On Courage

Who we are as people is revealed when we open our mouths to sing.
Our truth is apparent. If we are fearful and hiding behind a mask that is clear to an audience (consciously or unconsciously), and they respond accordingly.
A voice carries a person's true self to the listener.  Think of your favorite artists. Theres a pretty good chance you feel a personal connection to them and have a sense of who they really are.
As artists are we increasing our comfort level at being our true selves?

Courage is A Muscle.

It takes courage to be ourselves in the world let alone on stage.
It takes courage to write a song and present to an audience, to step into a studio and create a recording. The courage to "be" who we are at our core and not just who we would like the audience to think we are.
The more we practice using this muscle the easier it gets to allow the vulnerable imperfect self to simply "be" present without artifice.

Courage must become a Habit.

We are creatures of habit.  If our habit in life is to play a role for approval that will surface on stage and our true self will remain hidden. That fake "performer personality" will be all the audience gets to know of us. They may be entertained in the moment but will they be fed? Sustained? Loved? Given any real truth about life?

Making a New Habit

Being honest in daily life is where we start. Think of all your relationships, especially the intimate ones. Are you pretending or manipulating the truth in order to be loved?
Revealing ourselves without fear of judgement is easier said than done. It's a life times work for some of us (myself included).

Creating an inner sense of self assured peace is the starting place for a singer.  Our fears will still be there but our courage must be large enough to overcome our insecurities…and allow us to "be" who we really are.

 Our truth is what powerful artists carry into the room and onto the stage.

Songwriting Part 4 Listening to "Source" Music" While Songwriting

              When I am digging in during a creative period of songwriting what I input becomes important. What books I read, which movies I watch, and most importantly the music I listen to all have impact on opening the doors to creativity and I do find myself seeking a certain kind of listening experience. 

         Because my own music sticks closely to the Jazz, Blues Classic R&B and Brill Building Pop tunes these days I don't have to catch up on the latest radio or club sounds in order to feel up to date. (what a relief!) The music I make is all about lyric and the singing voice and telling a story with as much authentic emotional truth as possible. Thats why I find myself happiest when listening to what I call "source music".
                                 
                                           WHAT IS "SOURCE MUSIC"?

  Historically there are certain artists who helped define a sound early in the development of a genre. It is with them that I like to hang out when I am opening to the possibilities in my writing. Say Hank Williams for instance. The width and breadth of his abilities helped define what recorded commercial country music as a genre would one day become. His work was rooted in the Blues and Gospel and Folk Idioms of poor folks and designed for both Saturday night dancing and the Sunday prayer meeting. From "Im so Lonesome I Could Cry", to "Honky Tonkin'" to "I Saw The Light"
One simple little ditty of Hank's can pull us into the complex world of human experience, our wants and needs and fears so completely that they can feel like contemporary statements.
 (I also find Johnny Cash clears up my thinking and gets rid of the excess need to be clever.)

   The Blues is such an important touchstone to all of rock n roll and R & B based pop and I find myself returning time and time again to the great pioneers like Robert Johnson whose tiny output of recordings made during his short life have actually effected the way we hear and experience music for all time. Likewise the powerfully constructed Chess recordings of Muddy Waters whose sound was built more for the bar room and juke box and helped create all that we think of as contemporary music.

Keeping my listening habits simple and truthful seems to help me be all the more honest and emotional direct in my work. Of course I never fail to keep the triumvirate of writing gods Leonard, Joni and Dylan close at hand as well.
There's nothing like inspiration from the highest mountain to help keep our eyes on the prize…creating work that is the very highest calibre we are capable of right?
 
                                                   What is your "Source Music" ?

SONGWRITING PART 3 : Some Keys To The Kingdom

Some important things to keep in mind as you start the journey to become a songwriter.

YOUR PERSPECTIVE IS ESSENTIAL.
Although feelings tend to be where most songs start out, feelings aren't enough to make a good song happen.
Good songwriting joins a strong emotion with a unique idea or perspective on the emotional situation. Once you have that worked out your songs perspective on the situation presented in your material then your song has been born.

FORGET ABOUT BEING CLEVER. BE HONEST.
A word of advice to the fledgling songwriter.
Try making being honest rather than clever as your goal.
Being clever is for beginners. When we start we are up in our heads trying to figure out how to be unique.
But using complex language or ideas for the sake of being smart isn't what music is about. GREAT writer/artists like Dylan or Joni started out real simple, have a listen to their first few albums. And they ended up changing the world of songwriting forever!

