I’m sorry. Or, you’re welcome. (Depending on what time in my singing practice you get home or go to bed.)
I’m getting ready to sing a song at a friend’s wedding and (surprise surprise) I’m a tad obsessed. So for the last little while I’ve abandoned all other tasks and spent about an hour a day singing the same song over and over.
The idea is that now I have the song mastered technically, repetition is the way to sound relaxed and natural. Or at least that’s my singing teacher’s theory. (I’m not yet convinced on this theory because right now it just feels like ripping all the emotion from the song. But there must be something to it because I do feel much more confident about my ability to sing the (emotionless) song all the way through, in public, without choking.)
Good news right? All hail my obsessive practice…ok all hail except those who live next door…the people I’m serenading for an hour every night with progressively better (I hope) versions of the exact same song. So, if you live next door to me please know it will all be over soon (in the good way, not the goodbye cruel world way). After Saturday I will go back to obsessing about being perfect at less noisy things like writing and work and humour and getting the bed sheets onto the corners of the mattress properly (Why don’t they ever fit?).
I promise. Unless I’m discovered. Or I get a lot of compliments, decide to keep learning the guitar quit my job and dedicate myself to music. Then you’re screwed. FYI, before I agreed to sing for my friend I’d totally forgotten how much I love to sing. I’m totally adding singer/songwriter to my list of careers for my next life.
- Astronaut
- Physicist (Totally possible, even though in this life I believe advanced math is a conspiracy…don’t get me started.)
- Military Officer
- Filmmaker
- Novelist (that actually gets published)
- Playgirl Philanthropist
- Singer/Songwriter
Writing Exercise:
Practice makes…well if not perfect then at least a heck of a lot less nervous. I truly believe that practice and dedication trump talent. Sure, if you want a career in the ballet or on stage some talent helps but for the most part it is passion and will that win top performers their place in the spotlight. I also believe that most of do not lack talent, we just lack belief in our talent and the drive to put the amount of work into any one thing to gain true mastery.
The problem is that many of us do not find our passion and belief-in-self until late in life and by then some things are simply no longer possible. For example at 70 if you decided you finally found your passion for MMA and dedicated ten hours a day to working on your skills you probably still couldn’t win the world championships. Your bones and muscles just couldn’t compete with a 20 year old body. But what if once in our life we could hit the re-set button and get back to a place in the past when we were still physically capable of taking on that challenge. What if once in your entire life you could call mulligan while retaining the knowledge and drive you’ve gained? What would you take on? Would we become a world full of superior people? Would the next generation learn from our example and find their passion early? Would we be happier, or waste our chance? Happy writing.
