http://www.auditionsplus.com/blog/?p=3216
The author starts with the simple question, “Do you like to practice?”
Acknowledging that we all make excuses sometimes to justify not practicing, she goes on to say, "The art of practicing is not just about discipline—about practicing every day without fail, whether you want to or not. This might lead to improvement, yes, but it may also lead to burnout, resentment, or just constant excuses."
Instead, she asks the question, “Why do you practice?” Is it because you love to sing or you love telling a story or is it just because you feel like you’re supposed to practice?
To me, one of the more important points here is to distinguish between the discipline of practice and the art of practice.
I believe that we are what we do most of the time. If you want to be a healthy person then you have to make healthy choices a lot more often than you make unhealthy ones. If you want to be an honest person you have to practice honesty and avoid the situations that drag you into dishonest behavior. Therefore, if you want to be a good singer, you have to employ discipline and regular practice.
But, being an artistic singer also requires inspiration. Sometimes, to avoid burnout or drudgery, you may need to step back from your practice routine. If it is becoming mundane or tedious, taking a break for a while or reevaluating your process could be in your best interests. Until you find the motivation to get back into a routine, you may decide to use your practice time to rediscover or reignite the passion you have for singing and the love you have for music as both an art form and a necessary part of life—to refocus on how singing can make you a more expressive, compassionate, sympathetic, and communicative human being.
So I’m curious: Why do you practice? How do you get yourself to the practice room when you’ve lost motivation?
Now go practice (or don’t and tell me why).
I loved the part in the post that said "we all have 24 hours in a day."
ReplyDeleteMy main motivation for practicing comes from thinking about prodigies. A piano prodigy practices hours and hours a day for example. I always think about people like that, and although I'm not a prodigy, I am a musical theatre major and should have a rigorous practice schedule. My mom always said "you can't control whether or not someone is more talented than you, but you can control whether or not they work harder than you. Never let someone work harder than you." I believe that talent gets you started, but hard work is what gets you far. And that is my motivation for practicing.
I have more experience with a practice schedule playing guitar, so I will talk about that rather than singing. For me, a lot of times the initiative is the hard part about maintaining a practice schedule. I find that when I put in the time I really enjoy practicing. I love the new things that come out of it, and the inspiration that I find in practice. I love the chance to improve and I have fun doing it.
ReplyDeleteI don't think the problem for me is burnout. I think the problem is actually carving out a space in my busy day that is dedicated to practice. There are always things that come up if I let them that feel more important at the time. Homework, memorization for a scene, nap time, reading a book for a class, writing a paper, helping a friend, etc. There are always things to do. Once I actually make the time practice takes my focus in a wonderful way. I really enjoy it. I just have to be better at organizing my life and making time for the things that I enjoy and that are important to me.
I am a hard worker. I define myself as someone who is ambitious and dedicated, thus it is not very difficult to get me into a practice room. However, burning out is a concern of mine. I go to school full time, work 5-6 days a week, as well as attempt to have a social life and occasionally sleep. I am more often than not exhausted, and that is not a state in which artists can blossom most effectively. I practice because I want to be better. I practice because I want to be prepared. Most of all, I practice because I expect myself to. I hold myself to a certain standard of hard work and dedication. Don't got me wrong; I absolutely love singing. Music is an enormous passion that helps me connect to myself and the world around me. That passion and love for music need to play a stronger role in when and why I practice.
ReplyDeleteAt the masterclass the other day Brian talked about strategy....And I realized I forgot this was a thing lol. I think in my initial years I was super focused on strategy to be able to sing it period. But now as a more accomplished artist I noticed how I can use strategy to affect the storytelling and emotion behind a certain piece, which we did with my piece at the class. By changing the emotion of the song my strategy also had to switch dramatically, and it turned out to be a strategy that was not only easier, but more pleasent and made more sense. This made me realize I need to do this with every piece and try new placements and dynamics to see what works and what doesnt to make good artistic choices.
ReplyDelete-Cameron Rey Fleck
I practice because I know it's the only way I will get better. It's the only way I can figure out the ways I need to manipulate my voice to make it sound the way I want. I figure out which percentages I need to use in order to sound how I want tot sound. I also practice to work on my vowel placement. Which vowel makes it easier to sing and sounds the best/ healthiest. Practice makes perfect...or nearly perfect. I helps me regain muscle memory so I can recreate my sound.
ReplyDeleteI can't definitively answer the question "do you like to practice" because the answer changes with every day, hour, and minute. I could be loving practicing until all of a sudden something is not going well, and then I'll hate it... I'm kind of a perfectionist. If I'm not in the mood to practice, but I convince myself to do it anyway and it goes well, then I'm like "hell yeah! I love this". I practice for many reasons. So I can improve. Because I feel like it. So I don't waste Brian and Julie's time in my lessons. So I can learn new music and can stop singing Caro Mio Ben. Many times I will just feel like singing, and that's when I have my most productive practices.
ReplyDelete