The Plague Of Perfectionism: Singing Without Fear

Why do we do what we do? What would posses us to open our mouths in public without knowing exactly whats going to come out. A guitarist has practiced his licks and can pretty well predict that the music will happen. We only have our own bodies to make sound with, a sore throat, or too much cheese at lunch can stop the notes from happening: it's no wonder singers can feel so fragile, vulnerable and full of such human fear. 

                Diva warning! Diva warning!

So we find ourselves worrying and anxious a lot of the time, creating a position and attitude of fear around our performing that doesn't serve us well. That vulnerable feeling has us reaching for safety much of the time, just so we can feel secure that we can do the job well.  Reaching for safety can mean making some smart choices like singing the songs we know well, singing in the keys that are comfortable. 

           Are You Limiting The Possibilities?

Sure, go for safety if it makes you feel more confident. Be well rehearsed. Have the songs well memorized.  

That is all reasonable and makes practical sense.

However a lot of us go further than seeking security. 

In our search for safety we seek to control the sound coming out of our mouths so there are no surprises.. in short we become perfectionists about our sound. That creates physical tension as we seek to control our voices..and more vulnerability as we listen and judge our performance and find that we are not living up to our own expectations!

This is the awful endless trap that many singers find themselves in where the act of singing becomes an exhausting self defeating exercise in judgement, expectations and failure.

                 Communication Is The Goal

 Perfection is a weird goal for a musician given that our real job is to express music, which is supposed to be a creative act! The quest for perfection is not an open space that allows the music to speak through us. Perfection is something we humans never get to no matter how hard we strive. AND we limit the possibilities of our expansion and discovery when thats our goal, blocking the relationship we are seeking to build!

                 Stop Listening To Yourself!

When we listen to ourselves, when we try to shape the notes so they sound exactly like we want them to, we end up focused on ourselves. When we are listening to ourselves, busy correcting ourselves, we often end up feeling inadequate and out of control, and we can no longer feel the music or sit inside the emotional life of the song or feel any kind of connection with our audience. 

Of course not, we are hard at work inside a locked system that won't allow us any breathing room to make mistakes, i.e. be "alive to the music".

                    Let The Music Speak!

Letting go of trying to be perfect is a challenge to the insecure singer. BUT unless we get out of the way and learn to allow the music to speak through us we're not actually doing the job right. We want that freedom to let go of "results oriented" singing and some of us will work towards it all of our careers..

The biggest challenge of all is to drop our desire for perfection. It doesn't serve us and it doesn't serve the music!

Micah Barnes founded The Singers Playground in 1996 in order to support the next generation of artists through workshops, seminars and one on one coaching and is truly delighted to get to work with so many talented artists in both Canada and The United States.

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Building A Showcase Set: Practical Tips Part 2!

     What Kind Of A Ride Are You Taking Us On?

Once you have created a basic sketch of your showcase set sit back and take the time to ask yourself some important questions. 

*What kind of a ride are you taking the audience on? 

*What emotional experiences are you asking them to join you on?

*What do these songs tell the audience about who you are and your identity?

IF it becomes clear that the songs are all similar in tempo you will want to consider switching some of the songs in order to build momentum as things progress through your set. If the subject matter of your songs in very similar this might be the time to consider a well placed cover song to help open up the emotional landscape a little!

You may need to go back and retool your set thinking of the audience and their experience as your focus. Remember the showcase set isn't about YOUR feeling good it's about THEM feeling good!

As uncomfortable as this process might be, you want to include the imagined "industry professional" (who has seen and heard it all) in your thinking! 

But I Don't Know What To Say!

What about talking between songs during a showcase set? 

YES we need to get to know who you are, what you are like, whether you take yourself too seriously, whether you are able to be relaxed about the whole thing etc. 

Be very clear on what you want to cover subject wise, ……..rehearse the "patter"as much as the songs! 

 Know where you are going in your intro's, otherwise the possibility of talking too long, or not being able to talk at all because of nerves can happen to the best of us!

My advice for any artist who is coming up to an important showcase would be to play a dozen shows (open mic, opening the show for pals etc) with your stage patter as your biggest focus! 

The audience will forgive you a lot if your killing it musically but there's no guarantee thats going to happen so I recommend plotting your words as carefully as you do your songs!

