Being a professional singer is not a destination. It is an open-ended journey that will go on until you choose to take a new pathway.
If we approach singing as “something to accomplish” or “something to achieve” we miss the point. Singing is indeed athletic, in that it requires a high degree of physical conditioning and responsiveness, but it is also a skill, with parameters both musical and stylistic, and it is also an art — an art that is about sharing very personal insights, feelings, thoughts, ideas, and emotions with others, through a personal and unique perspective that cannot be replaced by anyone.
If we approach the teaching of singing as a discovery process — one of exploration — each moment in every lesson is an opportunity to find something new and exciting both in the student and in yourself. Sometimes we discover that we did not know, or we discover that we knew but did not understand, or that we understood but did not apply the understanding in a meaningful manner. Sometimes we discover that we are able and that being able is joyful and that being joyful is something that effortlessly moves towards sharing. Sometimes we discover that we struggle, and we are unhappy with having to struggle because we want to have things be easy and fun. Sometimes the struggle becomes monumental and we give up…….but we might also realize that one CANNOT give up because the thing that we were investigating will not go away. It will leave behind its presence, its memory, and sooner or later it will arise again to remind you that it lingers until you face it and go past the struggle to victory.
All of this is the gift that lives in your body. Your voice, here and now, is always there as your companion, your partner in your journey of life, your marriage of that which lives inside and outside at the same time.
To be a good teacher is to also always be a good student. If you have nothing left to learn the teaching becomes stale, the methods become rote, the approach becomes heavy and joy no longer lives in each moment. If, however, you learn from each moment of singing and of teaching singing something more about how to be alive, how to feel life at its fullest, how to be one with the singer, the singing, the sound and yourself, you have garnered great souvenirs in your travels.
Somatic Voicework⢠teachers carry these messages in their hearts. This is the process of bringing body, throat, mind and heart together in song. We honor the process and trust that the results will be there. We know that we are guides and facilitators not infallible experts who cannot make mistakes. Remember, O Guides Of The Voice, we are here to serve, putting the welfare of our students over our own. Take great solice in that and also great satisfaction.