Sing 4 Your Life! THE BLOG For Singers!

I was involved in a project with about 5000 others online a couple of years ago now.
We were each discovering things about ourselves and seeking ways to have an impact on the world we live in. What I learned about my self and my motivation charged my spirit with all sorts of new ideas for the future.

As I write this, I am acutely aware that some of what I am about to talk about with you guys will be received by you in a variety of ways. Some of you will think, ‘Yeah, she’s right. It’s exactly like that’, while others will disagree totally.

I suspect that most of you will be somewhere in between because as artists we are fairly, albeit faintly aware of what goes on behind our eyes, and in the deepest part of ourselves, even those parts we keep hidden from the rest of the world outside of us.

That being said, I start by saying that I believe we human beings come into this world each endowed with certain gifts. Some of us discover very early on what those gifts are, and for some of us, they can take a lifetime to reveal themselves. While others may never find them, many will discover their gifts in the later time
of their earthly experience and wonder why it took them so long to see them.

One thing IS certain though, and it is that every one of us DOES have gifts, and from my view, our only job on earth is to use them for good.

I have spoken to you guys about this before and quite often I know, but while I was researching material for the 6th eBook, I came across some quotes by musical artists that truly touched me very deeply.

When I tell you people that your gift of song can heal the planet, I’m not just being dramatic. I’m dead serious about that.

What’s wrong with the planet is from my perspective really quite simple to diagnose. We are lost! And we are standing at the top of a hill, looking down into a valley, thinking, ‘is that the way…there?’
suddenly, we hear a small voice, behind us, like a child, and turn to look at it and THAT’s when we see the road back. All we needed to do was turn our heads.

But we are so preoccupied with day-2-day survival game we are forced to play on this planet, that we cannot appreciate the value of LOVE, and that’s what music is, you know…LOVE.

“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

Do you think that human beings who are feeling that kind of love would be interested in raging wars for profit?

“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

Would a CEO feeling like that create a mission statement to lay off a million people just to make a few more dollars?

“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

Can a person who understands this quote spend his afternoons spreading ugly rumors about his/her neighbor over the backyard fence?

“The funny thing about enlightenment is that it’s like you’re searching for something– say your hat–and you’re tearing the house apart and suddenly you look in the mirror and you see it sitting on top of your head.
Music is where I experience that. I’m in a flow, I’m in a zone, there’s a definite shift in consciousness, without desire, without my ego, without me thinking, ‘oh wow, I’m sounding great’.
Just experiencing it as a flowing living moment.” Vernon Reid - British-American Guitarist

Can you recall a time in your life when you were so full of joy you wept? Was your ego involved?

“For a musician, music is the best way to unite with God”. Inayat Khan - Indian Sufi Master

The Runner runs - and it becomes a prayer. For me, singing is my meditation.

“Music is the harmonious voice of creation. An echo of the invisible world [of spirit].”
Giuseppe Mazzini - Italian Patriot and Revolutionary

Singers - SEE your place in this miraculous creation!

“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

This is the quote that gave me the name of my first website. I have been literally singing my life since I was 3,
and there is nothing I cannot endure as long as I keep singing.
How can I impress upon you people, the value of your gift for this planet?
How can I make you see that your voice + my voice + all the singers’ voices can make so much music, that the entire earth will be continuously singing.
You can make this happen just by singing your song…making your own “sound sacrifice” to heal the hearts of a lost society. It’s your job….TO SING!

Well, please do forgive my proclivity for phlolisophical discourse, but as Nietzsche once said,
“Has anyone ever observed that MUSIC emancipates the spirit…gives wings to thought? and that
the more one becomes a musician, the more one is also a philosopher?”

Guilty.

I leave you with this thought to ponder, and I invite you to leave your comments on the blog as soon as this is posted there. I know you must have some remarks to make about my attempts here to stir things up in you. Don’t be shy. There IS a way to leave a comment anonymously, so go for it!

