I don’t believe in gurus and disciples. I believe that we are all teachers and we are all students and life is a two way street, between being the teacher and being the student. I also don’t believe that children know less than kids. Some of them do but I’ve met some very wise teenagers and children.
I have been working with a really interesting singer and I love how the work we have done is so much further reaching than singing teacher and singing student.
We are, of course, also looking at jaw tension, breath flow (as they are her current sticking points) and exploring different colours in her voice. However I am very much not telling her how to sing, or endorsing any of the ways that she puts herself down. She’s a fantastic singer with a great sense of personal artistry and it’s not my job to override her natural ability. I’m here to enable her to feel free to enjoy her voice and to achieve what she wants to achieve.
She’s very open and as a result of things we have discussed she’s made lots of other discoveries. This is not something I have been able to explore with most singers but, when someone says they want to explore different avenues then I want to enable. Loads.
Fortunately many of the issues she has relate to things that I have experienced and explored on a personal level so I just threw a few suggestions at her. I have suggested researching ADHD and she has been blown away by her findings in relation to her life. I linked her to an amazing Osteopath who works on trauma release work as well as anatomy and breath release work. And I am mentoring her by forcing her to set goals and kicking her behind by reminding her about them.
She in turn, told me about a fantastic book that has blown my mind a bit. Just Play by Nick Bottini is like a missing part of a jigsaw puzzle that I’ve been working on for over 17 years. The first piece was The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. The second part was working with my therapist, then Core Singing with Meribeth Dayme, Deepak Chopra’s 21 Days of Abundance course and now this is another part.
I am not going to explain it here, partly because I still don’t fully understand it all but things are, slowly, starting to make sense to me. “My” singer had no idea that this was the journey I’m on and she had no idea that this book would fit into the journey of exploration I’m currently on. Btw some other books that have fitted into this exploration are, Zanders’ “The Arts Of Possibility”, Alan Watt, “The Taboo Of Knowing Who You Really Are”. There are others. I want to note that whilst “The Secret” by Rhonda Byrne sort of fits into this group I dislike the style of writing and the focus on money. It doesn’t speak to me personally and put me off this avenue for some years.
I am so happy to be able to be a singing teacher but also to be able to be more than a singing teacher when it’s appropriate. I love that the singers I work with are so much more than docile, compliant singers students.
