Patience Grasshopper: The Rubik’s Cube of Singing

This is the second of 2 blogs about Chris the tenor from the perspective of Chris the tenor.  For the first one click here.

So I am a tenor.  For those of you who may be missing the subtext of that statement, here it is: I am a vocal freak.  That's right, singing tenor is a little weird.  The technique is different, the approach is different and the mind games are as different as a 6-horned unicorn.  Of course, I didn't know all of this until I decided music would be a great thing to study for my undergraduate degree.

I have been through it all.  I have struggled to find my sound.  Every young singer turns to the pros and asks themselves how they could ever sound like that, which, is inevitably followed by vocal manipulation to emulate the pros.  Teachers: I have had the good, the bad and the ugly. 

In my undergrad, my desire to be better inspired overzealous practice. This led to my greatest crisis.  I developed a polyp on my vocal fold which prevented me from singing for eleven months. Matters were made worse by the self-inflicted pressure to deliver in performance.

I share all this because I have learned something.   True satisfaction in singing, and I would imagine other fields, comes from the process, from the journey. I will explore technique and specific process in another post, but for now, I want to share my new truths.

1. Patience is key.  You are not a failure if you don't meet a standard timeline.  There is no sense wishing your circumstances could be different.
2. Why are singers so stressed out? Learning how to sing is one of the coolest things a person can do.  It's not life or death, it's music.
3. Develop an intrinsic reward system.  You often miss the external praise  that you seek.
4. Fall in love with the process. Performance is fleeting.
5. Trust yourself. Ultimately, the career and vocal decisions are yours to make.
6. Be satisfied with small steps.  

Singing is much like solving a Rubik’s Cube.  One day you may have the green side all finished, but the rest of the cube is a mess. Sometimes we have to let go of the 'perfect green side' to explore solving the whole puzzle.