finding my singing voice

In music and in the movies, we’re often more aware of the glamorous lives of the biggest stars than of the hard work it took them to get there. And we may know next to nothing about the career of the musician who plays in a small town symphony or the actor who performs at a local dinner theater.

For anyone who wants to know more about the many variations of musical careers, I highly recommend Angela Myles Beeching’s book Beyond Talent: Creating a Successful Career in Music.

I have never encountered a more thorough or realistic book on creating a musical career.  Ms. Beeching covers everything, from how to get an agent to how to create your own performing opportunities to what to wear for an audition.  Her advice includes tips on marketing, finances, fundraising, and time management.

My favorite aspect of the book, however, is its emphasis on a varied, even shifting, idea of success.  Many of us establish career dreams early on, like playing in a major orchestra, singing at the Met, or making a professional recording; but everyone encounters rejection at some point. 

Ms. Beeching cautions wisely that each musician must define - and constantly refine - his or her own vision of success.

My boyfriend and I have an ongoing argument about whether fear or laziness is more likely to keep someone from action.  He claims it’s laziness, but my answer is fear. 

Julia Cameron would seem to agree with me.  Her book, a classic for “blocked” artists, outlines a 12-week program for “creative recovery.”  Week one is devoted to the tension between “the dream of action and the fear of failure.”

I discovered The Artist’s Way nearly two years ago, and it became a lifeline for me as I recommitted myself to singing. 

The book’s numerous exercises helped me discover and confront the fears that held me back from fully pursuing my dream.

Self-acceptance and the freedom to fail have been essential to me as I’ve taken new artistic risks, and they are woven throughout Cameron’s recipe for success.

The spiritual overtones in The Artist’s Way might not appeal to all readers.  However, I found it easy to “translate” these into my own words, and I highly recommend the book to anyone who has fallen into a creative rut.

Willa Cather’s novel The Song of the Lark is a book I return to every few years.  The somewhat autobiographical story follows the life of a fictional opera singer, Thea Kronborg, as she develops her musical and interpretive gifts. 

Thea is not an entirely lovable character, but I deeply identify with her passion, ambition, and – most of all – her fierce struggle to protect and nurture her talent.

Throughout the work, Cather brings up questions about what it means to be an artist and how the process of becoming one affects the artist herself and those around her. And singers will appreciate her accurate descriptions of the intense work it takes to train the voice.

I also enjoyed the depiction of musical training in 19th-century America. No symphony orchestras on the prairie? Only one decent voice teacher in the Midwest? How far we’ve come since then!

If you aren’t familiar with Cather’s work, I highly recommend them. She is best known for My Antonia, O Pioneers, and her volumes of short stories.

The themes of friendship, perseverance, and the joys of music run throughout Cather’s works. She expresses a love for all things cultural and artistic - in a world where such things were hard to find. (The book’s title is taken from the name of an 1884 painting by Jules Bréton.) And her language is beautifully descriptive, especially when she writes about the land - the vast, untamed American Midwest - often both a metaphor and a character in its own right.

Often called the Bible of theatrical makeup, this book is a must for aspiring singers of opera and musical theater. 

Whether it's pop, folk, rock, or opera, I like to know where the style of music I'm hearing or performing comes from, what influenced the composer, and how audiences would have perceived it. This book is a classic on the development of opera.

Ideas and exercises to free up the voice

If you want to understand the physiology of the voice, you can't go wrong with this classic in the field of vocal pedagogy.

A classic for English-speaking actors, this book is full of wonderful diction exercises. It's a great way to wake up a lazy tongue!

I adore my little Sansa e200 series MP3 player. Unlike a lot of MP3 players, it records sound - and records it beautifully! I use it to record my lessons and to listen to songs I'm working on (or music of any kind). I even record warm-up exercises and store them on it, so I can warm-up away from home without my keyboard. The device also has radio reception - and it's tiny (3.25 inches high x 1 wide x 0.5 deep).

Read my blog post about how much I love my neti pot!