Advice Blog

Focus on what you CAN control

Last month, I completed a six-week workshop called The Reveal Lab with Peter Shepherd. With an amazing support team, I started and worked on a passion project that has been swirling around inside my brain for some time (more on that later). A big takeaway for me was that actions are a choice. 

Cookie Monster making a choice!

This thought has resonated with me while teaching. I find myself telling clients to focus on the actions you can control. If you’ve worked with me before, you know I teach vocal technique based on finding physical sensations, enhancing them by using various physical tools. With these sensations, you may think you have complete control over your vocal output, but what if you take a step back and simplify it even more? When singing, what are the easiest (and healthiest) things to control? Your breathing and your mouth shape. 

This week, focus on the action of breathing — inhaling and exhaling. 

Focus on the action of adjusting and finding your optimum mouth shape. Monitor it in a mirror, or with your fingers. 

By taking a step back and making things ‘simpler’ do other technique concepts reveal themselves? 

 

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