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.
Beyond The Book: Maximizing your Vocal Training Experience
In the last several months, I have had a number of singers from reputable colleges in Miami and a well-known university here, as well as a respected university in Chicago come to my studio.
To my surprise, I’ve discovered that despite their enrollment in the university programs, these students have no training or basic understanding of the Passagios or Bridges (areas of vocal transition).
Some of the individuals actually have good voices but unfortunately are unable to connect their registers, and thus feel a dissociation with their voices.
I have observed that several of these singers struggle in their reach of high notes within their chest register simply because they lack the guidance and training on how to get into their Mix Voice, and are therefore very breathy in their upper register. There are also cases where some students demonstrate that they have a nice Head Voice but still have not discovered their Chest Voice.
Unfortunately, due to their obvious focus on the university requirements necessary to obtain their degree, they continue on this path for graduation without the appropriate training or necessary tools to grow as singers in their Vocal Technique.
Unresolved, they experience vocal fatigue and hoarseness among a number of other issues with their singing and come to my studio looking for some “magical” solutions that will correct their issues in a mere 2 or 3 lessons as they attempt to gain a better understanding of the Speech Level Singing technique.
I can see the sign of relief on their faces when they begin to find and experience for the first time, this connection from the Chest Voice to the higher notes, no longer feeling that they have to pull hard to get to any of the notes or registers. At this point, they begin to realize that for a significant amount of time-and in some cases, their whole life or the entire length of their vocal career-they have only been singing with 30 % of their vocal potential, because they were never connected. What an epiphany for a singer!
However, what should be a turning point in the singer’s journey generally results in reversion and after our short training period, they return to the University or College to finish their degree, and unfortunately, their old habits.
Sadly, they feel they have no other choice. I definitely recommend that they:
-Continue practicing the lessons they recorded while in the studio with me, in addition to the lessons they have at College or University.
-Continue performing their own research of this experience or other techniques that will help them to build a strong voice through their entire range and not in just one part of their registers.
Ask, Understand , Deliver
Ultimately, I really encourage all of my singers to be active students in their training, working to understand each of the vocal exercises they are doing, to ask the purpose of each vocalization, and to really understand where their individual bridges are (Male or Female). Every singer needs to recognize these bridges within their range so that when they perform and sing higher, the result is an even, balanced sound and not a break in the voice. A commitment to this undertaking is imperative for any vocalist to make his or her education translate to their vocation.
When It Comes to Music
When it comes to music, I feel blessed because of having been given the gift of singing.
Music has saved my life in many ways and I can say I’m safe when singing and with my songs.
When I compose a song or sing one, I wash away those empty places replacing them with full places to take a stroll.
It’s just both of us: me and my voice, My voice and me. Is there anything else I could ask for in this sublime moment? My voice is my strength, my power, my identity.
Music is my own refuge, the place where anything is possible and imaginable, I can create my own world, color it violet or green, guard my deepest secrets. I can grasp God’s inspiration and understand one of the many reasons why I’m walking down this path.
Singing and sensing my voice has shown me a different perspective of life: The transcendence of our music empowers us to find ourselves in others through our voices and songs….The eternity of our sounds and voices in the universe.
When coaching others, I love to help singers encounter and enjoy the moment, this experience in which singing can transform their lives and connect them with their most inner feelings and emotions, with their beauty and with their best energy.
I really hope they also find this oasis and that they can perceive all the ways in which music can make life amazing.
Be a great singer, not just a good one.
Be connected with your soul, committed with your art, put the passion on every line of the song,
Be in the present, in the real time while interpreting the song,
Practice, Practice and Practice…….
Understand the lyrics of each phrase and it message.
Find the best vocal technique ( Speech Level Singing)
Flow with wings when you sing, be confident and trust yourself..!
Give your best energy when you sing to your audience…
Make a memorable performance, not just a good one,
Believe in your project.!!!! Stay focus with your dreams.
So then we will be talking not just about a good singer, but about a true ARTIST.
I accompany the singer in his artistic journey, providing the tools to develop talent and expression to the maximum.
These are my artists !!!! and I love you all!
Debora
Just a pause on the way
Sometimes you need to pause on your way, to take a breath, in order to see where you are and where you are going. To sense where you would like to be and thus map out an action plan to be able to move forward and get there.
This is why it’s good to draw breath, to feel the breeze ruffling your hair, or a ray of sunlight shining on your face, to continue rousing your dreams and listening to the sounds of the universe, to understand your inner silence and check if you are on the right path. It’s good to be ready to meet new challenges.
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