Preparation is Everything! Don't Fake This One!

Start your preparations early enough so there is no last minute frenzy to memorize, finalize or reorganize your set.

You want your showcase set built and ready to be rehearsed everyday weeks and weeks in advance of your show.

Practical Tip 1: Don't practice by yourself and think that between you and the mirror you have the whole thing figured out. Take to the open mics, local stages and coffeehouses etc. Use your closest friends and family and perform your showcase set for them and ask for honest feedback. You may not take all the advice but you will certainly have more knowledge about what is working and what isn't.

Practical Tip 2: I recommend folks start technical warm ups for your showcase show starting a month in advance. 

Do the daily practical work of a physical and vocal warm up over and over so that on show day you already have a ritual that works for you. The idea that on show day you will simply do your warm up and that will be enough is ludicrous and dangerous thinking. Make it a habit and your voice will be a well oiled machine by the time you slide into show day!

Everyone Gets Nervous: It's How You Handle It That Counts!

You should know the songs in your set so well that you could perform them upside down in a snow storm and still come off like a powerful relaxed performer. Industry folks know what nerves look like and might be in a forgiving mood but it's the winners in the business that practice like crazy and handle their nerves in a way that allows them to stay present and engaged in communicating their material.  

 A Final Word

You can't be anyplace you are not, so don't fret about not being as fully developed as you would like to be as an artist at the time of your showcase. Your job right now is to make sure you are creating the best possible representation of where you are at at this present moment.

AND no fear your showcase will keep changing so it's not frozen once you've built it. You will be working on it for the rest of your career! Good Luck!!

More things to keep in mind and practical tips coming !

Micah Barnes is a voice, performance and career coach whose Singers Playground workshops and private sessions have helped supported thousands of up and coming artists. For more information please have a look at  Singers Playground or e mail Micah Barnes!

Building A Showcase Set: Some Practical Tips (Part 1)

Giving an audience of industry folks a snapshot of who we are as artists is a daunting task.  However I challenge you to do the hard work of distilling your world down to a short set of 5 or 6 songs. Its a very useful exercise that will teach us a whole lot about what we have to offer our audiences.  

Don't worry about getting it right the first time. The "perfect" showcase set is a rubicks cube that will take time and lots of trial and error to figure out!

WHAT KIND OF PARTY IS THIS?

Some practicals: start with the most important songs, the top and bottom of your set. Once you know how you are starting and ending it will help you choose /build the rest of the songs in your set.

Opening number. Yes It says "welcome to my party" but it also has to tell us what kind of party we are arriving at! 

Your opening song wants to give us a sense of  where we might be going for the next 20 minutes to half an hour.

It should announce the style of music to follow, but also your identity or personality as clearly as possible.

2ND TUNE IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE 1ST!

Your second tune is more important than you think. It must deepen the story. Unless you give us a new angle or a new level of who you are as an artist we will be bored. Industry audiences like to feel like they've seen it all whether they admit that or not. Its a LOT easier for them to be unimpressed than to be excited about a new artist. 

If they think they have "gotten" who you are they will start shmoozing for sure. Once we have a sense of what landscape an artist is going to inhabit we either stay and hang out there or we move on and start "working the room". 

VERY few artists can hold an industry showcase past the first song unless what they do next is surprising, interesting, 

So make sure your second song deepens the story in some way and doesn't just continue along the same road as your opening number.

GIVE THEM SOMETHING THEY RECOGNIZE

You want a cover tune in your set.  Meet your audience half way with something we know.  Most of us do not want to "waste time" with a cover song in our showcase set. Trust me on this one, you want  cover song in your set. 

We may not ALL be as in love with your songs as you are SO if you impress us with how you handle a familiar piece of material it will go a long way towards winning us over. 

BUT if you do a cover, take time to make sure it's a GREAT fit for your style and really make your version fresh and your own. You may have to experiment with many many songs before finding the right fit. It will be worth it in the long run!

Where should the cover song sit in your set? Not at the top of bottom, (unless you do something spectacular with the material). Third song may not be a bad place for it. By then the audience may be getting tired of hearing new material and want something familiar.  

YOU ARE ALMOST BACK IN THE GREEN ROOM!

