Find Your "Unique"
Inspiration Makes a Difference to the Singer
Inspiration makes a difference in the singer’s life. We, as singers and artists, have the need in our creative lives to experience the feeling of inspiration at different moments.
Beyond a feeling, inspiration does the following:
• Takes us to a new spiritual level, giving us a new perspective of our present and future.
• Inspiration gives us the vision to understand how to continue on our path, open our hearts to
new possibilities and opportunities.
• Inspiration gives us courage, passion and motivation.
The word inspiration means “to be in spirit”. When we are inspired, the magic is around us, we can feel the meaning of our singing, we can connect with our songs in a different way, and we can feel the ‘Joy of Singing’.
With this feeling, you realize that singing and being an artist has a bigger purpose; a mission: You can inspire your audience and light the way for other artists. Working from a place of inspiration makes the way easier, enabling you to face your daily routine.
When you feel inspiration, nothing is impossible for you and you realize that singing is your contribution to the world.
Inspiration is a state of mind, there is no formula to be inspired. Rather, you have to train yourself to be “there“ and listen to your muse.
You have to recognize that this training is an inner process. Sometimes you find inspiration and sometimes inspiration finds you while remembering a great song, reading poetry, watching inspirational music videos, taking a walk, or dancing in front of the mirror.
Living a life of inspiration is meaningful and worth it because it is how we are connected with new ideas and sources to begin new artistic projects and voyages.
Without inspiration, the journey for the Singer/artist simply will not exist.
Keep a Positive Attitude in Your Artist Life
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“Good Attitude makes a difference”. That quote holds true for everyone no matter what you do for a living. Here are a few ideas on how to keep a positive attitude as an artist:
• Choose a positive affirmation to start your day. For example, “I am a beautiful, determined person whose voice will bring joy to others”.
• Live with the feeling that doing music and being a singer is a privilege.
• Surround yourself with a group of people that believe in your artistic project and make you happy!
• Let your musicians and your team know that you love working with them and creating music together.
• Have fun when you are learning and don’t be your own censor.
• Each time you sing, feel the joy of singing because you have a gift. You have your voice.
#QUOTE Simple People, Extraordinary Music
We tend to believe that music is made by extraordinary people.
The truth is that we, singers /songwriters, are simple people who can make extraordinary music and songs.
Some Ideas to Move Towards Your Singing Path When You Feel Stuck
Are you feeling like you don’t know how to continue on your artistic path? Do you feel that things are happening to other singers but not for you? Are you thinking about quitting?
If this is your case, ask for help, share your music and review the next steps to continue:
1. Realize that you are not alone. Most artists and singers are going through exactly what you are in this very moment.
2. Never compare yourself to anyone! Everyone has their own journey and path. Focus on your own story and what you have to offer. Develop it and find the people who are waiting for it.
3. Look at the things you have accomplished. Remembering that you are not where you started is great affirmation of where you are going.
4. Define your own success and treat every step towards it as a milestone. Every day that you are still making music puts you closer to your dream.
The Internet Anxiety Syndrome
Internet has become indispensable for singers when it comes to promoting their products, whether this involves uploading their videos onto YouTube or MySpace, writing a couple of lines on Twitter, connecting with their fans on Facebook, keeping up with their contact network on LinkedIn, writing blogs or getting their music sold on iTunes.
Yet, at the same time, this is having a negative effect on the artist’s creativity and connection with their own inner world.
The music world has changed so much these days that singers often find themselves in charge of a range of tasks that have very little to do with their art and are more about creating Fan or Follower platforms that will lead them to a Record Label, or get people to buy their songs or go to their concerts.
In the middle of this vortex of new marketing trends, artists must continue to do what they know best, developing their skills and artistry, creating and performing, which is becoming very difficult.
I have noticed a new state of being: the Internet Anxiety Syndrome: this is about worrying how many people are following you, contacting or answering you, buying your music or clicking on “like” every day. Which is bad for your beauty sleep, as singers spend far too many hours glued to the computer screen at night, or waiting for their mobile phone to buzz and tell them if a new follower has joined their network.
There seems to be a disproportionate need verging on the obsessive, to be in permanent contact with as many people as possible, whether this be about gaining approval for the product or to feel a little less “alone” on this chosen path.
Logically, this level of anxiety diminishes the artist’s desire and energy to produce art and to sing and translates into undue focus on the need to publicize their product.
Any extreme is damaging; thus, a careful balance of one’s space and time should lead to equilibrium, to a way of achieving a degree of compatibility between the tools that the world of technology offers us today, and with being an artist.
The idea should always be to expand and grow with our music, with our songs, and that Internet should provide us with the support needed to achieve this objective. Otherwise, Internet will end up destroying artistic creativity and dreams of excellence.
The answers to these questions should provide food for thought:
- How many hours do you dedicate to your music every day?
- How many hours do you spend networking every day?
Remember that you are first and foremost an artist, and only then an Entrepreneur!
"Singer's life: The pursuit of the Intangible"
The Peculiar Path
As singers we constantly deal with the intangible. This unique path we have chosen puts us on the continual mission of trying to connect with the unknown, explore new ideas, and new territories. For the artist, we must discover our own formula, our own path: the intangible path. The challenge lies in the fact that no artist is the same; we can learn from others but we cannot copy their journey.
Even Our Goals As Artists Are At First, Intangible
In addition to this, many aspects of our artistic process are mere ideas and expressions until they are somehow materialized. This is displayed even in the intangible nature of our voice which can be heard, and even perceived, but not touched. The intangibility of our inspiration and muse: we just can feel them. Our imagination is a beautiful instrument that brings us new ideas for melodies and lyrics which we work to combine and create songs. However, until some form of production occurs, even the message we want to transmit is just intangible. Whether our dream is to be a global icon, a well-known singer-songwriter, or simply a respected singer in our community, having goals based on such intangible aspects can be both frustrating and rewarding.
Even the performance is an intangible aspect. While the artist has a dream or vision for the moment he or she wants to create, this expression will only occur at the point of the original performance and never be exactly the same again. He can do another show, another recording, but it will never be the same one.
Living A Life In Pursuit Of The Intangible
So how does the singer and artist learn to live a life in pursuit of this intangible path? He must do it again and again and this will be the proof of his artistic process and history. This will be the proof he needs when the next project seems all but possible; when he looks back at all of his work that was once only an idea, an intangible goal.
The intangibility of our dreams to be successful when nobody believes that we can make it happen will be fueled by our own belief in our projects and the fruit that comes from pursuing them.
Returning to your first Love: Singing
In all my years of coaching singers, both professional and amateur level, one experience that I find particularly special is that of singers that have postponed their desire to sing.
These singers, for one reason or other, have held back on their desire to sing for as many as 10 and 20 years before suddenly experiencing a resurgence in which the need to sing is stronger than ever, as a fire that they can no longer quench. This is a feeling they describe as something that is pending and can not wait, and so here they are in my studio with the same need to connect with their singing many years later.