A resume of failures

There was a recent thread on one of the voice teacher Facebook groups I follow that caught my attention. One of the moderators posted about how most successful performers often only achieve success after a series of failures and rejections. But we usually aren't aware of this because we only know them because of their successes. He then asked if any of us would be willing to share some of the failures we've encountered over the years.

He offered his own experiences first by describing disastrous auditions, being rejected by agents, not getting re-hired by companies he had previously performed for, and on and on. He is currently a voice teacher at a leading U.S. conservatory after having an international singing career, but he still has a long litany of failures that occurred before, during, and after his successes.

Another person in the group posted about how difficult it was to stay afloat financially when she was trying to start her career, considering how much money she was spending on voice lessons, coachings, audition wear, headshots, etc. She said she went on so many auditions "[...] in which the only positive was that my backpack was lighter due to emptying my wallet." She later went on to an 18-year career singing at the Metropolitan Opera and is now a voice professor at a major university in the Midwest.

Lots of others were jumping in with their own lists of failures, so I posted as well.

Ever since I was a freshman in high school, I knew that I wanted to have a career that involved singing and teaching music. When I was in college, I realized that my dream was to teach voice at the university level. After lots of years of twists and turns, I finally felt ready to start applying for college teaching positions.

I had to go back and count but, as it turns out, I applied for more than 100 university positions over the years. I was named a finalist for ten of those jobs. This means I made it past the resume rounds, made it past the phone interviews, and was invited to campus for interviews, recitals, and teaching demonstrations. These 10 interviews resulted in exactly ZERO job offers. In a few cases they hired an internal candidate who was already teaching at the school. In at least one case, they canceled the search due to the funding being pulled. In two other cases, they didn’t hire any of the finalists and reopened the searches.

The set of circumstances that eventually led to the job I have now was circuitous, to say the least, but that's a story for another blog. :) Suffice it to say, it took a long time, but I come to work everyday knowing that I'm doing something I've wanted to do since I was 14 years old.

It’s funny that whenever any of us achieve any degree of success there is an unspoken rule that we are supposed to hide all of our previous failures. I’ve never understood that. I think it's really important that we talk about our failures without shame or fear since they are an inevitable part of this business. 

Of course, each of my own rejections was difficult to take at the time (ranging from upsetting to devastating). But I know that each of those experiences led me to the work I am doing now in the place where I am doing it.

And I'm pretty happy with that!

How has your singing been? How has failure impacted your journey?

Now go practice.

How much anatomy/physiology do I really need to know?

Last spring I was invited to participate in the Voice Pedagogy Summit hosted by the University of Southern California. The gathering of 40 voice teachers from across the country had the primary purpose of answering the question, “What should a responsible voice teacher be teaching in a scientific age?"

Participants in the USC Voice Pedagogy Summit

As you might imagine from a meeting of this many nerds, we had lots of inspiring, in-depth discussions that took up the better part of two days. We're working now to formulate our ideas into a voice pedagogy position paper that will attempt to outline the ultimate voice curriculum by identifying "best practices."

As academics, of course, we want to know as much as possible about how the voice works. But as voice teachers, the question that comes up again and again is, "How much of this information do singers really need to have?" For example, if we can't even see or feel our cricothyroid muscles, do singers really need to know what they do? One of the summit participants talked about his colleague whose students often achieve great success as performers even though, as their teacher, he claims not to know the difference between an arytenoid and a hemorrhoid. 

In my view, the voice teacher's job is to know what efficient vocal production looks and sounds like in order to offer students directions and exercises that will lead to more effective singing. In that regard, every exercise we choose should have a specific purpose. Sometimes I call students' attention to the purpose of an exercise to help them better understand the process. But other times I don't, because I don't want students to start focusing on muscle groups that they can't feel or directly control. Instead, I just want them to focus on doing the exercise with freedom and efficiency, knowing that it will achieve its purpose whether the student is aware of it or not.

In the same way, when you go to the gym, you don't need to think about how muscle fibers work when you're doing bicep curls. If you just focus on doing the curls with good form, you will build strength.