“Wherein lies the power of songs? Maybe it derives from the sheer strangeness of there being singing in the world…a mystery like mathematics, wine, or love. Song shows the world that it is worthy of our yearning, it shows us our selves as they might be…The mystery holds the key to the unseen…There are occasions when the bolts of the Universe fly open and we are given a glimpse of what is hidden…
Glory bursts upon us in such hours, and reveals the radiance of singing.” - Salman Rushdie - British Author

See ya soon, Singers!

DEVELOPING YOUR STYLE

It says this on my business card: Discover the Voice Inside You.
Over the weekend, I gave it someone and she asked me what that phrase meant.
I thought about it for a sec and told her this.

“Well, when we’re learning how to sing, it’s not unusual to try and sound like someone else, usually some singer who we admire and have listened to often. As we grow in technique and confidence, we start to trust our own interpretations of the songs we’re singing and rely less on the imitation of other artists.�

She replied:
“So once I develop my own sound, I shouldn’t imitate anyone else?

“Well�, I continued, “Yes and No. Actually its not just developing your sound, it’s your personal STYLE that you’re developing and it goes even further than that. Your own personal style will certainly be your own and no one else’s, but you must realize that you’ll never sing every song the same way with the same style, so while you’re developing your own voice and style, you are also learning to respect the music you sing by singing to each different song as IT dictates�

My companion seemed totally confused by this so I went on to explain further:

There are 3 levels of artistry a singer develops.

The first level is singing to him/herself.
This is learned in bedrooms across the globe in front of one’s mirror with a hairbrush as the microphone. Many singers never get past this level and fall in love with the sound of their own voices. It doesn’t matter what song they sing, they always sound the same on every single song, and they like it, even if no one else does.

The second level is singing to an audience.
This is a dangerous level as it is often dictated by the listeners rather than the singer, and therefore may contain all the right notes and words but absent of personal expression which is the true measure of an Artist! It’s also where the temptation to start sounding like someone is most insistent. And we’re all subjects of this temptation because we want to meet with approval from our audience…it’s totally natural to want to please them. And it’s also okay to…AS LONG AS we remain true to our own personal style while doing so. If you’re singing a Celine Dion song that the audience has heard a thousand times, you can still sing it as YOUR personal expression, even if there’s a pull to hit all of Celine’s notes and imitate her mannerisms. There’s only one of Celine Dion, but there is only ONE of YOU TOO. Remember that! Performing is about expression and not impression!

Which brings us to 3rd level of artistry. Singing to the SONG!
When we sing to the song, we are confident enough to allow the song itself to dictate our style. It’s not possible to sing every song exactly the same way, which is why I always admonish my students to choose the right songs if they want to showcase their true talent.

Singing to the song means that the words, and the notes and the accents of the song must conform with the inclinations of the performer.

And basically what that means is that if someone wants to hear “Crazy�, when I’m performing somewhere, I don’t have to sing it like Patsy Cline, BUT, I shouldn’t sing it with a Jazz inflection either simply because the song dictates a certain style and vocal turns that are the opposite of the way Jazz does. So what do I do? I sing the song as my own personal expression of the words, remembering that performing is all about the CONVERSATION and not so much about each individual note. So it ain’t Patsy Cline, but its pleasing to the crowd, and I kept my own artistic integrity, see that?

If I sing a song in Portuguese, the song is going to dictate where to put the accents, so I am careful to choose foreign language songs will compliment my own style without making me sound false or forced.

I have become quite impressed with this young Country artist on this season’s American Idol. He’s definitely a Country singer, but his willingness to explore what’s beyond his natural roots in that music and reveal something else lurking in his soul, demonstrates exactly what I mean when I say, “Discover the Voice Inside You�

You are invited to read all my archived blogs and articles on singing and performing by visiting my Singers Social Network!!

And here are additional websites where you will find my bloggings. We are very busy putting together a compilation of all of my meanderings for the last 10 years. Please come back and stay tuned for when that eBook will become available!!

http://www.selfgrowth.com/experts/chrys_page.html

http://www.singyourlife.spruz.com/blog.htm

http://www.singyourlife.com/blog

http://www.mysingersblog.blogspot.com

And thanks for stopping by to read.

Sin[g]cerely, - Chrys