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!