Singing Lessons- The Fairy Godmother Syndrome
"What Does It Really Take To Be A Great Singer"
By: David Randle
Singing lessons are the best way to improve your singing, hands down. And you would think that if someone was
paying their hard earned money to be trained in all the philosophies, techniques, exercises, and skills that would
make them a better singer, they would do the work necessary to get great results. However, what we notice over and
over again is that many students sit back and do next to nothing. Yes, they attend their lessons, but they don’t
practice on a regular basis. It’s as if they believe that all they have to do is show up for their lesson and they
will be magically transformed into a great singer. As if their own personal Fairy Godmother was going to wave her
magic wand and produce some amazing results. Or even worse, that their voice teacher is this fairy godmother and,
wand in hand will turn the student into a powerful and talented singer.
Singing Lesson Expert, Rebeca RandleIt is more than clear that if you don’t know how to do something very well,
given a basic amount of talent to start with, the way to improve is to learn everything you can about how to do
what you want to do. This makes perfect sense and is completely true when it comes to singing. Students seem to
accept that they have a lack of knowledge and bodily control and that’s the reason they came to take lessons in the
first place. So what is it that makes them not practice?
Are they too busy? We are all busy. It seems like we are all attempting to cram two or three lives into one;
fitting fifty hours into a day. When you take lessons, it’s important to not just allocate the hour or half hour
per week for the lesson, but to schedule a block of practice time each day while you’re studying. Are they too
lazy? Well, they were motivated enough to sign up for weekly lessons, so it’s hard to imagine that laziness is the
true reason. Are they afraid? Maybe we’re on to something here. But which demon is it that they’re afraid of,
failure or success? I know when we’re dealing with fear, the student is in an emotional state and rational thinking
kind of goes out the window. Yet if we examine the failure side of the equation, not practicing creates a
self-fulfilling prophecy of failure. If the student is beginning with a lack of knowledge, technique, and control,
and as a result seeks out voice lessons and finds a highly qualified and gifted voice teacher, then to fail to
practice insures that they don’t internalize the expertise and are destined to fail. Who would logically follow
that path?
What about the fear of success side of our question? There are thousands of books on human psychology and/or the
philosophies of personal growth that claim that contrary to our desires to thrive, grow, and improve in the areas
of our lives we are skeptical about the possibility of our own greatness. Is it really possible that we can fear
the very thing that we appear to long for? There are thousands of success stories out there. Pick up a few
biographies of people you admire and see what they did to overcome fear; to put one foot in front of the other, day
after day and do the things necessary to reach that amazing goal of yours. What that means to a singing student is
to practice, practice, practice; every day following the instruction of your awesome vocal coach, unless you have a
fairy godmother in your pocket.
When you’re ready to do the work to achieve greatness and want to study with one of the best vocal coaches, do
yourself a favor and contact the Singing Lesson Expert.
Source: http://thesingingblog.com
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