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I love to sing! All sorts of music. Opera, musicals, chamber music, church music, cabaret, concert music.
I love to think about singing, the inner and the outer game, the physics, metaphysics and physiology of it, the north, east west, north and the south of it- oops, I'm singing. How can we learn to sing more efficiently, expressively, with more ease and acoustic and emotional power?
I believe everybody can sing. I believe that is not all that hard to learn the basics of good singing. Consider this: there is not a culture in the world that does not sing its own songs; and most of these cultures even manage to sing without the benefit of voice lessons.
Think about those singing Eskimos, Welshpersons, Georgians, Africans, Hawaiians, Mongolians, Hopis, Pygmies, Irish, Maori, Swiss, Gypsies, Spaniards and Bulgarians!
How do they learn to sing? By being exposed to singing from babyhood. They listened when the grown-ups sang. They watched. They sat on their parents' laps and looked into their mouths. They felt their parents' bodies breathing and resonating. And they picked up singing as easy as catching a cold.
If you, like most of us, did not grow up quite this way, you can still pick up singing without any signs of a struggle. You can learn to pay attention to it, the way a child pays attention. The way an athlete pays attention.
Athletes learn body consciousness without self-consciousness. They learn mental focus and physical freedom, and they make it all look so easy. Athletes think and react so fast that people say "they're zoning, they're unconscious." But they have worked hard to train brain nerve and muscle get to that zone. The work gives them deep pleasure, whether they are winning losing or just practicing. Singers can learn a lot from sports and sports science.
I believe that motor skills- breath support, tone clarity register blending, range extension, control of the articulators- are best learned through the senses- sight, hearing, touch, muscle memory. But I also believe that the teacher should be knowledgeable about the mechanics of singing. I base my teaching on what is presently known about what we do physically when we sing. When a student wants to know what's happening in there, I'll explain. I'll talk about the nuts and bolts of voice mechanics, as a sports coach would.
I believe that good listening, noticing and mental discipline can be learned. You can't will yourself or force entry into your Zone, but you can take the steps up to it by 'routining' with plentiful vigilant practice, and accepting where you are every moment- so no negative self-talk is allowed!