Courage

These are some great quotes I read in the blogosphere this morning that I thought I would share with you.  Whether it’s getting up in front of people to sing a concert, doing an audition, boarding your flight across the Atlantic while knowing there is still debris floating below, working in downtown NYC, continuing to live your way of life in the face of terrorists who would wish to end it, these are great words to live by.

“Courage is one step ahead of fear.” – Coleman Young
“Courage is almost always a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live, taking the form of a readiness to die.” – Gilbert Keith Chesterton
“Courage is doing what you are afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you’re scared.”- Eddie Rickenbacher
“Anxiety is a thin stream of fear trickling through the mind. If encouraged, it cuts a channel into which all other thoughts are drained.”- Arthur Somers Roche
“A great deal of talent is lost to the world for want of a little courage.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

YouTube, Susan Boyle, and Square One

If you read no other post but this one, you’ll get the gist of what this blog is all about for me.  Finding your voice in the singing business, or finding your voice in whatever it is you want to do in your life (no matter what others say or think), is what life is about.  It is about your happiness, living your dreams and not being afraid.  When I saw this video on youTube today I thought this pretty much summed it up.  See for yourself and please comment and tell me what you thought and what this video meant for you.  Before the songbooks and auditions, the studying and practicing, the hours of research and lessons, you must have this.

It’s all relative

So, yeah, I have been dealing with a broken finger with the splinting and the buddy taping and then general aching and whining that I have been engaging in.  And then one of my favorite athletics (Lance Armstrong) broke his collarbone in a race this past week.   He went through surgery for a break that he thought was a clean one, but turned out not to be so.  He was twittering the entire time he was going through the process but was still sitting down to wine and dinner with friends and still enjoying life.  He may not come back to the Tour in time.  Sometimes things stink, but things are what they are and doesn’t make you or brake you.  Of course, it wasn’t lost on me that things are relative for him as well, obviously.  A collarbone break for him is cake comparedto what he went through already.  If only I can think that things are cake when they happen and not because I have something worse to compare it to.  The lesson here is that a set back is not the end of your world.  Roll with it and you will be much happier.  Me?  I adapt by typing my blog with my entire left hand and two digits of my right.

The cattle calls are calling…

I love cattle calls.  Not the ones in West Texas, but the ones that singers go through on a regular basis; especially those auditioning for musical theatre.  For me, these types of auditions help to keep me on my toes, keeps my head in the game, keeps my chops up and gives me a chance to perform.  Plus, I get to add more people to my contacts list with some nervous networking.  You know what I mean by nervous networking don’t you?  When you are so charged up and nervous before an audition that you chat everyone up – or maybe that’s just me.  If it’s an open call – even better.  Having everyone see you gives you an extra charge and nervous energy.  Seeing everyone else gives you some great ideas and, of course, helps you size up your competition.  With any audition, but especially open ones (for me) helps me learn to deal with the extra adrenalin and still be able to breath, perform, etc.  Plus, you get heard, sometimes you get feedback, you get to find out things about your chosen material that you couldn’t possibly have anticipated in practice (some good, some not so good)….. and did I mention you get heard?  I’ve just started scheduling auditions for the next round of shows coming up in the Spring, Summer and Fall and I know that the more I do this, the better I will get.  This time, I’m armed with some good audition coaching I received and an adjustment in my mindset about how this is an opportunity for me to sing.  The point is this:  Go and audition as it might be (hopefully not) but might be the only time you get to perform in the next 6 months.  Look at it as a way for you to get better, to fine tune and to hopefully enhance your resume with an offer.  Get out there and be heard!

Friday Fermata

This week wasn’t as productive as I would have liked it to be – or so I thought.   I have been doing vocal acrobatics all week with back-to-back rehearsals for a Messiah concert this Sunday.  If you know anything about this work, you know that Handel doesn’t let up!  I’m more comfortable with a piece like Verdi’s Requiem (more legato with control) instead of Messiah (more acrobatics with control).  BUT, knowing that it would be a challenge, and to keeping from getting discouraged, I used it as an opportunity to work on how I viewed the situation and to make myself better.  Once I did this, I got past my vocal issues and discovered some interesting things.  For instance, their are lines in long vocal runs.  There is phrasing!  Who knew? I could do what before had been challenging.  So, although I didn’t work on my songbook this week, I worked on something much more powerful and influential in how I will progress in my career – my mindset.