The Art of Listening

One of the hardest things about learning how to sing, or just refining your skills to sing, is being able to withstand the sound of your voice when it’s not doing what you want. It’s easy to dip into vocal warm ups on youtube, one off classes, to sing along with your favorite artists as you shout at the top of your lungs in your apartment but it’s much harder to just be with you. The no frills and subtle thrills as you weather the storm of your own voice and the thoughts in your head.

I receive a lot of calls from prospective students wanting to return to singing, to put out their original music and play regular gigs. Most of them say how passionate they feel about singing and music in general and how much they would like to strengthen their voices to put their best music foot forward. But strengthening your voice takes two kinds of strength; one, physical strength (and flexibility) and two, mental strength. When I’m working with students on building their holistic vocal routines it’s often in the “mess” that people want to quit the exercise. However, this is exactly when the breakthroughs happen and quite quickly. 

I wish I had known this back when I was finding my way in college but my commitment to teaching voice and maintaining a regular voice practice stems in part from this realization. Vocalizing consistently with new awareness and new interest everyday has taught me how to listen to my inner voice and embrace my “outer voice”. I know you might be wanting to strengthen your voice too. You might be wanting to sing louder and higher, to captivate audiences, to sing your unique music and look and feel confident. Well, you can do that quite swiftly incorporating the art of listening. Listening to your body and not just your mind.  

Next week is the start of several offerings that I have created to support the strength of you as a singer and your creative spirit. I hope to see you somewhere soon!