However, in the long run, I believe that greater knowledge about how the voice works will better allow you to guide your own singing. Author and voice teacher Claudia Friedlander says as much in her book Complete Vocal Fitness: A Singer's Guide to Physical Training, Anatomy, and Biomechanics:

"One of the reasons that I feel it is so important for singers to understand how your instrument functions is so that when a problem arises, you can discern whether it is an issue of skill or physiology and pursue an effective solution based on that information. If you understand how your voice ought to respond when it is healthy, it becomes easier to recognize when a medical issue is interfering with your singing. Conversely, if it is always a mystery whether your voice will work on a given day, you are likely to develop the chronic hypochondriacal angst so common to our profession." p.149

Ultimately, you are all your own voice teachers. Someone like me can offer guidance and direction, but I see you for a limited time each week while you live with your voices for 24 hours a day. You are the ones who will have to safely negotiate those voices through a lifetime of singing. In so doing, I believe that the more information you have about the voice, the better equipped you will be—both now and in the future.

How has your singing been this week?

Now go practice.

A great teacher on great singing

One of the most famous books about singing from the 1980s and 90s is called Great Singers on Great Singing. For the book, operatic bass Jerome Hines interviewed many of his colleagues at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City to learn how each of them approached their singing technique. What was eye opening for readers was to see just how differently the singers described their technique. Even though every singer profiled had established a successful career at the world's most famous opera house, they were often choosing quite different strategies in order to make their sound.

I'm currently reading a similar book called Great Teachers on Great Singing by Robin Rice. Using a similar format to Great Singers on Great Singing, Dr. Rice instead chose to interview "some of the finest singing teachers in America." As you might expect, there are similarities, differences, and even flat out contradictions when it comes to the technique each teacher promotes. But that was only one of the reasons I wanted to read the book. The other reason is that one of my former teachers, Dr. Robert Harrison, is one of the "master teachers" featured in the book.

Dr. Harrison was my voice teacher as well as the chair of my doctoral committee when I was studying at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. At the time, he had come to Indiana after serving as a professor of voice at Colorado University. I had the honor of being his first doctoral student at IU.

It's fair to say that I learned more about singing, about the voice, and about teaching from him than from any other teacher or mentor I have had. Reading his chapter of Great Teachers on Great Singing was like having another voice lesson with him and reminded me of so much of what he had taught me in our time together. He is retired now and living in Denver and we are still in touch.

For this blog, I thought I might choose one of the important points from his chapter to expand upon but I couldn't narrow it down to just one great point. Instead, I'll share several of his quotes below to provide a picture of his perspectives and maybe give you some ideas to ponder in your practice this week.

"Well, to me there are three general standards that all singers need to meet. They must sing accurately, both with respect to pitch and rhythm, use correct diction, and by all and every means, be able to communicate effectively...You might have noticed that I didn't say anything about a beautiful voice." (p.81)

"A beautiful voice that says something enlightens me. I'm also okay with a voice that is not so beautiful but that says something to me." (p.81)

"...a good singer is always someone who is ultimately providing an autobiography of him or herself. When we hear somebody sing, they're not talking about that character. They're actually talking about themselves." (p.81)

"I want thorough resonance with the least amount of cord use." (p.82)

"The mission is, through singing, to say something to change the life of a listener who has often paid to be at a performance. We have a responsibility to say something to them that will change the way they feel and the way they think." (p.84)

"...in this world of sound and sensory bombardment, the use of silence can be a very powerful and expressive tool." (p.84)

"By the way, you are paid to breathe. Don't be afraid to earn money for not singing. I don't know of anyone yet who can sing without air." (p.85)

"My students know well my oft repeated axiom with regard to breathing and its relationship to singing: no air, no sound, no dollars." (p.85)

Consider some of Dr. Harrison's ideas this week. What are your goals for the second half of the semester?

Now go practice.

Dr. H. signing his approval of my dissertation defense.

Vocal rest

Due to high vocal demands these last couple of weeks, as well as some illness that has been passed around, the issue of vocal rest has come up quite a bit. So let's explore just what vocal rest is, when it's needed, and how it can benefit you as a singer.

