(3-minute read time)
In 2018, I was at a conference for singing teachers in the Blue Mountains (NSW, Australia). As usual I was sharing a room with my bestie and we were regularly dining with our 3rd amigo from Queensland. We chewed the fat on all sorts of vocal pedagogy and business matters in between sessions on resonance, acoustics, vulnerability and performance anxiety, amongst others.
But hot on my mind was a sort of “byline” for the business that would go on my new website. I guess you could call it a slogan, but I had trouble seeing it like that. The website designer was waiting on copy from me, and I was putting pressure on myself that weekend. My friends were so patient as I tested words out on them!
Perhaps this is what naming a baby feels like. An identifier that is going to shape identity. I didn’t want to get it wrong and misrepresent the Studio. But I was also relishing the chance to dig deep into what I really believed about the purpose of Glengrove Studio.
The words “discover, develop and deliver your voice” came to me very early in my brainstorming process. But initially I didn’t think they were clever enough. Alliteration is outdated. It sounds corny. Blah blah blah.
But I couldn’t find anything better, so decided to keep them as a place holder. And as you know if you’ve visited our website, they are still there! I slowly fell in love with them and have since found that they fabulously represent our vocal and life journey. My initial gut instinct was right on! Baha…who knew 🙂
And do we not enter and exit this routine many times? Often a few times every year. Occasionally even daily! We discover new knowledge, integrate/develop it as a skill, then deliver it to others. This is life!
Vocally, I think we often put ourselves under pressure to leap to the delivery phase. After all, we have carried and used our vocal instrument literally since birth. It can do AMAZING things and imitate nearly ANY sound. Consequently, we often ask it to deliver performance-quality material in short amounts of time.
And let’s face it, there are many cultural paradigms that reinforce this instinct. But I’m not getting on that soapbox today 😉
Our voices (comprising skeleton, lungs, larynx, skull, brain, ears and more) thrive in a discovery landscape. Turning over stones to find new soundscapes and musicology underneath. Test-driving tone quality, styles, melodic motifs and lyric interpretation with curious reflection and thoughtful decision-making allows us to develop the discoveries that are the right fit for us. Then we can turn to delivery with a more settled sense of self and voice and certainty about the stories we are telling.
My current reading about musical motor learning is fuelling a lot of great insight for me right now. I am beyond grateful to discover how well our Discover, Develop & Deliver concept belongs there. I hope there is a useful takeaway for you in this reflection today too.
PS. If you’re curious, check out “The Musician’s Mind” by Lynn Helding!
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SOURCES:
Photo by saeed mhmdi on Unsplash
Helding, Lynn (2020). The Musician’s Mind: Teaching, Learning and Performance in the Age of Brain Science. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Maryland.