If you sing in a duet, trio, quartet, choir, chorus, band or any other group you need to ask yourself this question: Are you more like clay, or ceramic? Stay with me. I promise it will make sense. A good quality potter’s clay has substance and a certain consistency, but is still very pliable and moldable. Once that piece is glazed and baked the flexibility is gone, and either it works with the other pieces or it doesn’t. There’s no turning back or fixing it.
The obvious parallel
The obvious parallel for singers is this: Anyone who sings in a group must remain like clay. If you’re not moldable, pliable and flexible you won’t fit in and blend with others. Instead, you will stick out, like a misshaped or discolored mug in what was intended to be a matched set. And, even if you’re primarily a soloist you still need the same “clay” element in order to do different styles of music authentically and believably.
Your Job Now
Your job now is to do a meaningful self-examination and ask the big question: “Am I more like the potter’s clay, or the inflexible ceramic?” If you do find yourself in the ceramic category you can relax. Unlike the potter, who has to destroy bad pieces, God has given us the ability to rework and relearn. This allows us to keep and add to the good skills, while at the same time eliminating the bad ones. If we are diligent with this pursuit, our vocal muscle memory with be helping us really own some great vocal technique.
Your thoughts
Let me know your thoughts on this article by adding a comment or writing me at chris@vocalcoach.com
Warning: Sometimes, those of us with the most training are the ones in danger of being “academic ceramics.” If we’re not careful, we will live in a rut of just what we were taught and lose the ability to grow. Those of us who teach risk the danger of giving bad counsel due to our own inflexibilty. How do I know this? Through personal experience. I am constantly learning, reading and love chatting with other teachers and coaches.
Tags: chris beatty, singing classes, singing lessons, vocal coach, vocal training, voice lessons
This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009 at 11:14 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.