Sing 4 Your Life! THE BLOG For Singers!

At a point in my development as a human being I became a part of a program called the “Boundless Living Challenge.� It was a place where I participated with others, spending 45 days at a time focusing on a specific intention or desire for my life.
It could be anything I desired to do or have, or it could be something about myself or my situation that I would’ve liked to change, but somehow have felt unable to do so.

I found that using deliberate intention, I CAN achieve things I never even dreamed of, and I had multitudinous a-ha moments of clarity, insight and wisdom by being part of the Boundless Living Challenge.

I also learned interesting and valuable lessons, one of which I want to talk to you about this month.

It can be a great thing to enter into a process of self exploration to discover the real YOU, the powerful and talented person you may never have allowed to come out and play before, but there CAN be a danger too.

The danger lies with the ego…and the possibility of becoming self-absorbed, which can lead to thoughts of fear, resentment, even embittered envy toward others. This can happen IF we lose sight of the fact that our talent is a gift and NOT something we ourselves created. This gift doesn’t make us better or more special, (although what we DO with our gifts DOES make us very special.)

The danger in self-exploration can also lead to comparing ourselves with others and in doing so, feeling competitive and wanting to WIN. It’s at these times that we really need to start changing our thinking from the competitive to the creative, and with complete and utter gratitude, use our talents for the good it can do in the world.

That, of course, does not mean that you must only be relegated to singing in your church choir and cannot have a wonderful life and earn a sizeable income from your talent.

When I say use your talent for good in the world, of course, I am including the good it can do for your own world as well as those you touch. It’s more the quality of joy you bring forth than anything else…do you see this?
I want you to OWN your talent and be proud of it, but not to flaunt it, or make others feel bad about themselves because they don’t seem to have it.

I have come to understand that music is not part of “arts and entertainment” as the newspaper section would have us believe. It’s not a luxury, a lavish thing that we fund from leftovers of our budgets, not a plaything or an amusement or a pass
time.

Music is a basic need of human survival. Music is one of the ways we make sense of our
lives, one of the ways in which we express feelings when we have no words, a way for us to understand things with our hearts when we can’t with our minds.

A piece of music has the ability to crack your heart open like a walnut; it can make you cry over sadness you didn’t know you had. Music can slip beneath our conscious reality to get at what’s really going on inside us the way a good therapist does.

I bet that you have never been to a wedding where there was absolutely no music.
There might have been only a little music, there might have been some really bad music, but I
bet you there was some music. And something very predictable happens at weddings-people
get all pent up with all kinds of emotions, and then there’s some musical moment where the
action of the wedding stops and someone sings or plays the guitar or something. And even if the music is lame, even if the quality isn’t good, predictably 30 or 40 percent of the people who are going to cry at a wedding cry a couple of moments after the music starts. Why?

Music allows us to move around those big invisible pieces of ourselves and rearrange
our insides so that we can express what we feel even when we can’t talk about it. Can you imagine watching Indiana Jones or Superman or Star Wars with the dialogue but no music?

What is it about the music swelling up at just the right moment in ET so that all the softies in the audience start crying at exactly the same moment? I guarantee you if you showed the movie with the music stripped out, it wouldn’t happen that way.

Music is the understanding of the relationship between invisible internal objects.

If there is a future wave of wellness on this planet, of harmony, of peace, of an end to war, of mutual understanding, of equality, of fairness, I don’t expect it
will come from a government, a military force or a corporation. I no longer even expect it
to come from the religions of the world, which together seem to have brought us as
much war as they have peace.

If there is a future of peace for humankind, if there is to be an understanding of how these invisible, internal things should fit together, I expect it will come from the artists, who might be able to help us with our internal, invisible lives.

Please be proud as a peacock for your talent, but also be grateful, okay Singers?

See ya next time!!

Our Singers’ Network is growing daily and from what I see, it’s becoming a real resource for our members. Let me encourage those of you who have been part of the Sing Your Life family by reading the newsletters to take that next step and join the community of singers we have created for you at www.singyourlife.spruz.com

I think I have figured out why many of you are reluctant to join. I think as we mature, some of us become extremely private and do not wish to expose ourselves to the trivial chatting that comes with being part of a social network. And with Facebook and Twitter out there, It DOES seem like overkill to some of you, right?
Even my SoCal contingent, who have supported me for years have been laying back from coming into our “family� for fear of having unwelcome emails showing up in their inbox on a daily basis.

So let me once again, make this very clear. My Singers’ network is a safe and nurturing space, where YOU decide what messages you get in your inbox, YOU participate in whatever way you choose to:
• you can read what your fellow singers are expressing about their singing lives,
• or watch an instructional video by yours truly,
• or post some music
• or simply lay back and stay pretty much anonymous.
It’s totally up to you, singers!

So let me tell you what we’ve got coming up.

Coming soon:
We will cover some of the issues you wanted addressed with the Q&A series of videos, but which require more in depth responses like:
1. How to sing with Emotion
2. Being totally comfortable on stage
3. How to put together a show
4. How to hold your audience for the duration of the performance

I will coax some of my friends to join me as special guests many of whom have been conductors for many famous artists, to offer their unique perspectives on what it takes to truly succeed on any stage.

We’re also continuing with the mini-lessons on vocal technique, and the Q&A series on video.

