So many new and exciting things launching as I continue my commitment to take my teaching off the campus and work to reach more singers in my new online venture – masterYOURvoice! The private facebook group is up an running with weekly challenges and amazing new connections. This week brings a new podcast talking about singer issues and concepts. An online course is in the works and a video workout series is coming online. You can download the first Workout of the Week here, if you want to start building your vocal technique along with our community of singers!
Inspired by a conversation I had with one of my daughter’s amazing friends (17-year-olds can be pretty persuasive), I launched a podcast to go along with my facebook group and online teaching community. You can check out my first episode here.
If you prefer to read it, the following is a transcript of the first episode:
This week in my masterYOURvoice facebook group, I issued a challenge to my singers – make a 30-second self-tape and post it to the group. For some members, this was as easy as pulling something off their desktops and uploading. After-all, so many singers have spent the better part of the Covid-era creating and posting just such things. For most though, I would expect, this was a true challenge.
Given the fact that we all now walk around with phones that have the recording capability to capture incredible music and audio in REAL time, this wasn’t a technological hurdle. Instead, the true challenge at play is the manifestation of the greatest challenge for singers (and might I go so far as to say, people in all fields?) – putting yourself out there.
I had an amazing acting coach a million years ago that would quote Woody Allen saying “80% of success is showing up.” That statement is a relevant to me now as it was decades ago when I was a freshmen at NYU. I still often ask myself, if it’s as simple as “showing up” why don’t more people do it?
In my work now as a singer, a voice teacher, a mentor, I spend much of my time preaching the gospel of “showing up,” or as I like to say, “putting yourself out there… jumping into the pool.”
So often it is not talent that a singer lacks. After all it is a rare occasion that a singers shows up to my studio without some level of external validation. Usually the challenge is something more innate. It’s fear. After all according to many studies and surveys, the number one fear for most people is public speaking. That’s right… more people are afraid of public speaking than DEATH! So it’s no surprise that this trepidation would bleed over to the project of singing. After all, you’re exposed. There’ s no hiding in singing. You’re not playing a piano or a guitar. YOU are your instrument and there is no other edition or model of you. Your physiology, your anatomy, your natural gifts, your personal skill, your artistry, your musicianship… it’s all on display. That’s a daunting prospect. One that makes the vast majority of singers choose to share their voices only with the tiles of their showers or the interior of their cars while they’re driving alone.
The other issue with the self-tape challenge is the feeling that many people have about posting themselves singing on social media. They have no problem posting a picture of that beautiful omelette they had for lunch, but a video of them singing – that’s too much! The arguments are myriad… who really wants to listen to that anyway? I’m already singing in real life, why do I want to put myself out there like that? In this day and age there is no getting around the juggernaut of the soon-to-be ubiquitous meta-verse. If you want to share your gifts with the world (and not just an audience that shows up to an event within a 30-mile radius of your house), you need to realize that the world is larger and, in many ways, smaller than your hometown. While I maintain that real-world interactions and performances are infinitely more meaningful than the encounters we have online, you still cannot discount the power of this new world. For singers with an active live performing life, the pandemic has shown us that we can use technology to grow our audience and increase out reach. For singers who are living in places with limited access to performing opportunities or for those who simply can’t adhere to the strictures of scheduled events, the online world offers a universe of opportunity. If course, all this opportunity is not without its own set of issues – the principal challenge being the saturation of the market. ‘Aside from my Mom, who is actually going to listen?’ That’s why community both online and IRL really matters. Being a part of a community that is invested in your growth and development and sharing your journey as an artist and a singer makes all the difference in the world.
For those who are timid or don’t feel like putting yourself out there just yet, I encourage you to get involved in growing your voice and being a part of a musical community in whatever way you can. If you aren’t already out there, join a choir, audition for a musical, start a band. Give yourself space to take musical risks in the context of a community. Whether you are making music for money or passion (or BOTH), get involved and LEVEL UP. There is always room to grow. After all, nothing in life stagnates. It grows or decays. Luckily for you, the stage of your musical life-cycle is entirely up to you! Do you want to grow or shrink? The beauty is, you don’t have to do major things to maintain some level of growth. You just can’t sit on the sidelines and ignore your musical life, you have to actively engage somehow. So if it’s just posting a few compliments on a singer’s video or downloading and practicing the “workout of the week,” you are becoming an active part of a community and making a commitment to growing. An inch forward will prevent a mile of decay.
To my singers who were brave and took the initiative to jump into the pool this week, you have learned your first and arguably the greatest lesson in the masterYOURvoice series. Put yourself out there. Challenge yourself to do the hard things. Do them over and over and the hard things don’t feel so hard, they just feel like a Tuesday. So you will find your next hard thing. You will do that over and over and as you tackle your hard things, you will build up the vocal freedom and skill to feel confident in your ability. You will discover the joy of connecting to your musical self and the beauty of maximizing and sharing your voice. Welcome to the party!