DON'T SWEAT BEING 'UNIQUE"
Your unique "take" on life is something you don't have to over think ..it just is a fact of your existence. No two people ever think alike or have the same exact perspective so you're "take" on an emotional situation will end up being unique.
Your Emotions plus your Perspective are already unique. Develop THAT equation and keep writing you'll eventually find your identity as a songwriter.

SONGWRITING PART 2 : Getting Started As A Songwriter

Wanting to get going but don't know where to begin with Songwriting? It actually doesn't take much.

A willingness to get honest and write about your feelings is the most important key to making a start.

Songs come from human experiences and emotions. Someone made you feel bad. You want something very much. You are scared of something. Every big simple feeling we have as human beings are the start of a song.

STAYING HONEST AND SIMPLE!

Boiling your ideas down to very large and clear feelings is harder than it seems.That can often be the largest stumbling block for the beginner. We tend to be very thinky and work very hard to try and be unique or clever in our writing early in the game. Being truly honest with ourselves is a challenge for most of us in daily life, so it takes practice to be willing to declare our true emotions.
But developing songwriters soon learn that songs are primarily made of feelings. Big simple feelings that every human has experienced or can imagine experiencing. Thats the basic element that makes every good song work.

PRACTICALS: START A "LYRIC BOOK" AND KEEP IT HANDY!

Strong intense feelings are where most songs start. Bad day? Argument with a loved one? Excited about a possibility in your life?
Write down a few lines to describe the feelings you are having, I recommend a "lyric book" that you keep handy and fill with little snatches of lyric over time. (You'll refer back to it many times as you move forward as a songwriter).

Get good at putting pen to paper or fingers on the keys or frets when you are feeling something intensely. What you write doesn't have to be "good". Just honest. When I feel tears coming on I have learned to strap myself to the piano. 9 times out of 10 a song will be born.

The songs ask for honesty and demand that we get better at declaring our true emotional response to life. Thats something songwriting gives us. A greater understanding of ourselves and our reaction to the world.

PART 3 FINDING THE CO-WRITERS TO HELP YOU FINISH YOUR SONG IDEAS!

Please do log onto our SINGERS PLAYGROUND FACE BOOK GROUP for updates on upcoming workshops in your area http://www.facebook.com/groups/5584062509

ALSO have a look at THE BASICS OF SINGING clips. These Video's are a series designed to bring the viewer at home closer to vocal health and a good solid warm up until they can work one on one with a coach. http://www.youtube.com/MicahBarnes

SONGWRITING PART 1: Why Should I Be Writing My Own Songs?

Focusing your Artist Identity through Songwriting is One Of The Ways Singers Empower themselves and Create Career Longevity.

I've had the opportunity to work with up and coming songwriters in seminars recently and it's been a pleasure to work one on one with emerging artists all of my coaching career (including J.P. Saxe pictured here when he was much younger)

When singers I am working with are ambitious for real success in the music industry one of the key factors I ask them to consider is always whether they could learn to write their own material.

Why? Songwriters get more chances at making a viable career. It's a fact of the Music Industry. Think of the net worth of Adele, Lady Gaga or Katie Perry? Would they be as powerful in pop if they were singing songs written by other people?
VERY few artists stay at the top singing other people's songs.

Being able to develop your own material broadens your profit stream, your longevity and your "reach" in this industry...

ALSO Your songs carry and express your identity In the marketplace. (Which means if you don't like your branding YOU have the power to change it). If YOU"VE had a hand in developing your material then you are much more likely to be in charge of your image and marketing.

Being the songwriter means having more power in your career. It's worth figuring out how to learn the basics of songwriting!
I'll be chatting through some of the basics in the next few blog postings as I think through the elements that a newbie should know as they tackle the process of learning how to write songs.

"Losing Control".

Most singers talk about seeking greater control over their instrument. Thats actually the opposite of what I coach and not at all how the best singers think about their voices. But an honest misunderstanding of what we do as singers.

Control is something we want to feel we have over our voices so that the notes we hit are "true", the pitch is "correct" and the tone "pleasing".
Yes, of course we want all that and more, but when we focus of "control" of our voices as our goal we actually limit what is possible!

