I recently read this quote from Carol Kirkpatrick shared in the Classical Singer Newsletter:
"Practice doesn't necessarily make perfect, it makes permanent...The way we practice, what we practice, and how well we practice are what ultimately will carry over to our performance...How we practice matters. We have to make our practice perfect. We can't just go through the motions and put in the time. It takes effort and execution."
I think many of us have gotten into the habit of mindlessness, that is, not really focusing on what we are doing. We eat (but don’t really taste) food while watching TV, we listen to (but don’t really hear) music while we’re doing homework, we have conversations with people while texting someone else. As a result, it seems we have difficulty doing just one thing at a time.
As an undergrad I remember reading “The Miracle of Mindfulness” by Thich Nhat Hanh as an assignment for my first vocal pedagogy class. The book encourages being in the moment in all activities. One exercise he describes that has always stuck with me is mindfully washing the dishes. Try this sometime, wash the dishes without any music or other media playing, without being on the phone or talking to someone else, without going over lines or singing a song in your head--just wash the dishes and give it your full attention. You may notice the texture and color of each dish. You may remember how it was you acquired each coffee mug or plate (maybe there is a person or association this brings up). You may be reminded of how your food choices that day may have impacted your routine or your health.
It’s really hard to do this simple task with full focus.
Similarly, when we practice singing, it can be easy to let our minds wander and just go through the motions. But part of my emphasis this year on shorter practice sessions is that, besides practicing more often, I would like all of us to be more mindful of how we are practicing. Do it with full attention and full intention. Can you notice subtle differences? How does the F-sharp feel differently than the F-natural? What does it feel like when you use a different vowel? Does your posture change when you sustain notes? Are you maintaining a good connection to the appoggio?
Mindful observation is a crucial aspect of singing but it’s also important when consuming the arts. When we go to a show we silence our cell phones, stop our conversations, and sit in a dark room together to (hopefully) take in as much as we can about what we are seeing, hearing, and feeling.
Try experimenting with bringing this attitude to your practicing. Silence your phone, remove the distractions, and see what you notice.
Happy observations!
Now go practice.
I think this is really important to think about, especially with all of the new technology we have.
ReplyDeleteIf you're distracted while you sing, you never really learn the full extent of what you can do. In order to carry a nice vocal quality throughout many different styles, it's important to focus on, think about, and memorize placement and how a note feels, because otherwise every time you come to a difficult note or vowel, you have to retrain your brain/vocal chords how to make that sound. I think maybe this is why it's easier to hit the extent of your full range during warm ups when you're just focused on placement and sound, than during a song when you're focused on words and interpretation (which is another reason to learn your words early!!).
I also tend to do my first practice session while checking up on social media in the morning, because it's easy to hum pretty mindlessly... which I will try not to do anymore :)
-Keeley
My mind wanders so easily when I’m doing simple tasks. Especially when there is music, people or something like my phone or my computer. I actually find it easier for me to focus when I’m singing, mostly because I love doing it. But I still agree, I find my mind wandering especially in warm ups. I’ve learned over the past few weeks in my first semester, how effective attentive warmups are. After a good warmup where I was focused, I find that my overall vocal technique is stronger, and I have more control over my voice. I also learn new things faster the more I do focused intent warmups. For example, I am figuring out how to sing through the transitions in my range more smoothly. It also feels a lot better for my voice when I sing higher notes in my range. Yay!
ReplyDelete-Matt
My problem with practicing is... where do I practice? I mean there is my apartment but the walls are paper thin and I don't want to get a noise complaint. There is my car but I don't want to be "that guy" that's singing in the car that everyone looks at and makes fun of. There is outside but... thats WEIRD. There is the University Music Building but those practice rooms cost $100 and this negro is poor. So that is my dilemma. However I do all of those things anyways. I AM that guy. I have always been THAT guy. But that doesn't mean I want to be. I love practicing. Its just always an embarrassing affair.
ReplyDeleteI find practicing voice very similar to doing ballet every morning. If I don't take all of my attention towards pushing my hips wide, keeping my hips square, etc. I'm gonna have a really bad day. Sometimes when I'm stressed out about things I think about those things and fail to give myself good corrections. In singing, there are so many things to think about that social media can simply not get in the way. It is scientifically proven that the brain cannot multitask. You can only do one task effectively at a time, and I don't know why you wouldn't want to sing effectively. Anyway this week I've noticed that recording my session 1 and listening to each excersise makes my session so much more efficient. It is different than going back and listening to a lesson because u can continually track the vocal progress of that day, kind of like finding your center in ballet ;)
ReplyDeleteI read this post at the beginning of the week, and I wanted to post quickly about it, but found that I would rather try out where I stood and how I could adapt to make my practicing much more focused and less absent minded. I noticed a lot of my earlier morning practicing was not nearly as careful and focused as the ones I do in the late afternoon after my voice is already warmed up more. I guess I don't like the slower warm ups, so I don't try as hard on them. I do them passively while showering or getting ready. This week, instead of focusing on getting ready and doing the exercise passively, I focused on doing the exercise and got ready passively. It took longer to get ready, but I was able to accomplish both tasks with the priority I think I aught to have in the future. And I definitely felt the difference in the way I warmed up, and I plan on exploring how much more attention I can give my practice moving forward.
ReplyDeleteAs actors, this is something we hear all the time: to be fully present in the moment! And what's funny is I spend half my day practicing that and then I spend half my day being the queen at multitasking just to survive. I guess what it comes down to is if I can consciously and quickly become fully present in the moment at my command. Because I don't think multitasking is a bad thing, but I think you are right when you mention how we are ALWAYS multitasking and it creates an inability to live fully in a singular moment. So I think, that if we are going to give full attention to our singing practice, we need to PRACTICE giving full attention in other areas of our lives.
ReplyDeleteI've found that breaking up my practice sessions has helped. I know when I was younger and starting to practice in my other music endeavors that I would try to marathon through my sessions. It was just difficult and made me not want to continue. That and I would always practice from the beginning instead of working through the parts that weren't solid. It was better for me to take smaller chunks of my pieces and of time to work them out.
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