At face value, vocal rest is pretty self-explanatory: it just means resting your voice. But does that mean you have to be absolutely silent? In most cases, no. These days, about the only time singers are told to go on complete vocal rest (no singing, no talking, no whispering, etc.) is when they are recovering from vocal surgery. In most other cases (like illness or vocal fatigue), some light vocalization—like humming and straw phonation—can be good for the voice, as long as it is limited.

Since the vocal folds are made up of muscle and tissue, ANY vocal use can cause fatigue if it goes on long enough—even alongside an impeccable technique. When fatigue does occur, it's generally a good idea to reduce overall voice use so the muscles have adequate recovery time.

However, in many cases, it's not the singing that gets us into trouble. It's often all of the "extracurricular" voicing that causes problems.

A 2013 study published in the Journal of Singing led to some interesting discoveries. The researchers (Christopher S. Gaskill, Jennifer G. Cowgill, and Shenendoah Many) tracked six first- and second-year undergraduate students at the University of Alabama who were majoring in either vocal performance, music education, or music theater. The researchers asked each student to wear a vocal dosimeter for five days, which measured their total voice use during that time (singing and non-singing). Here is some of what the data reveal:

• "Most students accumulated much more nonsinging time than singing time."
•  One of the students reported a session of “singing in the car” that lasted for 23 minutes, which revealed a very large vocal dose within a short period of time. 

In addition, in one instance during the week, a tenor music theater student commented to one of the researchers that he had just come out of a rehearsal that had been vocally taxing because it involved “a lot of talking.” However, when they compared the dosimetry data from the rehearsal (which lasted 1 hour) to the time spent socializing immediately after the rehearsal (which lasted approximately 1 hour and 20 minutes), the student used his voice TWICE AS MUCH while socializing than during the rehearsal. Besides using his voice more during that time, he also spoke at a higher pitch and with greater intensity.

This data caused the researchers to conclude that "...the most vocally demanding times for students may often be outside of required singing activities, and that [students] may be very poor judges of their own perceived vocal doses."

So when students tell me they have put themselves on vocal rest, I always want to know if it is only their singing that they are restricting. As this study points out, all of the other vocal activities (talking, laughing, etc.) can actually be more vocally risky than singing.

Of course, we have to take care of our voices. We need periods of rest that allow us to recover from the high vocal demands associated with being a singer and actor. But we also need to be mindful of how we are using our voices throughout the day so we are not unknowingly adding to an unsustainable vocal load.

How has your singing been this week? How do you manage heavy vocal demands?

Now go practice.

Belting, Legit, and Mix...Oh My!

Vocal pedagogy sometimes suffers from the lack of uniform terminology. Although we all agree on what to call anatomical terms like larynx and diaphragm, when it comes to the words we use to describe technique, it gets more subjective. For instance, asking singers and voice teachers to define words like "support" or "head voice" would likely result in some pretty varied responses.

In music theater singing, a few examples of yet-to-be-absolutely-defined terms include "legit," "mix," and "belt." Maybe it isn't that important that we all agree on the definitions and sounds these words invoke. On the other hand, if teachers and singers can't even agree on how belt singing sounds different from mix singing, how will we ever agree on the vocal technique that allows us to create those sounds in healthy and effective ways?

To help address this conundrum, Dr. Lynn Maxfield and I set up a research project to see if singers and casting directors agree on what constitutes legit, mix, and belt singing. You can read our full paper here (it's free until October 23rd!), but here's a brief summary of what we did and one of the big things we discovered:

We asked four professional female music theater singers and seven student female music theater singers (college freshmen and sophomores) to perform a series of pitches in what they considered to be a belt sound. Then we had them sing the same pitches again but in a mix sound. Then we asked them to sing the same pitches once more in a legit sound. We recorded each of those sounds and played them (in random order) for five casting directors of regional Equity theaters to see if they could tell which style the singers were choosing.

In the end, the casting directors were able to successfully identify the style the singers were intending in a statistically-significant majority of the time. They had even higher percentages when identifying the professional singers' intended style than with the students.

These results should be encouraging for music theater singers since, even though legit, mix, and belt don't have set definitions, singers and casting directors may mostly agree on what those styles of singing sound like. Therefore, when a casting director asks a singer to "be more belty" or to "use more of a mix," the singers may be reasonably confident in what sound the casting director expects.

Now if we could just agree on how to make those sounds!

