Photo Credit – Leo Rivas-Micoud
Years ago, in one of my lessons, my teacher told me that I wasn’t concentrating on my work, that I was caught up in the beautiful sound I was making and my technique was going out the window. In other words, my love of singing was stunting my technical advancement.
How to fix this? Hmmm… I’d never thought about it before… and more than that, I had no idea of what to do about it. I love to sing! It’s fun!
“Shouldn’t singing be fun?”, I thought.
Looking back on this, it brings home the fact that to attain mastery of anything one must balance one’s technique with joy.
We must practice with awareness, build muscle memory and cement the brain-body connection, for these enable us to infuse our work with inner joy.
Practice Smart, Be Aware, Analyze Your Work, Apply Good Technique, then… Add Your Love!
Yes, I said, Add Your Love. Not add an impersonation of your idol! Not add your inner critic! Not add your best friend’s idea of how it should be!
The final step in the creative process, the thing that pulls it all together and allows us to connect to others through our art… is Love.
Remember, you started singing, or whatever it is you do, because you thought it was fun. So, one could also argue that the first step is Love. The truth is… it’s a grand circle!
To aid in linking technique with inner joy, my advice is, always end your practice with something that makes you happy!
Always Return To Fun!
