I’ve been watching the original Star Wars films with my daughter recently. Most people reading this are likely familiar with the films, whether or not you’ve watched them.
I’m not a hardcore Star Wars fan, but as I was watching them, I found something I’ve recently been discussing with clients being echoed in some of the dialogue.
Let me explain…
A key theme of the film is ‘The Force‘. In the films, The Force is the idea of an all-pervading energy field that is generated by and surrounds every living thing. Some people are sensitive to this energy field, and can interact with it and leverage The Force to their advantage.
Within the ‘theology‘ of the films, there is a light side to The Force, and a dark side.
The language alone intimates that light is the good side, and the dark is the bad side. But what are the characteristics of each? It’s actually in these aspects that I found some key voice lessons echoed in the film dialogue.
1. The light side is the absence of the traits of the dark side
So we’ve got the light side and the dark side, but interestingly, the film says far more about what characterises the dark side than it does the light side. There are very few traits listed to define the light side of the force. In fact, about the only definitive statement listed is:
“A Jedi uses the Force for knowledge and defense, never for attack.”
In contrast, there are many defining traits listed about the dark side. It’s a long list of things to avoid that lead one astray to the dark side.
In this respect, where the light side is defined more by the absence of the traits of the dark, there’s a lot of similarity to what constitutes good singing.
There are definitely hallmarks that characterise and tell us what we SHOULD be doing, but a lot of what is good and right to do orbits around NOT doing the more clearly definable ‘bad stuff‘.
The dark side can be considered to be a constellation of issues to be avoided, e.g. yelling at the top of our range, reaching for notes (whether high or low), trying to manipulate our voices to sound different to how they are built, etc. Ergo, the ‘light side’ of singing involves working to avoid straying into those issues.
Just as with the light vs dark side of the force, good singing is more easily defined as singing in a way that is avoids those constellation of issues.
2. The Dark Side is Seductive
This leads very neatly into our next point. Quoting from this article, This is the dialogue in one training scene between Luke Skywalker and Yoda.
Luke: Is the Dark Side stronger?”
Yoda: “No, no, no. Quicker, easier, more seductive.”
Luke: “But how am I to know the good side from the bad?”
Yoda: “You will know when you are calm, at peace, passive. A Jedi uses the Force for knowledge and defense, never attack.”
Luke: “Tell me why I can’t…”
Yoda: “No, no! There is no ‘why.’”
The article continues with this analysis:
“Yoda refuses to even entertain the idea of using the Force for anything other than knowledge and defense. Anything else is of the Dark Side.
“Luke, like all of us, wonders why we can’t use it – from time to time – if our motives are pure and our cause is just. Why can’t we, to quote singer-songwriter Bruce Cockburn, “kick the darkness ’til it bleeds daylight”? Because, Yoda would answer (traditionally with far more inverted syntax), that’s the Dark Side. Yet Luke can’t see this…”
When we try to achieve higher notes, or sing in a way that sounds more powerful, more mature, we find out… it isn’t easy. When most people try to do it well without excessive force or jamming their voice, it will sound relatively thin and certainly not as strong as we might wish for. This is normal and where everyone needs to start.
But in a quest to generate a more mature sound more quickly, people start experimenting to try and make it feel bigger. To quote Yoda, “this is the path to the dark side“. 99% of the time what feels bigger inside our heads, is not only worse for our voices, of lower quality and more wearing to perform, but it doesn’t actually sound that much bigger on the outside.
Here’s where the similarity lies between bad singing and the dark side: It’s a VERY seductive feeling. To yell or force top notes, to open up and bellow the climax… it’s seductive, it feels good in the moment, but it is rarely as good as we think it is, and the consequences inevitably come.
Even for very experienced singers, once they start to try and eke out a little more size in their sound based on how it feels inside to them, the more it starts to derail their voice. Very often, the higher we go, the smaller the internal sensation becomes, and the bigger the resultant sound becomes. But this is the hard way, and is nowhere near as seductive.
We can only find the right path, the more successful long-term one, when we are not outmatched by the material we wish to sing. When we are able to approach a song calmly, not attacking it or forcing our way, can we find the “light side“.
To ask why, is to miss the very point – we cannot sing well when our voice and body are in a constant state of ‘attack!’.
3. Once you start down that path, forever will it dominate you
One final quote that grabbed me:
“Anger, Fear, Aggression, The Dark Side Of The Force, Are They. Easily They Flow, Quick To Join You In A Fight. If Once You Start Down The Dark Path, Forever Will It Dominate Your Destiny”
I’ve already highlighted how seductive the dark side can be, how in the quest for improvement in our voices we can opt for short-cuts that are really cul-de-sacs.
In my first point also, I highlighted how the negative traits of the dark side are almost a constellation of problems. And, as sure as night follows day, if you try to leverage just one of those traits, thinking you can just invoke that one, you’re wrong: the other bad traits will inevitably join you. And far more easily than you might think.
We might wish we could “just cheat that one note, what’s the big deal?“… but when we cheat one, in reality we’re causing our body to panic over that note. And if it’s panicking over that note, it will start to tense up pre-emptively even earlier as you approach that note. Which will start to make it harder for you to get to the note. Forcing notes, losing the vowels, loss of quality, and longer term degradation in vocal ability are the results.
Once these traits are ingrained as knee-jerk reactions in someone’s voice, they are hard work to unpick. When someone has a lever they pull in their head whenever they get in trouble, they tend to keep on pulling it.
Final Thought
Obviously, the films are just a bit of fun to discuss. There’s no need to take it too seriously. Nevertheless, I thought it may be helpful to bring out some of these concepts through such film quotes.