How has your singing been this week? How are you progressing toward the goals you outlined in the last blog?

Now go practice.

I dreamed a dream

Welcome to all new and returning students!

Like many of you (I would imagine), I always look forward to summer. I love sunshine and hot weather. I love to be outside. I love baseball—and my team (the Chicago Cubs!) has actually been worth watching the last couple of years. Plus, my birthday is in July. So in summer I get to do a lot of my favorite things.

I also look forward to summer because it allows me the time to do the things that get put off during the school year when I'm too busy. Over the last 3+ months I did a lot of reading, I took a voice science class, I did plenty of writing, and I attended three out-of-state voice conferences. These have all given me more tools to bring into another full year of teaching.

One of the things I learned came from a workshop led by Matthew Edwards, who is a voice pedagogy professor, author, and blogger. He advised us to help our students set goals but, in doing so, to make a distinction between goals and dreams.

For instance, for most of you "I want to be on Broadway" would be considered a dream and not a goal, at least for now. If you have never performed in a national tour, if you have no off-Broadway experience, or if you have no major credits at regional houses, then performing on Broadway is not the "next step," like a goal should be. That doesn't mean you shouldn't aspire to perform on Broadway. It just means that there are lots of steps between here and there that will likely occur first. Those steps can serve as a series of goals that can help lead you to your dream.

Let me be clear, this does not mean to aim low. You should definitely have both goals AND dreams. But goals are for short-term progress and can be constantly adjusted. If you set a small goal and then achieve it in two weeks, that's great! Then set a new goal and keep moving forward. That will often lead to more specific, tangible progress than if you are working toward a far-off dream with no achievable benchmarks along the way.

In addition, there is also a mental and emotional payoff for setting small goals. If you are constantly achieving your goals (however small) and then challenging yourself with new goals, you will feel more successful, which feeds your ambition and keeps you working hard. If all you have is dreams, then everyday is just another day that you did not achieve your dream. This can be frustrating and make you feel like you are making no progress at all.

For this first blog, let's discuss what your dreams are and what goals can help you reach those dreams. Consider dividing your goals into short-term (two weeks), mid-term (by fall break), and longer-term (by the end of the semester).

I'm really excited to be back in the studio and classroom working with you all again. As much as I love my free time in the summer, I love working with all of you even more. Let's have a great year!

Now go practice.

EDIT: One day after I posted this blog, Matt Edwards discussed many of these same ideas in his own blog. I encourage you to check them out here.

Goals are the benchmarks that set you on the path to achieving your dreams.

Seeking success

With graduation season right around the corner, social media will soon be swimming with videos of people in robes and funny hats pontificating about the secrets to success, doling out advice, and quoting Dr. Seuss's "Oh, the places you'll go!"

I actually really enjoy most commencement addresses. I love to hear people talk about what they feel is most important in life. Amidst the daily barrage of brainless blather, it's refreshing to hear sincere stories that are borne out of personal experiences.

I also appreciate good graduation speeches because I imagine they are immensely difficult to write. How do you put together words of inspiration without being trite or cliché? How do you give advice without sounding preachy or like you’re telling people how to live their lives? And how do you compose a speech that is entirely original and deliver it in a way that strikes just the right balance between engaging, funny, and profound?

The irony is that while we look to these speakers as templates of success, hoping they may give us something to emulate, they tend to emphasize the need to forge our own paths and to seek the answers within. In this regard, success is different for each of us and depends on how we define it.

One definition of success was made clear at a commencement ceremony I attended where the head of the faculty spoke at length about the need to "accomplish" and to "do great things in your field." Near the end of his speech, he told the graduates, "Stay in touch and let us know about all your successes...so we can brag about them!" He never once mentioned the importance of character, the need to build community, or how crucial it is to live a life of honesty and integrity.

A different definition was presented by the student speaker at my own college commencement ceremony. He reminded us that, while many people were hoping for our success, he was hoping for something else. "When you are faced with the opportunity to commit injustice that may result in your own financial or career success," he said, "I hope you fail. Gloriously!"

Here's one more definition:

"Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it." ~Maya Angelou

Wishing you all success (especially you graduates). Thanks for a great year.

Now go practice.