The last few songs in your set will want to be the strongest you have. Choose the songs your audiences ask you to perform every show, the songs you know have a little magic in them. If your industry crowd is still listening to you by the last few songs they will want to hear your "big numbers" and will be waiting for them.  

Ending tune is going to be the one you want them to walk away singing. No rules about it being fast or slow etc here. If your fans are telling you about their favourite song.. listen to them and try that song as your ending tune, see how it works in that place. 

Encore. Yes you will need an encore. The chances of an industry crowd giving you an encore are very small but if you are killing it and they are rousing for one more, it's your chance for the winners lap! Give them something really fun, or deep, or powerful that you know will have them celebrating you as their new discovery!

More things to keep in mind and practical tips coming !

Micah Barnes is a voice, performance and career coach whose Singers Playground workshops and private sessions have helped supported thousands of up and coming artists. For more information please have a look at  Singers Playground or e mail Micah Barnes!

MAKING A RELATIONSHIP WITH AN AUDIENCE Part 1

                               

OK, so your songs are the best they can be, your voice is the most open and relaxed it can be. Your body is energized and ready. You've got all your material memorized and the you've marketed your show effectively so that there is an audience coming.

Now comes the MOST important part…... 

Making a relationship with your audience. 

Without that all of your hard work is going to remain invisible. 

Because, as much as we may be impressed with you as a performer, we won't actually care on a personal level. Sure, we may tweet about you and take a pic or two at the show but we won't necessarily go home with your spirit imprinted in our consciousness. We won't become 'FANS FOR LIFE"!

And that my friends is the ONLY way you will have "won" your audience over. 

Good isn't good enough in todays market you need to be GREAT! 

We only fall in love with performers because we believe they are extraordinary. Superhuman if you will. But that means having MORE courage, MORE determination. and MORE focus than your average human being. Correct?

And THAT my friends takes some digging down and doing some really hard work on your part.

 OF COURSE IT'S PERSONAL!

Making a relationship with an audience begins with knowing yourself, what your strengths and weaknesses are...and where you hold back…in life.

Because although  we use our voices to communicate the way a guitar player uses his guitar to make music in fact what we are actually  playing is our emotional life. 

If you aren't willing to be truthful your audience will be robbed of the essence of your songs. 

If you don't like confrontation that will show up on stage. If you are uncomfortable telling the truth about your feelings…If you are someone who is uncomfortable with vulnerability or perhaps uncomfortable showing self confidence, courage or strength, all of that will show up on stage. 

Making your inner life accessible to strangers night after night in venue after venue until it becomes "normal" to get on stage and allow your true self to be there is a process. Most of us stop that process once we are satisfied that we are able to "put a song across", but have we really created an intimate relationship with our audience? 

AND HOW DO WE BECOME MORE COMFORTABLE BEING OUR HONEST SELVES IN FRONT OF THE AUDIENCE?

...Con't in Part 2

Micah Barnes works privately with singers at the SINGERS PLAYGROUND studio and in group workshops at The Winchester Street Theatre.  Next Toronto workshop is Jan 16th check http://www.singersplayground.com/workshops.html for details!

The Whole Picture

                                                                                                 

                                               

For those of you who are still resenting anything in your career that doesn't have to do with the music..such as learning to better communicate through social media,  working at better understanding your brand and at finding a like minded community for your music, I have this to say….

 ..ALL of these activities are actually an integral part of your music making.

Music is communication. A campaign asking for funds through a crowd funding project is an opportunity to communicate who you are and what your music is about to a larger community of people. Audience building through "the ask" is now a staple of the well planned career. And you are still mad about having to use Facebook and Twitter or Instagram to build your fan base?  Hmmmmm...

             How badly do you want a career in this business?

In the old days we all thought designing, xeroxing and stapling up hand made posters around town was an honest part of a musicians gig. You wanted to play to a full room, so you could get your music heard, get booked back into the venue and get your name out there. The handbill was designed by you and was a way of communicating who you are.

Social media is an expanded and much improved delivery system for exactly the same effect. Whats the resistance about?

                                                             

Those of you who don't understand how to build content for the web and have resisted it's possibilities are dealing with a bigger issue. You're not seeing communication in all of it's various incarnations as your job. And you are wrong. 

You are finding yourselves isolated because you desire an old system that doesn't exist anymore. How are you different than the fat cat record label guys who found themselves out of a job once the internet trained us to expect music for free and all the labels folded merged and/or downsized. 

