Practicing vs. Performing

As you have probably noticed, I often quote professor, author, and vocologist Lynn Helding in this blog, and for good reason. She is widely recognized in the field of voice pedagogy for her work applying cognitive science to singing.

One of the topics I have seen her discuss many times is the difference between learning (or practicing) and performing. As she says:  

Learning is…

-A process that takes time (weeks, months, years)

-Dynamic (requires effort and attention)

-Messy (doesn’t follow a straight line)

-Destabilizing (as old habits are undone)

Performance is…

-Refined

-A display of what we can do

-A reflection of where we are at one moment in time

-Prepared with an audience in mind

This distinction is crucial, particularly because I find that singers often approach practice sessions as performances as opposed to opportunities for exploration and learning. 

For instance, if your practice sessions are all about making beautiful sounds 100% of the time, you may be performing instead of practicing. If you are overly conscious of the fact that your roommate or family member in the next room can hear you when you're singing, you may be performing instead of practicing. If you're running through your songs without going back to work on trouble spots or to explore different sounds and intentions, you may be performing instead of practicing. 

Of course, we do have to practice performing. When you have a performance coming up, you probably need to stop exploring new options, start settling into your choices, and begin refining what you're doing. Your practice sessions then should be about consistently repeating the choices and intentions you will use in your performance. That's the best time for full run-throughs of your songs. 

But when we are practicing with the intention of building skills and capabilities, THAT'S when we need to address long-standing inefficiencies, work systematically on all aspects of technique, thoughtfully problem-solve, and have the patience to stick to the frustratingly long road to progress. 

Then when we do perform, we can step away from this tedious but necessary process and lean into what we CAN do at that moment. 

In your practice sessions, do you ever catch yourself performing when you mean to be practicing? How can you bring yourself back into the concentrated, effortful work of practicing in those moments? 

Now go practice. 

Sometimes practicing can be like walking through fog, when the goal in front of you is difficult to see.
But consistent steps forward will lead you to the destination. 

If I Could Be Like Mike

Growing up in Iowa, a state devoid of any major-market sports, my family rooted for the teams out of Chicago, which was our closest big city. Every once in a while, we got to see some winners. The Cubs won division titles in baseball in '84 and '89 and the '85 Bears were Super Bowl Champs. But none of that compared to the success of the Chicago Bulls who, led by Michael Jordan, claimed six NBA titles in the '90s. 

Naturally, having celebrated each of those titles as a fan, I consider Jordan to be the GOAT—hands down, undisputed (no disrespect to Kobe or LeBron). In the recent docuseries on Netflix, The Last Dance, it's clear that Jordan is universally acknowledged as the best player of his era. One other revelation in the series is just how hard he worked in practice. It sounds cliché, but he was literally the first one on the court and the last one to leave. He put in more reps and more hours which, coupled with his natural abilities, was undoubtedly a major part of his success. 

Of course, in basketball, there can be quite a difference between practicing and playing in an actual game. It's one thing to drain free throws in practice when you're shooting 20 or 30 in a row. It's another thing to do it in the fourth quarter of a tied game. Therefore, basketball practices (as I remember from my illustrious 7th-9th grade playing career) often include drills designed to give players reps on the fundamentals and then scrimmages where players can practice those skills in game-type situations. 

If athletes want to develop a basic basketball skill, like the ability to make a 15-foot jump shot, they would first get lots of repetitions taking those shots from a variety of angles (in front of the hoop, from the left side, from the right side). Then they can vary their practice by taking shots closer to the basket and farther away before coming back to the 15-footer. They can add even more variety by sprinting up and down the court between baskets to see how it feels to take the shot with an elevated heart rate. Then players can set up scrimmage situations, where they take the same shot with a defender in the way. All of that will hopefully lead to a greater ability to execute that skill during an actual game, in front of a stadium full of fans. 

How can that relate to singing? 

Let's say you want to belt the B-flat at the end of "Cabaret" (in this key). Rather than just singing the song over and over, you'd probably want to start by vocalizing up to and beyond that B-flat in different ways: on scales, on arpeggios, on different vowels, as an SOVT exercise, in head voice, in mix, in chest voice, etc. Then you may gradually want to extend the amount of time you sustain that note: four seconds, six seconds, eight seconds. Then you can work on an excerpt of the song that includes the final note and the phrases that lead into it, getting some repetitions outside of the context of the full song. Then you can do it with a variety of emotional prompts that may work with the character at that moment in the show. After all of that, running the song from the beginning will allow you to see how that note feels after singing the entire song. Of course, then you would want to sing it in front of people. Ideally, it would first be for a small group, like in a masterclass or studio setting. Then maybe a bigger group, like in Dem Lab. Then it may be ready for use in an audition or more formal performance setting. 

We could extend this even further to consider singing the entire role of Sally Bowles in a full production of Cabaret. First, you'd do it in rehearsals, then in run-throughs, then in previews, then for a run of performances. 

Whether it's a jump shot, a B-flat, a song, or a role, the process is the same. Identify what you're trying to accomplish, build exercises that specifically address that need, work regularly on that skill, then start doing it in increasingly high-stakes situations. 

As MJ says, "The minute you get away from fundamentals—whether its proper technique, work ethic, or mental preparation—the bottom can fall out of your game, your schoolwork, your job, whatever you're doing...If you do the work, you get rewarded. There are no shortcuts in life."

How has your practice been this week? Is there a skill you're wanting to develop that we can specifically target? 

Now go practice.