I got an email from a really focused singer in New York. He has been asking questions, making comments and staying completely intent on freeing his voice for a long time and I truly appreciate the way he is discovering the secrets to singing.
He called my “Believe in the Shower Quick Tip” the “famous shower scene,” which made me laugh, but it also got me to thinking.
The truth is this: making that video to help you free your voice was a great way for me to overcome my own obstacles and amp up my singing mindset to further free my voice!
What me, singing in shower obstacles? Need to free my voice too? Sure. I am human after all!
What exactly do I mean by singing in shower obstacles?
Well, think about it for a moment.
What does it take to do something as wacky as that singing in shower video? Here are a few of those answers:
- Get over the fear of showing yourself in a shower to people all over the world
- Get over the fear that people might think you are unprofessional (have you EVER seen a master voice teacher do this?!)
- Get over the fear that the lighting hanging in your shower will electrocute you
- Get over the fear that what you are trying to teach will not be clear
- Get over a gazillion other unspoken fears
So why did I do this singing in the shower “Believe in the Shower” Quick Tip?
Here is how it relates to you and how to free your voice.
- I have to set the example, to show you the way to free your voice
- I need to show you that I so honestly believe that you deserve to heard that I’m willing to be “fool” for your sake
- If I am afraid of doing a singing in shower quick tip lesson, then how will you ever trust me to know how to help you get out of your own shower and sing with more boldness and confidence to the world?
- There are ALWAYS new heights to achieve to free my voice and I can only take you as high as I go myself otherwise I’m just a phony
- I’m not a phony
- You see, I am getting requests for singing voice help from people all over the U.S. and from as far away as South Korea and Poland and I better be ready to take you and everyone else to a new level of liberated singing mindset that will help you free your voice!
Overcoming singing in shower fear is not the only obstacle I have
This next part is a very personal confession for me but again, if I cannot lead the way how can I ever hope to help you?
Obviously making one singing in shower video isn’t going to do the job. There is a lot of work for me to do in order to be able to launch my Affordable Singing Lessons, and this includes doing follow up emails to subscribers like you. (If you are not already a subscriber, there are lots of ways to subscribe)
So, lots of work to do.
Now here I get into the confession part….but only as an example of how deeply the fear thing can go and how it can stop you from freeing your voice.
The person who emailed me asked about the updates for subscribers because he has not been getting them. This upsets me to no end because everything I am doing is to serve you and to help you free your voice. So when some tech problem comes up I feel like I am failing you. This is another fear I am overcoming…that I will somehow fail you.
And yes, if I cave into that fear of failing you, guess what will happen? I will fail you because I’m locked into the feeling and it takes over my mindset so that everything else that I do that is right won’t matter to me. My brain will only replay that message: “Joy, you will fail those who are counting on you for help because technical expertise is not your forte. In fact, technical problems are what will sink you!”
Yep. I battle that obstacle BIG TIME and I’m telling you this now because here is what I am doing about that obstacle:
- Carving out time from getting the lessons ready so that the subscriber emails and updates will arrive on time without problems
- Likening my technical obstacles to a singing mindset….a can do, must do, will do attitude
- Focusing my energy on finding the right person to take care of these tech things for me
- Getting rid of self-condemnation if I make a mistake
- Pushing the fear of failing you out the window, “singing it out of the shower”
- Wrestling it down mentally and overcoming it for the sake of making sure that my own free voice will help you free your voice
Free Your Voice upcoming interviews
One last thought came out of the email I mentioned above.
The person who wrote it read a great voice about tenors and spoke to the author of that book.
And I am planning to do an interview with a wonderful retired professional tenor and voice teacher that I met last night at an incredible dinner party with only four people in it.
The four of us are all musicians, artists, performers, teachers and continually seeking new heights in our awareness of how to free our voices, our art, our thoughts….in short, our lives.
And we created impromptu music last night that was astounding. The atmosphere around us was so charged with energy and beauty that I get teary eyed today as I write this because everything was so unexpectedly profound.
More that that I cannot say at this time, but I will be interviewing the wonderful singing and voice teacher soon. It will be a lively, enlightening interview and will be part of my upcoming Affordable Singing Lessons series.
Now, if you have a specific question you would like to ask this tenor or anyone else I interview, please write it below.
And, if you like this post, please Tweet it and Facebook Like it. It’s simple to do with the bar on the left of this post. Thanks!
Anything you do or say Joy is always looked forward to by me. Thanks for the saline tip.
Hi Joy,
I was reading Lilly Lehmann’s book and came upon an unfamiliar term
“pillars of the fauces”
Can you explain what they are?
Thanks, Bob! Did the saline tip help you?
HI Bob,
The fauces are simply the Latin plural word for throat. They are in the back of the mouth and lead to the pharynx. They are called pillars because that is what they look like. Some say that they are regarded as the pillars of mucous membrane. If you want the more complicated names, the anterior one is known as the palatoglossal or glossopalatine arch and the posterior one is the palatopharyngeal or pharyngopalatine arch. Between these 2 arches is the palatine tonsil.
That’s the anatomical explanation, more or less, but the important thing, of course, is why are these important in singing? The very short answer is that they relate to the always important aspect of keeping the throat open and relaxed. If there is too much tension in the neck, if you “reach” for the higher tones by stretching your neck and throat area “upwards” to try and place them, everything tightens and the pillars are part of that tightening.
This picture shows them somewhat.The image uses the more technical terms for them, but they are on either side of the uvula (the flap that hangs down).
The MOST important thing to know about them is not so much to know about them as to keep the entire area relaxed so that the uvula doesn’t pull up when you sing. Everything in that area counts because the fauces are bounded above by the soft palate and uvula and rooted in the tongue below. Everything is connected. Loren Slater, the man I interviewed yesterday talks about the tone as floating on the breath. In fact, we both describe the tone as being like a boat that floats on water. The water is the breath. If you push or force the breath too hard or you stretch the muscles in ways that “reach” for the tones, you hamper their free flow with the breath. Don’t “reach” for the tones. Let the tones reach you by forming them first in your thinking process.
Again, as you know, I believe in keeping things as simple as possible. Don’t think this too hard. Think rather about what an open tone feels like and let that tone find you.
Hope this helps and please click on the bottom number of the box to your left that also floats. I’d appreciate it! Thanks.
Joy
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