Vision vs. Action

For as long as I can remember, I assumed the process for setting and accomplishing goals was pretty straight forward:

1. Develop a vision of what you want.
2. Set up an action plan for getting the thing you want.
3. Get to work on that plan.

That always seemed pretty logical.

And yet, I recently read something in a new book by Melissa Mills that has me reevaluating this process. In a chapter written by choral conductor Doreen Rao, she says, "Vision comes from action, not vice versa." She goes on to quote Spanish poet Antonio Machado, who wrote, "Roads are made by walking."

These ideas seem to be completely contradictory to my belief in "have a vision and then put it into action." How can you act if you don't have a vision? Wouldn't you just be floundering around aimlessly unless you had a clear goal or path forward?

But when I really stopped to think about it, I could see how this philosophy has been at work in my own life.

While my childhood career aspiration was to be a first baseman and left-handed relief pitcher for the Chicago Cubs (a goal I never reached, sadly), once my passion for singing began to emerge, my career goals vacillated from Broadway star to high school choir director to college voice professor (two out of three ain't bad). When I went to college I honestly didn't know what I wanted to do with my life; I just knew that it had to involve music. So I started doing the things that seemed like they would allow that to happen. I didn't always have a set vision of where I wanted to "end up," but I kept working to improve my skills, pursued the opportunities that came my way, and was willing to see where things would lead.

I just had to put myself into action to see what vision would emerge.

Looking back, it's funny to see how some of the opportunities that were seemingly unrelated to my current work allowed me to develop skills that I now use on a daily basis—skills I would not have been able to hone if I had been too focused on one specific career goal to entertain those opportunities in the first place.

So, while it is not at all a bad thing to have explicit and specific goals of what you'd like to do with your life, you have to be careful not to fall into a tunnel-visioned approach that could close you off to the opportunities that could lead to your true calling (assuming there is such a thing as one "true" calling, but I'll leave that discussion for another day!).

How has your singing been this week? How can you set yourself into action while still leaving yourself open to opportunities that come up along the way?

Now go practice.

"Not all those who wander are lost." -J.R.R. Tolkien

Titze's vocal warmups

There are some names in the voice world that you should just know. Ingo Titze is one of those names.

A Distinguished Professor at the University of Iowa (where he spends each fall semester), Dr. Titze is also the Executive Director of the National Center for Voice and Speech, which is part of the University of Utah.

One of the world’s leading voice scientists, he has published more than 400 articles on voice and has written several books. And he is an alum of the University of Utah, where he earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees.

Dr. Titze essentially invented the field of Vocology, which he defines as “the science and practice of voice habilitation.” We are familiar with rehabilitation as the process of rebuilding strength after an injury. In that sense, I like to think of voice habilitation as regularly practicing healthy voice use so that we hopefully don’t ever need rehabilitation.

Besides being one of the great minds in voice science, Dr. Titze is also well known among singers for a couple of widely-shared resources.

The first resource is his tutorial video on straw phonation. Since, to my knowledge, he is the person who first started promoting the benefits of straw phonation, it is worth hearing him describe in his own words the impact it has on the voice and how to execute his preferred straw phonation exercises.

The second resource is the list of his top five vocal warmups for singers. Originally published as an article in the Journal of Singing in 2001, it is featured in blogs and websites all over the internet (like here and here) so I figured putting it out there once more wouldn't hurt!

As singers, it is important for us to vary our vocal routines to keep our voices agile and responsive. That means we should always be on the lookout for new and innovative exercises, especially when they have the backing of those in the voice science community.

So watch the video if you haven’t seen it before and read through the article. We’ll be experimenting with these exercises this week in lessons and in class. Maybe some of them will make their way into your top five!

How has your singing been going this week?

Now go practice.