PERMISSION TO BE MESSY
As some of my friends and students may now know we recently adopted a puppy. Yes, like many other people during this pandemic we too have a quarantine dog. And although she is not the equivalent of a human child there are a good deal of similarities. As anyone who has had child can attest to you have no idea the amount of things you will lose control over once you have a child...or a dog. And your body is the least of them! There is your schedule, the constant rearranging of your priorities, time for your relationships, dressing and showering! not to mention the mess. Even the tidiest of tidy have to lower their standards. And now that I have a dog I am back in the mess of having a small child, a furry one, but a child nonetheless.
Our pup smells, rolls in the mud, chews corners of things when I'm not looking and eats things that should not be swallowed. She does all of this with the greatest of pleasure and no self judgment or self awareness. And we are hanging on for the ride.
Here’s the rub tho’ I don’t like messy. I don’t mind if other people are messy but at home I want to be able to be able to maintain some semblance of order and beauty. But this pup, she keeps throwing me curve balls. And I couldn’t help thinking how similar her crazy is to the crazy of studying the voice.
We all want our voices to be “tidy” in a manner of speaking. Some version of presentable and or beautiful and lacking mess (unless we were intending it). We want high notes that ring and low notes that envelop the listener. We want to impress others as well as ourselves. But voices and songs don’t just magically behave the way we want them to (nor do puppies I am learning). Even for those voices that we admire like Aretha Franklin or Oum Kalsoum or Nancy Wilson or countless others, they practiced tirelessly. And the challenging part of that practice is being able to sit and listen to yourself making “a mess”. That is the reason that having a voice mentor or voice teacher is so valuable. Part of what will help you know if they are the right teacher for you is whether they can really push you musically and technically while simultaneously not judging “your mess”.
If you want to get more from your voice without judgement, then I suggest you try next month’s Community Vocal Gym to make some vocal mud pies together.
To find out more about this voice experience email now.