And I want to start having monthly tele-classes which will be free of charge to our members to discuss whatever singing and performance issues you have. There’s so much we can gain from each other as long as we share, singers!

OKAY! On with this month’s featured article!!

With the “hoop-lah� buzzing over with this season’s “American Idol�, I became inspired to write another book as a companion to the “The Art of Singing� series, we’ve had on the market now for 7 years.

Those books have hit a resonant chord with singers of all ages, all skill levels, all genre preferences, and from all corners of the earth.

The first book teaches basic singing technique to give the singer the correct way to sing as an automatic cell memory so he/she cam perform without ever having to think about how to breathe, how to “attack� notes, but just concentrate on communicating with the audience.

Book # 2, on Stage Presence, which is offered on our singers’ network as our gift to our members, talks about the ego’s interference and other distractions when we get up onto a stage to perform.

The 3rd Book is all about musicality, and seeks to teach the singer how to understand the notes, rhythms, and harmonies of the songs he/she sings, and how to know his/her range and keys he/she sings in, and how to count the beats of music.

And the 4th Book is all about Promotion, and how to navigate through the labyrinth of “come-ons� and move from the hyped up salesman speak to controlling one’s own destiny with regard to a career in music if that is the desire.

And NOW, since watching this season’s American Idol, where it became pretty clear that the outcome had been planned to be exactly what it became, I decided upon a serious guide book of rules for the aspiring singer, which I am naming, �Get Off The Bandstand�. Generally speaking, this book is meant to keep you in a state of total gratitude for your talent, and in the mood to share it always, but with respect for it and for yourself!

Have you ever been to a wedding where one of the guests approaches the bandstand to request that “Aunt Sally� be allowed to come up and sing for the happy couple? After many moments of Q & A with the band members, which might go somewhat like this:
“What would you like to sing?�
“Um…Gee, I can’t think of anything.�
“Well, how ‘bout a nice wedding song?�
“Uh, Yeah…I know um…the “Hawaiian Wedding song?�
“Okay, key?�
“Huh?�,
“What key do you sing it in?�.
“Oh! Dunno! Wait! Someone once told me I sing in C. Does that sound right?�
“whatever!�
Aunt Sally sings the song, in the wrong key and forgetting most of the words, but nevertheless, the wedding guests, wishing to be polite and supportive, enthusiastically applaud her efforts…which she reads as artistic approval, (wrong read…entirely), and so she decides to sing more songs. The problem is that Aunt Sally cannot really sing, doesn’t really know any song all the way through, and after the initial support from the crowd, they are restless, embarrassed, clearly uncomfortable, and the band doesn’t know how to graciously get rid of this person, as she has most assuredly worn out her welcome…big time!

My book will serve as a guide for aspiring artists who have the urge and desire to sing, but do not yet understand the correct protocol for doing so. Whether a professional singer or not, if you choose to perform, please know when you do, you represent an art form that celebrates personal expression of the deepest level and therefore MUST be treated with reverence and respect, even awe!

I suppose it was inevitable that mediocrity would eventually creep into the world of the Arts! And indeed, some would say, it has always been here…hiding in the shadows. I suppose that’s correct. And I can remember my parents absolutely despising the 50’s doo-op songs, but their disdain motivated them to take us kids to the opera and expose us to big bands, or insist that we listen to the Greek Hour every Sunday. And my parents’ parents probably thought Benny Goodman was as dangerous as Elvis, so sure…it’s a matter of personal taste, and I get that!

And it could also be said that although commerce dictates the “trends� in music, and that the bubble gum sounds of the Disney Channel represent a segment of the listening public who keep the music business’s economy running, this fact alone is not enough of a reason to relegate music into some insipid “entertainment� category, much the same as video games and gambling. Shouldn’t we be maintaining the importance of music in our lives as more than some superficial “feel-good� pill? Especially for those of us who SING to express ourselves, it IS so much more than that, isn’t it?

“To sing is to love and affirm, to fly and to soar, to coast into the hearts of people who listen, to tell them that life is to live, that love is there, that nothing is a promise, but that beauty exists, and must be hunted for and found.�
Joan Baez - American Singer/Songwriter

“When I am singing, I am inside of it…I feel, oh, like it feels when you’re first in love, when you’re touching someone–chills, things slipping all over me…A lot of times, when I get off the stage, I want to make love�
Janis Joplin - American Blues Singer

“Once I had a dream to live and love, and this dream became music. It touched all of the beautiful experiences I have searched for or known. Each sound was a color, and each color was a warm feeling, and my heart kept the tempo.�
Les McCann - American Jazz Pianist

“He who lets his breath, hence his life force, flow consentingly as a willing sound sacrifice from the depths of his body, sings his life; for singing means to affirm life, to free oneself, and thereby to bring happiness and prosperity to oneself, and consequently to one’s fellow man.�
Marius Schneider – German Musicologist who found musical symbols in German Mythology

I know I’ve used these quotes before, but I write them down here again to remind you of the value of the gift you have been given of a singing voice. It’s a gift to be grateful for and to be cherished and treated with care and respect, always!

Note: I am gathering stories about experiences you may have had either as a singer singing with a band, or as a band member dealing with a singer on stage. Please send me whatever you have, funny, sad, outrageous, whatever. Feel free to change names so no one’s embarrassed, okay?

See ya next month, Singers!!

Sin[g]cerely,
Chrys