Great light

I was having a conversation with a student recently about plateaus. This student was remembering a previous blog in which I had discussed the plateaus we experience in our vocal training where it feels like we can go for an extended time without making any progress. These are inevitable periods that everyone goes through—no one's trajectory is only forward. It's also worth noting that a plateau can actually be a form of progress, because we are solidifying our status on higher ground (at a higher skill level) than we used to be. 

This idea reminds me of an experience I had last summer when I was out on a hike. While trekking toward a peak in the Wasatch range, I looked across the valley and saw how the clouds were casting a shadow on a significant section of the opposite ridge (picture below). From my vantage point, I could see that most of the mountain was in sunlight. But I remember thinking that any hikers who happened to be in the middle of the shadowed section probably wouldn't be able to tell how much longer they would be in that darkness before they would be back in the sun. 

This time of year, it is a tradition for musical ensembles to program performances of Handel's Messiah, the great oratorio for symphony, chorus, and vocal soloists. One of the arias for bass soloist is assigned the text, "The people that walked in darkness." At the start of the piece, the vocal line meanders, winding around in chromatic eighth notes before landing on a low F2. It's as though the melody itself is searching for a way out of darkness only to be plunged into the depths. 

As the aria continues, however, the chromaticism starts to dissipate and the melody ascends to a sustained high D4 (the tonic of the key) on the phrase "have seen a great light." 

It feels a lot like a hiker working through the muddled darkness of a shadowy ridge only to emerge onto a sunlit peak. In the picture below, you can see that the entire last stretch of the hike toward the peak on the left is in the shadows. As most mountain hikers know, the last stretch before a peak is often the most difficult. It is usually the steepest part of the hike and can involve scrambling up loose rocks that have less-secure footing than the lower sections of the trail. Add darkness to the mix and all of these factors could make any hiker want to turn around and head back down the mountain, right when they are closer than ever to the peak. 

The end of the semester is also a peak, of sorts. Even if it doesn't necessarily feel like you are reaching a monumental finish, it does represent the end of a long, sometimes meandering hike. When we are amid the difficulties and darkness of a semester (or a degree program, or a career), it's tough to know how long we will have to endure before we reach the light. And when we are on drawn-out journeys, the longer we trudge, the more arduous it can become. But that could also mean that the peak, and the light, are just a few more steps away. 

Keep hiking. 

I'm grateful for the semester we have spent together. Once we finish, I hope you will all look back at how far we've come and take a bit of time to enjoy the view. 

Happy Holidays. 

-brian

 

Get out of the way

"Condition the voice, and then get out of its way." -Kate DeVore

I was recently going through some notes and came across the above quote by Chicago-based acting voice coach Kate DeVore. She is a regular faculty member at the U's Summer Vocology Institute, so I think it was something I wrote down during her lecture this past summer. 

I think the most obvious interpretation of this quote is that we should build our technique in the practice room so we don't have to think about our technique during performances. Once on stage, we should get out of the way and just focus on storytelling. 

A second interpretation is that, after we condition the voice, we should get out of our heads. Anxiety, insecurity, and self-consciousness are all obstacles to free vocal expression. Sometimes, we might need to get out of our own way and trust that our voices will follow. 

As a voice teacher, however, this quote hits a little differently. When working with singers, it's sometimes hard for me to know when I should step in and when I should just stay out of the way. "Condition the voice," as Kate says. That's my job, to help you all condition your voices so they are better equipped to do what you want them to do. But there is an unfortunate tendency in voice teaching to homogenize the singers we work with. If teachers have an '"ideal" sound in mind that they feel every student should aspire to, that might mean that everyone will start to display the same timbre, sing with the same style, and make similar interpretive choices. In other words, we can "condition the voice" so much that we condition singers' originality and uniqueness right out of them. 

I know I'm guilty of inserting my preferences and opinions at times in the voice studio when I should probably be staying out of the way and allowing students to have more agency in deciding what choices they would like to make with their voices. In previous generations of voice teaching, students were often only allowed to exercise creativity from within the bounds of pre-approved options that the teachers laid out. Students who insisted too vehemently on adhering to their own ideas were seen as defiant or as questioning the authority or expertise of the teacher. Thankfully, we're trending away from that. Even so, I still find myself defaulting back to that approach once in a while. 

As we get closer to the end-of-semester performances, I hope you will all honor your own ideas. Obviously, you should consider the perspectives of your teachers and practice lots of different sounds and interpretive options. But once you get to performance, you are the ones center stage. 

In these last few weeks, how can you work to honor your unique voices and choices in the songs you are presenting? 

Now go practice.