Channel: Madeleine Harvey

Category: Education

Tags: need to sing goodsing goodhow to sing wellsing bettersound goodmadeleine harveyvoice lessonhow to find your authentic voicesound good singingneed to sound goodhow to sing goodsound better

Description: Why the need to sound good is holding you back Main objective - learning how to play without fear and without hate. You know about this energy. You feel the potential of it. It is why you want to be free. Hello lovelies!! Thank you for hanging out with me today. As a vocal coach, one of the biggest areas that I work with singers on is the removal of blocks. A vocal block in it’s truest sense is the reluctance to move. To go into a place within the voice that we are afraid to go. All vocal blocks mask emotion, restrict movement and absolutely destroy sound. Today, I want to explore with you, an extremely complex block that I see manifesting in singers voices more than any other destructive habit. This tendency can undermine all your efforts when you are working with such a sensitive instrument like your voice. And that is the NEED to sound good. When I say need, I am referring to the absolute attachment to an outcome, like a specific sound that we have to have or the tendency to compare our voice to someone else’s as a benchmark for acceptable. That attachment and reaction sets into motion a complex series of muscle responses that lock your voice inside of your body. Not to mention, creates an intense anxiety towards your sound, causing your mind to be extremely judge-mental. If this goes on over a period of time, your critical mind - that part of your mind that is supposed to help you - learns to outright attack you as well as any effort you make for anything creative or new. This can make you afraid of your own voice because you feel like you can’t trust it or you feel like it is constantly disappointing you. I’m not saying you shouldn’t have excellent standards for yourself as a singer or that you shouldn’t want to sound your best. I’m suggesting a change in the way you approach your voice. I’m suggesting the crazy notion of relaxing your expectations while you are developing your voice into shifting your focus to movement and the way that movement feels in your body rather than result exclusively. When your voice is restored to movement and impulse instead of tied into a result at all costs, you are in a much more powerful stance, and you know how to follow your instincts and your authenticity to truly create something spectacular instead of something overly structured, rigid and cookie cutter simply because that’s what other people say you should do. So think of your developmental work with your voice as teeter tottering back and forth between coordination and release. Talent is; To be free of all blocks. 1. The thing that stresses the voice out the most - attachment and reaction. (THE WAY THE VOICE WORKS) The biggest issue people have when it comes to singing is that they react to their voices, or even punish themselves when it doesn’t sound “perfect” This, more than any other habit, stops your voice from doing what comes naturally. This is partly due to the thinking that their voice isn’t sophisticated enough to be truly appreciated or the result doesn’t compare to what is popular in music right now. So when many people begin to sing, this desire to just “sound right” forces them to fold and tie their voices into pretty little knots because that’s what they think they have to do in order to be “correct.” The absolute law with the voice is that it is CONTROLLED by your nervous system. At it’s heart of heart is all about following the life force from deep inside of you and allowing that force to flow easily without interruption. You can’t feel your voice or your body if both are tied up in knots because you are afraid to let go. A voice’s potential and flow are interrupted when a singer makes demands over the result too soon. This can confuse the singer later on when it comes to exploring their authenticity because they have spent an entire developmental process saying to their voice, “No! You are not allowed to express who you really are. You have to do it they way I want you to.” Ultimately, your (Authenticity and creativity) voice will begin to shutdown because like a child with strict parents, it feels like it can do nothing right. It’s your reaction to the flow of energy and movement in your voice that is going to underscore your progress more than anything else. The fastest way to develop your voice is to NOT REACT, but to surrender to where your voice wants to take you organically. The wobbles, the shakes, the honks and even the tears that come up are symptomatic of a barrier you’ve placed on your voice. Nothing more. When you allow your voice to go into those places that you did not want to go, those barriers and limitations simply melt away. When you surrender, and let your voice move without any tendency to protect, preserve or obsess about it being perfect, but truly let go, there is a massive shift in the energy. Your entire approach to