All kinds of problems crop up when singers are focused on "control" as their goal. The first of which is a potentially clenched throat with muscles that are straining and pushing on the chords to create sound.
(That's why I use the tongue out during the "sigh" or AAAAAAHHHHHH exercise in this first of The Basics of Singing Video's, it allows us to get used to the neck muscles letting go and relaxing during the process of making tone).

Diaphragm muscles that become tense during the process of breathing are also an unfortunate byproduct of seeking control in our singing. Thats the kind of "support" that leaves us tired out and exhausted in the process of making music. Without a relaxed diaphragm everything a singer is trying to do it in jeopardy.
Thats why we focus on filling a balloon or inner tube around our torso (just under the rib cage) as we fill up with air, (see video),and completely relaxing as the air leaves our body (and the imaginary balloon deflates), with no squeezing or pushing involved at all.

Eventually the open "sigh" with a relaxed diaphragm can become the template for all of our vocalizing and I recommend singers work with this exercise at the top of any warm up session before singing.

We think our job is to "sound good", "sing well" and have "good pitch".
Sure, but all of those are byproducts of good technique and focusing on much more useful stuff.

Our job as singers is to be able to "feel" the lyric, "inhabit" the melody of the song and express the emotions that the material creates, so that our audience can go on their own journey with us.

But how are we going to be open and available and free to express the music when we are busy pushing, straining and seeking "control" of our voices?
Thats the wrong message to be sending our body and indeed a limiting way of working our instruments.

What Does A Coach Do?

Writing to you as a light snow falls outside in Toronto end of Nov 2011, in preparation for the Q & A video what we will be posting in the New Year in response to your questions, (please send 'em to micah@singersplayground and we'll pick a few to film answers for!).
I've been ruminating about what we coaches do for our clients. I've been coaching in Toronto, Los Angeles and recently New York over the course of almost 30 years and have found there is are consistent themes in the way singers can use a coach.
The first way is as a trusted partner in the building of the singers voice. This is the single most important (and life changing skill) that a coach can bring to a client. The issue that would bring a singer to a coach is usually one of lack of knowledge and experience around technique. The challenge as a coach tends to be how few singers actually dig in and spend the time (and funds, which is a practical consideration), to complete the process of acquiring a solid technique.
A good coach can make the quick changes necessary for the singer to feel a new freedom, and of course managers, labels and producers (as well as artists) rely on quick results. It's fun playing magician a few weeks before a singers studio session or tour dates, but in truth thats not how the best results are attained. In my experience the best results come from regular sessions (and lots of practical application) over the course of many months. This can be hard to do (especially with busy schedules) but in truth thats the only way systemic changes in technique can really take root. Singers have trouble thinking of their voice work as a daily practice over the course of time, but in my experience thats how real change is best achieved.

The second way that I try to be useful is as a trusted advisor to the artist in things connected to their approach to their work. I was never confident that I could be really and truly helpful in my early years of coaching and kept my focus on the voice but in recent years as I've gained knowledge and experience in the music industry, I have found that I've been able to extend my support to both fledgling and mid career artists in their business practices.
Changing perspective so that artists feel their empowerment and putting themselves in the drivers seat is essential for careers to function well.
That usually entails a large scale shift in perspective for even though the industry has crashed around us artists still feel the need for "Big Daddy" to come and rescue them from all the hard work it takes to establish a career.
This shift in perspective can happen during Private coaching sessions and in group seminars that are designed to expand the singers knowledge and help them find practical application and design step by step game plans for themselves.
Assembling a team to support the singer is an important focus for me in these Career Strategy sessions, and making sure the singer is taking full responsibility for the health of their career is also key. I think it's important when I coach "music industry skills" that I never seek to take the place of a manager or producer but help the artist ask the questions they need to be asking themselves in order to better be prepared to attract top notch professionals from the industry to work with them.

So, as we prepare to film Q & A video's please dig into your voice and career challenges and ask away! Please slip me an e mail at micah@singersplayground.com and we'll try to get everything answered whether it ends up in the upcoming Q & A video clips or not.
These two areas VOICE TECHNIQUE and CAREER STRATEGY are good places for us to start…what would you like to know?
cheers
Micah Barnes