Singing Instruction - How To Critique Your Own Singing
I'm an older guy now, but I can still remember vividly the time when I was 6
, and decided to clean the kitchen while my mother was upstairs. I worked and worked, smiling all the time, imagining how happy my mother would be when she saw what I had done. When I heard her coming I hid, excited about how she was going to feel. She came into the kitchen, stopped and looked, and then said "Alan, come in here please." When I showed myself she said "I see you cleaned the kitchen. That's nice, but look over here. You missed several spots on the cabinet. And why didn't you straighten the table?"
Now, my Mother was a terrific Mother, but she thought she was teaching me a lesson..if you're going to do something, do it right. But what she actually did was to assure the fact that I would never voluntarily clean the kitchen again.
Think of the part of your subconscience that runs the singing voice as that child, and the mother is YOU. The "mother' part of you jumps automatically to whatever is not up to expectations, ignoring all the good stuff. Instead of helping matters the "mother" part encouraged discouragement. "You just don't do anything well."
Often I instruct the student to listen to their recordings as if they were surfing the radio and came across this singer. How do they feel about that singer? Do they have a "professional" attitude? Do they communicate the meaning of the song.
I instruct them to try to ignore mistakes and pitch problems and focus on the effect this singer has on them. Of course they can't totally ignore the negatives, but they can train themselves to also hear what is good. Can you do that?
Singing Techniques 2 - How to Hear Yourself as Others Hear You
You've just finished singing a song at karaoke, and friends and strangers are gathering to tell you how great you were. You say "thanks" while you are thinking "they're all lying to make me feel good. I know what I sounded like, and it wasn't great." Who is right? You are them? Let's look at this.
Let's begin this discussion by saying that you are NEVER going to hear your voice the way others do. It's not going to happen. When you sing you "hear" much of the sound through the inner ear. From the inside.After all, that's where you dwell. Even when you hear your recordings through a great system you are missing a bunch of sound which is only accessed from inside. (Think of standing inside of the guitar, listening to the sound)
So, how do you handle this? Well, you can continue to deny the honest opinions of others, believing that you are the best judge of your singing, or you can teach yourself to trust what they say. As you lean to trust you begin to believe; as you begin to believe, you begin to like your voice more and more.
Most of us aren't very good at accepting (believing) complements. But the opinions of others are extremely valuable when blended with our own self-judgements. Of course we need to examine our performances, vocal quality and style, but we shouldn't put all our faith in that alone.
It's human nature to focus in on our shortcomings and ignore our qualities. But such an approach to our singing advancement can only slow things down, and eventually (if not stopped) can erase our enthusiasm for singing altogether.
Believe it or not, most people who compliment us really mean what they say, and they do represent the basic listener who isn't a knowledgeable musician. They "feel" rather than examine techniques and quality. Listen to them. It will make you a much better singer and performer.
by: Gen Wright
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