Me? Getting in my own way?

Happy Daylight Savings Time to those of us who lost an hour over night.  

There are no coffee rules today.  Who am I kidding?! There are no coffee rules any day.  Drink it til you can move things with your mind!

I am giddy because maybe, just maybe this horrible winter is over.  Although as I type, I am seeing white crap falling from the sky and 30 minutes ago it was brilliantly sunny. 

I do know it's warmer, because my weather app says so.  Let's hope that is true and spring is truly teasing us into something better.

So what about you?  How's the audition season?  How was the audition season?

Where are you at in your process?

How many times have you heard over the years: "Stop getting in your own way!"

What the hell does that mean?!?!?!

Well, in all honesty I do not know.  I cannot know since I am not you.  These things are personal, journey-driven,  craft-driven,  self-esteem driven. 

So, what I can share with you are ideas that may help you find out how to get to that elusive and universal question for yourself, in order to find the answers.

When we want something so much,  the idea of being still seems counter productive.  Yet, wanting can lead to drive, can lead to over-zealous, can lead to single-mindedness, can lead to craving, can lead to trying to do too much, can lead to frustration, can lead to desperation, can lead to anxiousness, can lead to confusion, can lead to wanting it harder, can lead to panic, can lead to...

Get the idea?  Are you breathing?

Stillness doesn't mean you aren't DOING something.  Stillness simply gives you permission to be you in the moment.  Not to say "yeah, but I have to..."  We all have to.  Wait a second.  Take a breath.  Let it out.  Take another one.

"But I have to show them I can sing, I can act, I can be what they want!"

How do you know that's what they want? 

Take a breath.  Be still.

Trying too hard often can be translated into trying to do too much at one time;  trying to reveal more than you have to;  trying, trying, trying.

So break it down:  What are you DOING to develop the TOTALITY of your craft?  Layer by layer. 

Do you study voice?  Regularly?  Do you understand your physicality?  Do you know where you are in that process?  Do you really understand how your physicality uniquely influences what your voice is as an athletic presence of sound? 

Do you study performance?  Do you study acting?  Do you know how and why and where the physicality embodies the characterization of breath, of intention, of thought, of action?  Do you find that in the lyrics of a song or aria?  Do you find that character in the phrase a composer has taken the time to craft for you to lift off a page?

Do you explore your physical athleticism outside your craft?  Do you know where you hold your tension?  Do you know your vulnerable spots? 

Do you find your trouble spots when you are completely safe? 

Do you allow yourself to find out what happens when you don't feel like you are in your element?

What changes?  Why?

How do you compensate?  Do you allow, do you try harder, do you become still,  do you just get in the way and spiral out of control?

Are you in your body during your study? During a class?  During your practice?  Are you present in your mind and spirit or are you going through the motions?  Do you mimic? Do you hide? Do you truly explore the messy, the raw and the undeveloped potential and let it be where it is or do you gloss over it hoping nobody saw, including you?

We aren't always ready to see.  We aren't always ready to acknowledge.  We aren't always ready to claim.   It's okay.  But not being ready creates panic in a pressure situation and then - we get in our own way.

If you want it badly enough,  you have to realize,  recognize and do the work to create the stillness to access it.  Period.

There isn't a formulaic plan for that, sorry.  Each of us, with guidance from someone or several someones outside ourselves,  have to find that for ourselves.

We need to know in order to see the truth.  Once we see those truths, then we don't make excuses for them:  they simply are.  There is no value judgement.  We now can pick up those truths and develop them, hone them, sculpt them to create a larger reality that we can be still in;  live in;  claim fully.

You can't get in your own way if you are living in your craft and your body and spirit in an authentic way.  You cannot get in your own way if you let go of excuses.  You cannot be intimidated if you find the desire to simply learn about YOU and what the development of your craft reveals ABOUT you.

This should allow excitement to bubble.  This should lead to possibilities.  This should lead to desire and not panic.  Possibilities lead to timelessness,  not running out of time.

Those voices that tell you "if you don't figure it out now it's over"  - need to be kicked to the curb. 

YOU have never been here before.  All of our possibilities are new.  It's not over because it hasn't been before. 

How do you get out of your own way?

Get ON your way.  Claim the journey,  warts and all.  Make no excuses.  Find everything you need to fulfill your possibility.  Make no excuses.  Make choices.  Be BOLD.  Be real.  Be still.

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!

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.

A first time Master Class Collaboration in NYC!

I am thrilled to announce that Chuck Hudson, Stage Director and Master Teacher will be joining me and together we are offering a Collaborative Master Class for Opera Auditioning in March in NYC!

Here is the link to find out details:
http://us4.campaign-archive2.com/?u=0e10ca677256a28338c9cdabf&id=e42938ec53

This will be open to only 6 singers to participate but we are also accepting auditors to observe and take in the class.

Please go to the link for more info and then email me susaneichhornstudio@gmail.com if you have questions or queries.


Hope to see you in March!