The Singers Daily

This blog will be about singing and voices and learning how to sing and keeping your voice healthy once you know how!
It will also be a forum, I hope, for questions to be answered and topics to be explored about your voice!

During private sessions and in vocal performance groups people usually ask really great questions. Most of the time we are so busy vocalizing and performing that answering these inquiries takes a back seat to the very practical focus on singing. So here I"ll try and address some of those radically cool questions and take my time doing it!

The only time I make super sure to take the time to really delve into the deeper end of the singing pool is when I'm facilitating a singer to become a Vocal Coach. We really get into it then. I think students would love to sit in on these training sessions sometimes. They're pretty fascinating.


If you're already a singer or a vocal student with me or with someone else ask questions anyway...its FREE!
Singing is NOT rocket science so, getting another opinion is smart....because,vocal coaches basically get it, and if they can EXPLAIN it and EXEMPLIFY IT for you clearly, YOU WIN! So do they...or they can talk about it in a way that confuses the HELL outa you and you wanna quit. That sucks. Everyone loses.

Anyway...this blog is a freebie!
My usual prices for answering vocal questions are quite a bit higher! Plus, I've been at this for about
28 years so, it miiiiight be worth it!

Maybe?


TOPIC NUMBER ONE: TALENT
As far as I can tell on the topic of "talent"...
there is no such thing that I can find in anyone, anywhere. As far as I'm concerned its a myth.

It was always very dis-empowering to have someone say how wonderful my voice was but that, since I was so mega-Uber talented, well, that implied that I didn't have to work at it. And that OF COURSE I was performing, being so talented made it super easy, RIGHT?

Nope. It took years for me to finally abandon what I thought I got out of holding onto stage-fright. Years I tell ya.

And making my voice my life meant constant and relentless focus on music with a total immersion into the expression that is singing. EVERY-frickin-DAY!

Not in a bad way...I mean it was a total joy! All I wanted to do!
I just say it that way because people sometimes grumble if they have to spend an hour per day practicing or rehearsing.

Lets break it down...

There is desire. There is the body (your voice) and the ability to express.
What any of us chooses to do with these elements is just that, our choice.

Slowing the process down momentarily, to see how these elements interact is essential to mastery.
Once this process of observing the body/mind/vocal energy combo dance is relaxed into ..abilities seems to soar!

So , in getting REALLY good at this did I, all of a sudden, become more talented? Or just more aware?

Was I born with more "talent" or did my environment and deep past encourage more awareness concerning the subjects of music, music education and vocal expression?

Awareness is essential in the "learning to sing really great" game. When you are performing and recording you grow your awareness of your self and your voice. Your level of vocal AWARENESS determines your level of artistry. It even determines how you are perceived.

This is not really understood by many so we should probably talk about it for about three years.
Or, just sing a LOT....a lot a lot.

Being seen as "talented" always helped my career, of course! But it was really just a judgement I used to my advantage.
I've trained many people with average or slightly above average voices to be absolutely astounding.
And had a blast doing it...
We worked on their... awareness!
Awareness of what?....TUNE IN NEXT BLOG FOR....the next...blog entryyyyyyy!
Okay: First blog in this series complete! Cool.
And I think that's a LOT for the very first entry. I hope this sparks some healthy discussion and some great questions on being an amazing singer/speaker or vocalist of any kind.

Hey, so, what if you sang a quick tune right now (even if its quietly) just because you can?

This is Divy Nelson for
The Singers Daily
May 2009