Embrace The Process and Not The Result
I was making a lot of mistakes and then my archery instructor said:
“You make mistakes because you’re focusing on the target and not on your actions.”
And I was like:
“Woah. Thanks for giving me the best life advice I have ever gotten.”
Do you ever save photos of inspiring quotes from social media to your phone and think, “I’ll come back to this someday.”? Well, that happened to me recently with the above story. I can’t remember where I came across this quote/story…maybe Instagram…but it really struck a chord with me. It resurfaced recently when I was going through the photos on my phone clean things out…too many selfies ya know and pictures of my dogs. (Though I don’t delete pictures of my dogs…like ever. 😂) Anyways, upon reading this story again, I decided that this would be an excellent blog post topic. This story can be applied to almost anything in life. Being the voice teacher and singer that I am, I only see how fitting it is to the act of singing. Both learning to sing AND teaching people how to sing.
Approaching it as a singer first and foremost though, this really hits home. So often when we are learning music, working vocalises, and even performing, we are focused on a specific note or sound that we want to create forgetting how we need to get there. How many times have we been singing a piece of music, the high note is approaching or climax of the piece and that is all we are focused on? We aren’t focused on how we are going to get there. In most cases, we are moving through registers with vowel, acoustic, and muscular adjustments needing to be made all of which set us up to sing a stellar high note or climactic moment. But again, we aren’t concerned about those adjustments. We are concerned about whether that high note is going to be perfect. Which leads me to my next point.
Perfectionism poisons the journey. It inhibits us from truly creating the kind of art we so strongly desire to make. Perfection–whether that means perfect singing, the perfect relationship, the perfect body, or the perfect résumé–will always be an evasive ideal. What am I looking for when I am teaching in the studio? 80%. If 80% of the sound is correct, then the rest will adjust over time. The study of singing is a process and it must be embraced as one. We need to embrace the process and not the result. We need to focus on our actions and not the target.
So, here is what I would encourage each of you to do…especially now that we find ourselves spending so much time at home with more time on our hands. Observe the process, trust the process, embrace the process. During practice, focus on your actions. Is your body conditioned for singing? Are you taking a full, released inhalation? Are you engaging/exhaling/singing from a place that is primal…a need to express or communicate through singing? Are you maintaining your tube/acoustical space or open throat? Is there tension in your singing? How did you get tense? How will you approach alleviating that tension? Focus on the actions that create a beautiful singing tone. In your repertoire, apply all the above AND study the score, study the translation, focus on the piece of music as a whole, and not just the most climactic moment.
Remember, the reason that you are making mistakes or not creating art, is because you’re focused on the target and not your actions. Trust the process and you’ll hit the target every time.
It’s not easy figuring this out alone so please get in touch if you need help, or leave me a comment below for discussion. If you would like to schedule a 1-on-1 voice lesson with me, then drop me a line here. I teach locally in Knoxville, TN, and internationally online!
Learn more about me by visiting the “Meet Blayne” page.