Sing Big

For us, November means masterclasses, additional class performances, and preparation for December’s juries and performance finals. As such, we start looking beyond the notes and rhythms of our songs and beyond vocal technique and memorization. Once that work has been done we can delve fully into finding the most expressive and communicative way to tell a story thorough song.

I recently read the book Acting the Song by Allison Bergman and Tracey Moore (highly recommended, by the way) and this was one of the many quotes that struck me:

“The hierarchy demands that whenever a character is singing, something is going on that is too big for the spoken word. That is one reason why singing in the musical theatre requires a high level of energy and a deep, personal investment in the situation: What’s going on is big. So don’t allow your students to bring things down to the level of everyday life. What’s happening can’t be casual: Someone is singing.”

It’s no wonder so many songs are about love (finding love, losing love, wanting love). If you’ve got something to say that is “too big for the spoken word” then why not choose the mother of all subjects? I think this is why auditions focus on song cuts instead of full songs—we want to get right to the “hot spot” to see if you can jump in with, as they say, “a high level of energy and a deep, personal investment in the situation.”

In our practice, we can find this investment in many different ways. One way is to start small with our interpretation and gradually get bigger and bolder as we see how our telling of the story grows. Another way is to begin with what we believe are the extremes of our expressive capabilities right away, going way overboard just to see what happens and determine if there is something from that performance that we can use in the final product.

This is the time to explore, to try something different and see what you get. Don’t go for consistency in your performance yet, experiment with lots of options and make unusual choices. As Bergman and Moore say, we must “dare to be bad” as our studios and classrooms become laboratories of discovery since, “[t]he objective of the musical theatre classroom should not be to find the “right” or even the “best” performance but to try all kinds of things in an effort to increase the skills of the individual actor.”

Explore. Discover. Create.

Now go practice.

Performing Songs vs. Growing Songs

In a recent article of the Journal of Singing, author, singer, and master teacher Robert Edwin makes some important points about knowing which songs in our repertoire are performance ready and which are still in the learning or growing stage.

“A singer needs to function on two basic levels—a performing/audition level and a growing level. The performing/auditioning level needs to be comfortable, repeatable, accurate, and trustworthy enough to function under as intense pressure as can be experienced or imagined. On the other hand, the growing level is where we try out new and different things which, in turn, make us uncomfortable, erratic, inaccurate, and certainly unable to withstand intense pressure and scrutiny.”

As he says, performance-ready songs should be comfortable enough and predictable enough that you can reliably anticipate how your audition will go before walking in the room.

Ideally, for auditions you can choose songs that you have performed—from memory, of course—in studio class or singing class, in masterclasses, in dem lab, in a jury, or in other performance situations so you know how they play before an audience. It is never ideal to perform a song for the first time in an audition—even if you like the song, even if you sing it well.

Edwin goes on to give a more specific example:

“Your C5 belt note is solid and meets all the requirements of the performing/auditioning level. The D5 in the song you’ve chosen is still a work in progress, under construction, growing. Are you going to tell them that you can sing the D5 about 25% of the time, but you can’t predict when that 25% will occur? Would you cast you with those odds? If they need a singer with a D5 belt, you’re not that singer…right now. Sing the song with the C5!”

As I say in class, there are enough intangibles in play when you go to audition (nerves, an unfamiliar pianist, singing in a new space, etc.). That’s all the more reason to choose music that is tested, comfortable, and in which you can be confident that the panel will see who you really are. Don’t let anything get in the way of that.

Since we are just getting back from fall break, I would anticipate that some of you may not have been practicing regularly this week. Perhaps instead of writing about your practicing you could evaluate how the first half of the semester has gone. Look back at the goals you made in the first blog of the semester. Are you making progress toward those goals or do you need to change your routine to better facilitate improvement?

Now go practice.

Self-Conscious Singing

As performers, I think we have all experienced the discomfort that comes with self-conscious feelings. For me, in those times I seem to not only be focused on what I’m doing, but I’m also anticipating what other people are thinking about what I’m doing. As a result, I can start to question every decision I make and second guess whether they’re the right choices. That’s the irony of self-consciousness: even though “self” is part of the word, it seems to have just as much to do with how we are thinking about others.

Taking the words at their face value, there really shouldn’t be anything wrong with being “self-conscious.” As singers, we have to be conscious of self so we can make intentional choices with our technique. I talk a lot about choosing a strategy before you sing and then evaluating that strategy and its effectiveness after you sing. If you are not aware of what you are doing, then any success is accidental or haphazard. It may achieve some great results once in a while (and there’s something to be said for getting “out of your head” and just singing) but it isn’t a method for developing a reliable technique.

Sure enough, Merriam-Webster defines “self-conscious” in two ways. The first definition is the one we probably think of most often: “uncomfortably nervous about or embarrassed by what other people think about you.” These are the voices of doubt that inevitably creep into our heads.

But the second definition of “self-conscious” is the one that I prefer: “done in a way that shows an awareness of the effect that is produced : done in a deliberate way.” In other words, it’s merely the act of consciously monitoring your “self.” In this form of self-consciousness, there is no room for anyone else’s criticism—especially the criticism we imagine in our heads that others must be thinking about us, even if they’re not.

One of my mentors introduced me to the phrase, “What you think of me is none of my business.” Sure, I listen to advice and I look for constructive criticism and direction as needed. In the end, however, we all have to make our own choices. In making those choices, if we’re too self-conscious (first definition) and focus on how others may be judging us, it can interfere with being self-conscious (second definition) and allowing our choices to be intentional and entirely our own.

