  These are the singers that might have physical issues, tensions, imbalances etc that through ongoing technical behavior can access the athleticism they can develop.

The "organic" singer seems to find what they can do within the limit of the talent, or the excess of their talent and discover the voice and the place that voice is best suited.

The "musical" singer could be an organic singer, or a natural singer, or not as natural physically singer - but has incredible color and ability to exude musicality and style in their singing while overcoming some physical issues in technique.

Before anybody gets their panties in a wad, I am oversimplifying.

Even the most "natural" voice still has to develop it.  A "natural" voice doesn't mean it is musical.  A musical voice isn't necessary a natural physicality. 

What a natural voice can do without training earlier on in development can be astounding.

What a musical voice can achieve can be moving and remarkable.

Some singers have exceptional physical gifts;  some have exceptional musical gifts;  some have exceptional interpretive gifts;  Few have all three in equal measure.

Regardless - you as the singer - need to figure out what you have and how you DEVELOP IT.

Even if you are a "natural" singer - it means nothing if you can't access what the music demands of your instrument.  The music, the craft demands you hone and develop.

If you are a "natural" athlete you have to decide what you are going to develop with that physicality and what sport best exemplifies it.

If you are a musical singer, you must find a physicality that you can rely on in order to access that musicality fully through your developed and rebalanced athleticism.

Regardless of the "voice" - it is up to you to HONE THAT CRAFT: physically, athletically, musically, dramatically, spiritually, organically. 

This is just the beginning - so let's explore this in the following days and weeks ahead!

We can want but if we cannot DO it is fruitless.  We must recognize, and simply be honest enough to develop what we have, and who we are.  Even the most "natural" of us will not be able to sustain without knowledge and development and clarity of how we do what we do.

So let's delve in shall we?

Let's find YOUR voice and make it uniquely YOURS.

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.

What is your Personal Narrative?

Saturday musings...

What is your personal narrative?
We are all the star of our own play,  but what are you saying to yourself?

I believe personal narrative has to be a form of stress management.  We do need that.  We need to believe in ourselves.  However, at a certain point,  are the voices in your head helping you achieve your truth, or getting in the way of hearing the truth?

That personal narrative can be a crutch, a lie, a deception, or it can be a protection mechanism that creates another reality from being reached.  If it gets in the way of a larger truth,  it stunts us - as human beings and as artists.

By nature, artists have the capacity for self-doubt.  We need to question.  This is part of the process of growth, discovery, creativity and creation.  Creating and re-creating that personal narrative is so important to a healthy development as an artist.  However, what are you really saying?  What are you actually doing?  What does it allow you to explore and what does it prevent you from seeing/doing/becoming aware of in yourself?

Such a slippery slope, that personal narrative.  It can either keep you open to discover,  or it can close you off to self deception.  It can excuse ANYTHING you choose not to view in the reality that IS.

If you want to isolate and insulate yourself fully from the world,  then that personal narrative doesn't need constant examination.  However, if you want to be SEEN in the world,  that personal narrative needs to arrive at an honesty that allows you to LIVE there too.

Is your narrative full of statements or full of questions?  And if it has questions, are you asking the right ones?  Are you only asking the ones that YOU can answer, and thereby protect yourself,  or are you asking the ones someone else who has more knowledge/understanding/experience  could provide for you?

Sometimes the answers are surprising.  Surprisingly useful;  revealing;  lift weights;  Sometimes they are hard to swallow.  Sometimes they hurt.  However, those answers that could re-create a healthier personal narrative have to challenge where you ARE.  Sometimes they DO hurt - not because they are aimed to hurt YOU, but rather because they pose a truth that YOU have resisted and couldn't deal with - then or now.  If it hurts, there is still a possibility to change that narrative.

Yes, there will always be people who want to hurt - but let's not go there.  Let the questions become: why does that hurt?  Why does that sting?  Why does that make me uncomfortable?  Why do I get angry when I hear that?

Perhaps those things that are hard to swallow, or seem to hurt are actually going to give you freedom to see a deeper truth that you need to adjust that personal narrative and focus where it was cloudy.  Perhaps you didn't know it was cloudy - and when the fog clears,  it is a relief to see what is truly there and move through it!

The honest truth in a larger sense is this:  not everyone is a world class voice.  Not every world class voice works.  It is okay to be what you are,  develop what you have and pursue where you are.  First, you need to know and claim where that is.  That is part of the narrative.

It is okay to be just where you are.  It is okay to develop a personal narrative that reflects that.  It is okay to feel sad you aren't where you would like to be, where you thought you would be, and simply take the truth of that and make it part of the narrative.

Stress management does not need to be another form of reality!  Stress management as personal narrative can give you room to FEEL and to ask the right questions to get the correct answers to be YOU as an artist and as a singer (or actor or dancer or performer of ANY kind!)

What are the right questions?  Perhaps that is the first step and the first question.