Balance

You know the wonderful thing about being out of balance? -  it teaches you how to be in balance. I've discovered it's best to hear the whispers though before they become shouts!

What do you hear?

Sing Because U Can!

I remember sitting in the back seat of the car wondering what on earth had I got myself into?  Here I was with a group of strangers going to my first Irish ‘Singer Session’.  These sessions have been happening for centuries there and for the Canadian ‘newbie’ I was definitely intrigued but also extremely terrified.

Singer sessions exist in most small Irish villages and happen many times a week.  Singing and songs are an integral part of their culture - the songs are for everyone no matter the voice, and bring the community together in sadness and in joy.  It is a way to express their stories & collective history.  It is also done acapella which means unaccompanied by music or my interpretation of it at the time – bare naked singing!

You’d think after all the years of singing training I had up to this point, I would have felt more comfortable, but my heart was racing a hundred miles an hour as we entered the pub.  It got me thinking, what happened to our Canadian culture that we’ve grown so uncomfortable with singing? The bible says to ‘make a joyful noise”.  So why are we musically so quiet?

Perhaps it’s because we have unrealistic standards of what constitutes a “good” voice,  produced by less than 2% of the population who have what our culture defines as the “best” sounding voices.  Has singing become something we avoid because of negative messages we received about our inability to sing?

And yet, have you ever found yourself singing in the shower or car?  You have?  Why?  Because singing makes you feel good!

I believe we are all born able to sing.  It is an ancient wisdom.  Just watch & listen to little children to discover the truth of this.  Like birds, they simply open their mouths and let whatever sound is there come out without censorship, without shame and with total in the moment awareness.

In singing we express a full range of emotions and in fact it is one of the few areas where the exploration of these emotions is actually accepted.  But for many of us, singing has become something professional singers do while the rest of us listen. We expect to be sung to.  It’s almost like we’ve become dependent on other people to supply us with an emotional experience that we’ve shut away.

Perhaps it is our internal ‘critical judge’ that stops us.  Becoming self critical when you sing can knock you out of the state of easiness which will help you to develop and enjoy your singing.

Instead of agreeing with the internal critic or fighting it, try some laughter sounds with it.  Try a few ho hos, ha has, and hee hees.

Another technique I use is ‘Act as if’.....you’re an opera singer when you sing your favourite song.  Or like Mickey Mouse.......or like Marilyn Monroe....play like a child again.

And when it gets right down to it, what those lovely Irish people taught me that night is to sing simply because I can.  To sing for no other reason than the sheer joy & pleasure of it!

I encourage you to do the same next time you get the urge.  If the magic of singing shows us how to explore the full range of our emotions, then one thing we can do to express ourselves completely is to sing simply because we can.