What is your experience with self-conscious singing (both definitions)?

How has your singing been going this week?

Now go practice. 



Drugs, mm-kay

It seems like sometime around three to six weeks into the school year, immune systems are compromised just enough from lack of sleep, the stresses of classes, and the overall demands of college life that people start to get sick. Typically, we don’t think anything about taking medicine for a cold or for a headache, but medications often have side effects, some of which could impact the voice.

One way you can inform yourself about these side effects is at the website for the National Center for Voice and Speech, ncvs.org. Scroll down until you see the “check your meds” tab. Here you can look up medicines by their brand name, drug group, generic name, etc., and it will tell you if there is a specific side effect on the voice.

For instance, many cold or allergy medications have a drying effect on the voice. As the website says, “Dry mucous membranes can result in hoarseness, sore throat, and voice changes. Dry vocal folds may be more prone to injuries such as nodules.”

Headache medicine like ibuprofen is anti-inflammatory. According to the website, when taking this medicine, “Vocal performers particularly should be cautious during periods of strenuous voicing demands due to an increased possibility of vocal fold hemorrhage.”

Of course, this doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t take these medicines if you need to, especially if a physician has recommended them to you. But when you know the side effects, you can act accordingly to benefit your voice. If you take medication that will dry you out, increase your water intake and reduce vocal use. If you take ibuprofen, avoid the strenuous singing that could put you at risk for harm to your voice.

And besides the drugs you may take once in a while, you should also check any medications you take regularly, which could be anything from ADHD meds to oral contraceptives to anti-depressants to acne medications. Check your meds and inform yourself.

Now tell me in the comments how has your practice been going this week.

And then go practice.

It's just the voice

When I was in college, I remember one of my wrestling teammates asking me, “What do you DO when you’re a singing major? I mean, it’s just the voice, right?” Even though, as an athlete himself, he understood the concept of building physical strength through weight training, building stamina through cardio, and building skills through technical practice, he didn’t see how those same concepts applied to the voice.

As singers, we need to consider ourselves vocal athletes and, as such, we should approach our practice with the same intention, discipline, and regularity as the Olympians we’ve been watching this summer.

Therefore, the primary purpose of this blog is to have an ongoing conversation about your vocal practice: what you are practicing, when you are practicing, how you are practicing, and even why you are practicing. In this regard, we are all each other’s best resources (coaches, teammates, and cheerleaders). By discussing our goals, successes, frustrations, and processes, we can motivate each other, support each other, and learn from each other. You all have something to offer this group in this forum.

If some of you returning students have come to see this blog as an inconvenience or just a way for you to lose points on your grade when you forget to do it, I hope the new school year can be an opportunity to take a new approach.

To start things off, I’d like everyone to post a couple of vocal goals they have for this year. Maybe it’s a specific technical issue (I want to find better ways to release jaw tension), an end-result issue (I want to add another two half steps to the top of my range), a process issue (I want to be better about sticking to my practice schedule), or something related to repertoire (I want to learn a new song every two weeks and memorize my songs earlier in the semester). For you beginners, it may be something even more basic but just as crucial (I want to think outside of the vocal limitations I have imposed on my voice and see where things go).

Here are my personal goals:

Since I have some new commitments this semester that will place additional demands on my time, my first goal is to stick to my scheduled practice time and not use it for other things.

Secondly, I want to continue to explore the specific techniques I learned this summer at the CCM Vocal Pedagogy Institute to see how they may impact my performance sound (and to see if I want to incorporate them into my teaching).

Tell us about your goals for this semester and this year.

Again, welcome back. Let’s get to work!

Now go practice.

Reversibility

With summer break just a couple of weeks away (!) it is a good time to discuss reversibility.

Essentially, reversibility (also called detraining) is the “use it or lose it” principle from exercise physiology. As described in The Vocal Athlete by Wendy D. LeBorgne and Marci Rosenberg, the longer you take a break from training, the more time it takes to get back the strength, flexibility, and capabilities you have built. The research suggests that if you take two weeks off from strength training, it can take up to four weeks to get back to the performance levels achieved before the hiatus. This likely applies to vocal training in similar ways.

Of course, we all need occasional breaks from vocal work. On a daily basis we need to plan resting periods (or "vocal naps") throughout the day, especially on days of heavy vocal use. Many pedagogues suggest taking one full day each week to rest from singing for both a physical and mental break from the discipline. Rest is an essential element of vocal training.

However, as I heard Placido Domingo say once in an interview, “If I rest, I rust.” This may be an oversimplification of the reversibility principle, but it gets the point across.

I hope you all find time in the coming months to relax, to have some time away from academic demands, and to devote time to the personal relationships and outside interests that are so vital to the human experience. But none of us can afford a three-and-a-half-month vacation from singing. Reevaluate your practicing when you know what your summer schedule will be, and continue to set aside times in your day for vocal activities. You have all made great progress and are on a positive trajectory with your technique and artistry. Make sure to maintain the commitment and discipline over the summer.

Have a wonderful summer. Relax, recuperate, and rejuvenate, but avoid reversibility.

And stay in touch!

Now go practice.

Motivation

This Auditions Plus blog entitled, “The Art of Practicing," is a quick read with some thoughts worth entertaining:

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).