From July 2016
Am I fired up? Yeah, maybe a little… Is it about the 2016 elections? Not a chance.
No, this one gets me where I live. I hope my fellow singers, new and veterans alike will consider this my love letter to them.
I love to sing. I have enjoyed singing since I first started performing in shows as a child. It is a part of how I communicate. It helps me live in the now and grow as a human being. In some way, I will always pursue singing opportunities for as long as I am granted.
I was moved to write on behalf of fellow vocal performers after reading a particular post. Sadly, the post revered singers of late as being more unprepared than ever. The group think was startling. The historical revision was rampant.
Many of the greats in the last century were taught music and language by rote, some not even able to read music. There was no epic shaming for sub par languages and poor translations. If there was a problem, it got fixed. Many singers didn’t attend college much less pay for advanced degrees. Acting was a plus but staging could be built around master singers who weren’t inclined. Good looks were a bonus but not as crucial as they are in our instant visual age. All of this was done because of the world class instrument a singer carried; in service to an exceptional instrument.
Singers used to be groomed and taken care of by avid supporters. There were many more singing opportunities especially abroad. It would be interesting to compare the daily lifestyles of a regional opera singer from today and the past especially in lieu of the academic comparisons being made. If you aren’t able to sustain yourself financially in this day and age, you will struggle mightily to keep a career alive.
I guess this post struck a nerve since I see, first hand, how hard my colleagues and I work to keep singing. And more often than not, we pull ourselves up and continue to pursue our passion after countless rejections or absolute “truths” of why we didn’t get cast.
We swallow our pride and search for any chance to perform. Many struggle with turning down roles even if it isn’t even in your fach e.g. baseball pitchers don’t usually get asked to play short stop for the experience. When we do get a job, it is usual a nominal fee; definitely not lifestyle sustaining. As an extra injury to our pursuit, we face real world scrutiny questioning our choice and talent ability in such a subjective field.
You will find many singers today who choose to pay others to sing a role. The idea of paying forward is common. You invest time and money on the off chance that you may open up opportunities. I have found that many times the greatest opportunities come from fellow singers. Singers are some of the most supportive and loving people I have ever met.
Most of us sustain full time jobs. If you are lucky, your full time job is also one of your passions. After the 40 hour week, we have lessons and coachings. In regards to lessons, singers often have to translate imagery into practical singing tools throughout vocal study. Physiologically minded voice teachers are less common. At first, it makes very little sense. “Sing into the mask” WTF? “Breathe to your boot straps” Say what? “Think of your neck like it has gills” Come again?
Sometimes these ideas come back and finally make sense. Expensive advice is hard to retain though when the teacher is condescending. Many of us have long memories of these interactions and it affects our singing today. Because we always carry our instrument, we are vulnerable physically and emotionally. We often abide unhelpful approaches in the name of the art. And our voices have vastly different cooking times and temperatures. So much objective truth is applied to young singers who are just finding their way; so little active learning strategies are used in the studios. And once you find your ease and reliable technique, others view it as something you have always been able to do easily.
We take movement and acting classes. We work on off time to prepare music for various events. Fact: vocal music is not always lined up linearly. Text is not always legible. I often have to rewrite so I can read off the page.
If you make it to your 4th decade of living the life of a singer, you really love and need to sing. It is a part of who you are. And the life of a singer looks different for everyone. Singing with orchestra may come from sacred venues, an opera may be performed with a small crowd but it is all the same at the end of the day. We continue to perform in the hopes to share our gift and possibly heal. Those trans-formative performances never leave our memories and fuel us for the future.
So, I say, don’t let the shaming stop you from your passion. Find your outlet, produce your own piece, collaborate with others, but if it is what makes you forget the clock and your worries, you are doing what you were born to do however it translates.
#kinstucrooner
akintsucrooner 