Your old job has been redefined. Either grow with it or lose out to those who have figured out how to adapt!

These days musicians are asked to learn the whole picture. Its not enough to practice in your bedroom and garage, or simply post cover tunes on you tube and wait to be discovered. Our job is much more exciting and interactive. 

Yes perfect your instrument and your technique but also create a community around your music, or find the community that already embraces what you do!  Its as important to your job as singing in tune!

Your job as a musician is communication. If we told you there was a new instrument that would communicate the music you feel in your heart better and more accurately wouldn't you attempt to learn it? Of course you would. 

Well there is a new instrument that can communicate your music to a larger audience than you have ever dreamt possible. 

There will always be music. The folks who adapt to the new world are the ones that win in this new paradigm. Their music will get heard. Will yours?

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The Warm Up: Part One

                                                                   

   
Hey Folks! I answer a lot of questions from singers about how to warm up for a show.

The most frequently asked questions are:

1) How long a proper warm up should last?

2) What are the key elements of a good warm up?

3) How long before a performance should one warm up?

    These are all good questions and I'm always happy to discuss what preparation we can do to support our performances, so we're going to have a look at these issues in a series of blog posts.

Just a note: Some of the elements of a solid physical and vocal warm up are posted in a series of video's up on my website. Please have a look, these video's have helped thousands of singers around the globe approach performance with a deeper sense of peace and preparedness.

                             Peace and mental preparedness 
                     are the keys to a great performance folks!


In fact the most important function of the warm up is not actually the technical warm up of your voice, although that certainly is important, nor the physical warm up, as essential as that can be to supporting your performance. In my opinion the most important factor in a good warm up is that it is a ritual that focuses your mind body and spirit and allows you space to focus inward as you prepare to take the stage.

The life of a performer can be chaotic, full of last minute decisions, overwhelming fears and anxieties and challenges to the ego and one's sense of peace. How delicious that we are allowed a moment when it all must stop and make room for us to sit and breathe. To stop "doing" and to simply "be". A kind of clearing house for the psyche.

Therefore when people ask how long they should warm up my answer is usually "until you are peaceful". Now I recognize that this is a real challenge on a show day in the middle of all the crazy preparations of set list, stage clothes, comp list, travel to the venue, soundcheck etc.
 Therefore the "warm up" becomes even more essential, an island of peace and solitude in the middle of all the chaos.

Time is always tight on a show day and we will drop the warm-up unless it's scheduled like a rehearsal. So ask yourself. Aren't you worth giving yourself a chance at a relaxed easy time on your show day? Isn't your music worth getting behind and supporting? Isn't it time you did your best on stage instead of "the best you can do under the circumstances"?

          Schedule your peace of mind body and spirit daily!   
                .....And you will fly when you are onstage!

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Mastery As A Daily Challenge

Why is it SO damn hard to do a little practice every day?

       I have always resisted daily practice in my own life and career.  Mostly because it is so damn uncomfortable to have to face learning something new. It means admitting I'm not good at something. Sound familiar? Practicing something we're not good at means facing ourselves with the truth.
          It still does freak me out, but I have gradually become more accepting and understanding of the process. How? By doing the really scary uncomfortable act of practicing a little bit every day. Things that are new to us always feel difficult until we get comfortable with the new information. Eventually the materials you are looking at stop being "something I'm bad at" and become "something I'm working on".
But of course that takes practice.

           Daily practice is recommended for vocal technique because doing a little bit everyday means it's going to become a habit eventually (like the gym or yoga or cooking for ourselves etc). When we wait to have a really big session say once a week we run the risk of being overwhelmed by how bad we're doing and having to walk away. Or having it be cancelled for a variety of reasons which wrecks havoc with our confidence as see our "mastery" gradually slipping further and further away.

        Regular voice technique sessions are the way to build up confidence. In our craft. In ourselves. It's all about ego after all.  Those who get ahead, in the Arts, in Sports, in Life show us that "facing our fears" everyday is the way to gradually build up real confidence in what we are doing. That confidence shows up, on stage, in rehearsal, in the studio… and in our business dealings. Others can feel our increased mastery just as we do!

So, what is keeping you from daily mastery?

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