Your Perfect Performance is Already Here!

Well…. I’m going to start with page one of Dr. Wayne W. Dyer’s book “Everyday Wisdom” and give you a quote and then tell you how that real life wisdom also applies to singing. Since most of these things come up in lessons with my students at one point or another, I thought I’d share some of my interpretations here with you as well!

The first quote I’m using is this, “All the abundance you want is already here. You just have to tune it in.” (Dr. Wayne W. Dyer)

Okay… singers are always trying to add more, do more, sing louder, sing more emotional and generally make a song better. Your perfect performance is already here!! By being or have more abundance in your vocal chops, you knowledge of music, you vocal strength, etc… singers think they can make a perfect performance! If you quit looking for the things to add, for the abundance to add to a song and tune it to the perfection that each of us are, we will effortlessly add the right notes, the right nuances, the right feel to any song, at any time… What you want for the song is already with in you… you just have to be in touch with it and everything that you want to do.... can happen!

But singers, as are people, are always on some quest to make everything perfect. And by perfect they usually mean they need more stuff, they think they are lacking something they need get in order to reap the abundance, weather material or vocal. They chase abundance in search of perfection.

Everything you want and need is already here, you don’t need to go looking for it. My job as a vocal coach is really to help students shed the layers of conditioning that keep them from the perfection that is already there. It’s to show students how to reach and tap into that perfection by eliminating what has become normal, and replacing it with what is natural to them. Reminding or re-teaching singers what they already know how to do… thereby allowing every abundance to magically manifest itself automatically! The big secret is that it was really there all the time, we just forget how to tap into it and use it.

Neither perfection, nor abundance are concepts that are external to us. They are both within each of us and are available to us every moment of every day. We just, as Dr. Dyer says, “have to tune it in”… or dare I say get connected to that perfection that is already there. If you want more abundance in your singing, get tuned into the perfection that is inside and get out of its way. Stop hindering what was intended for you, and start singing the way you were meant to sing!

WHAT!!! And the lost are of listening…

Okay, I’ve wanted to write about this for a while now… It seems that more and more students come to me with an awesome ability to memorize and learn particular songs… (I don’t doubt that that memorization is useful in the right applications, but in learning to find your own voice and to actually sing… it is unfavorable at best) the problem comes in when something is different, a different chord, a different tempo or groove etc., young singers are getting so used to singing something one way that they actually believe that is the only way to sing the song… and taking it a step further that if they can’t copy the song exactly as it sounds they are doing it wrong… well in my humble opinion… that is a load of “…… “ (Please insert favorite expression here!) Singers are losing the ability to listen to music and really follow it no matter where it leads…

Most often today what you (the listener) are hearing isn’t even how the artist (and for mainstream pop music, I’m using the term artist very loosely) sang it. You’re really hearing how the producer or engineer has put those tracks together and how they have manipulated the vocal track through all sorts of tools, like auto tuning programs, to enhance and “help” the track sound like music. It’s become like believing the picture on the cover of a fashion magazine is actually how the model naturally looks… but young singers are buying into this as how the song must be done….

Artistry is about flow. It’s a give and take, a push and pull. Like a tide, it should be in constant motion, going somewhere, and that somewhere is always someplace different. You can’t ask a wave to roll in and out in the same way, in fact, there aren’t ever two waves that happen the same way to start with… life and music are the same way. Trying to make music fit into a cookie cutter form, isn’t music, it isn’t singing, it’s creating a product. And that is definitely a part of western culture, but that’s not what we’re talking about here!

Music and singing should be about being in the moment and letting what you feel come through…. It’s about authenticity, truth, honesty, and being genuine and real. Music is a conversation between the musicians, the singers and the audience… if every time I try to have a conversation with you, you repeat back to me (like a parrot learns words to repeat) what you have memorized, I will not believe you are actually engaged in the conversation; it will feel dishonest and fraudulent.

Learn your instrument so when you learn to start listening to the music around you and letting it lead you down different vocal, emotional paths you can vocally do what you feel like doing. Then and only then is when you will, as a singer, really be able to transform the human spirit!

I'm Back....

Well as I start my blogging again I’m gonna try and do things a little differently this time. Instead of just singing advise (I’ll probably do that in the form of video blogs this time anyway) I’m going to do a variety of things…. Reviews of concerts, new CD’s, singers and performances… i.e. like last years halftime Superbowl show… lets hope this years show is … well … better! I’m also going to start taking quotes from some of my favorite authors and relating them to singing. Put some of my philosophy classes to good use! Anyway… I hope everyone will enjoy this blog again and as always, please leave me comments and lets talk about life and singing… or maybe life is a song and the discussion will really be one and the same… Always remember to sing it your own way! Jilla