Category: Vocal Confidence and Performance

There is a famous quotation attributed to the ancient Greek philosopher, Aristotle:

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.”

As it turns out, Aristotle never said these exact words. In 1926, author Will Durant gave this as a quasi-modernised summation of elements of Aristotle’s teachings.

But whether or not Aristotle said these exact words, this sentiment is very much rooted in his philosophies of actions, habits and virtue.

Many pedagogues and coaches cite this quotation to inspire people to practice, to knuckle down, to cultivate a habit of excellence. I have done and will continue to do the same. Such a message focuses on the second clause of this quote.

But there’s something wonderfully insightful in the first clause also, that we can often miss, especially as it pertains to the very on-trend topic of labels and identity.

“We are what we repeatedly do”.

The Problem with ‘Identity’

I bring this up, because I’ve recently had a lot of conversations – within the context of music and outside of it as well – about identity, especially when it comes to creating labels for oneself.

Worry not, we’re not going into the weeds on this. It’s a huge topic, with many facets, each with far more nuance, psychology and depth than I could possibly bring justice to. Instead, everything that follows is said within the context of voice.

Singers, like every human on earth, want to feel like they have a handle on who they are and what they should be doing – in our case, vocally speaking. They want to figure out who they are, what their voice is capable of, what they are good at, and cultivate artistry.

WHile this is a great goal, this tends to manifest in overly definitive, declarative statements beginning with “I am “. Moreover, people typically want to acquire their own ‘vocal manifesto’ ASAP in their vocal development, even if it is way too soon for them to ascertain such characteristics.

As such, often these labels are initially inaccurate, as less experienced singers frantically try to firm up a complete vocal identity for themselves. Labels are also static, whilst we as people are dynamic. We are never just one thing, and no one label ever sums us up fairly, accurately or completely.

Herein lies the danger I want to highlight for you: the danger of clinging so tightly to some label or immutable ‘identity’, such that it one cannot let go of this identity even when it doesn’t fit where one is at.

This can inhibit development massively, but even worse, it can be a huge source of unresolveable anxiety to the singer, especially when events in reality don’t marry up with some internally held standard. Let me share a few examples. Continue reading “The Danger of Labelling Yourself as One Thing or Another”

I had a question from a client a while back, asking me what the best way was to deal with performance anxiety. I answered their query as best I could directly but wanted to flesh out my answer more here, especially as it’s something we all face, even just singing at home when we realise someone else might be hearing us!

What is performance anxiety?

In short, it’s a heightened sense of worry or fear associated with execution of a particular skill. This might involve going on-stage, are the centre of attention, but at the very least is built on the fear of doing something and then feeling like you are being judged by others. This could be performance of a sport, a speech, exam, etc as much as being something to do with music.

It’s anything where all your work has built up to a specific execution of your skill, and you will be in some way judged or have an opinion formed of you by others based on said performance. Continue reading “Performance Anxiety – What is it? Where does it come from? What can we do about it?”

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I once went along to a weekend stage performance workshop with Rhonda Carlson, performance coach to a host of performers across Vegas, Broadway, and more. I wanted to share some of her pearls of wisdom with you regarding how to perform better, and engage more powerfully with the song, and (in turn) your audience.

PROBLEM: You’re meant to sing a song in front of an audience. It can be whatever song you like.

What do you do with your hands?
How do you move on stage to convince them you mean what you’re singing?
How do you show emotion?
Which emotion do you show?

Uh-oh. That’s tricky!

And this is where Rhonda’s system comes into play. The whole system she has created is logical and very simple to follow. The starting point in this article, is on the critical importance of having a specific backstory for each of your songs.
Continue reading “Performance Tip #1: Have a specific backstory (Rhonda Carlson Workshop)”