Christmas is nearly upon us and I find myself looking back on a year gone by, asking myself ‘did you achieve your musical dreams?
So, did you achieve your musical dreams for 2013? How about 2014?
Many exciting things have happened this year – from teaching students who got fast-tracked for the Voice, to teaching the lead singer for the Soul Sista Tina Turner experience, to beginning vocal coaching at AEDA Performing Arts Academy, winning Entrepreneur of the Year for Nottinghamshire, being on BBC Radio Nottingham, and more.
Here’s the funny thing…
But I’m not just a singing teacher, I’m also a singer. I’m a musician. And so at the end of the year, deep down, I think I’m less concerned with having a list of accolades from others and I think I’m more concerned about feeling I’ve progressed with my voice, my music, my general ability to make and coax music from others, as well as having achieved specific goals.
Here are the top three things I’m really pleased I’ve achieved musically this year… but also where I have to go next (keep thinking about ‘how you can achieve your musical dreams’ when reading this).
1) I can sing songs happily through my third bridge – For those of you who don’t know what bridges are, they are passageways in the voice that we all need to learn to navigate to get to higher notes (and conversely get down through to lower notes). I’ve had access to third bridge for a little while, but this year things have really settled down. It’s never easy for a guy to sing that high, but with practice it’s doable. I’m pleased because now I can actually sing words through there consistently… there’s nothing quite like singing a song your female student is struggling with to show them there’s NO reason they can’t do it!
Where next: I can control the volume, but the next step is to be able to take it down to whisper quiet volumes ala mesa di voce. Then I will feel truly in control of this part of my range.
2) I can now play piano better – I can teach well from a piano, but I am not an accompanist by trade. It’s an entirely different skill set. However, that doesn’t mean I’m not interested in bettering my overall musicianship and teaching skills, so I set out to learn to play piano better. I can now get through various pieces with some basic ornamentation even on the fly when students bring in music, and I’m getting better all the time. It’s a wonderful skill to have, and it’s a rewarding instrument to play.
Where next: I can play basic pieces, but more complicated chord structures sometimes throw me… so the goal is to get more exposure to complex songs, and get more of these under my belt.
3) I can now write better songs – I’m not a prolific songwriter, but when I do have writing stints, I want to get better at being a songwriter. I’ve spent a lot of time this year honing my skills as a songwriter, and while it is not what I aim to earn money at doing, it is immensely useful to understand the commercial rules of writing songs to be able to craft songs that are accessible to others… this is also really useful when it comes to guiding students to writing more accessible songs. It’s not that we all have to write songs intended to be Radio #1’s, but we can all take a leaf out of hit songwriters books to understand how to write songs that really capture the ear and imagination of listeners, using those techniques to a greater or lesser extent.
Where next: I need to write MORE!… but I also need to decide how much of the commercial songwriting tools I understand and use in lessons are ones that I want to keep and use, and which ones I will choose to ignore. By doing this, I know I can create songs that are simultaneously accessible while being simultaenously unique to me.
So what about you? What did you achieve this year? What are you looking to achieve next year? How are you going to go about achieving those goals?
Do comment and lets get some discussion going!