Brett Manning's Big Singing Lie #8

Big Lie #8 - Singing is just a skill, like law or accounting, and thus can be educated into someone.

Truth - Music, especially something as personal as singing, is more than
a degree to earn. It is connected deeply to the soul and has the ability to
move people on a deeper level than most other "mundane" things on earth.

This LIE has an opposite which is equally a LIE. There are actually 2 ditches to avoid beside the road!

One tells you that singing is just a "skill people learn and a degree people earn!" It says that you just have to take the right courses and you can put the diploma on the wall and begin your "practice."

As far as I'm concerned, the established education system is to blame for this lie.

What's strange is that, once the joy of singing has been beaten from the body of most singers who make it through the college program, they have little left to them except a teaching career of some sort. So to some degree, this is a "true" lie. You get your degree and then you can start your "practice" of teaching others to do what you did.

But if you desire to sing well, a degree will guarantee you absolutely nothing toward your goal.

To be fair, there is a ditch on the other side of the road also: It tells you that you shouldn't do any "study" at all. Just do it! Just sing! This normally comes from a fear of the other ditch. "They'll mess up my sound."

If I must fall into the ditch, this is the one I prefer. That's because I'm a "free spirit" who likes to float on inspiration. But this ditch is not the truth either. So you need to stay out of both ditches to make progress.

You should indeed "just do it" and never stop (unless you have damaged your voice--then you need some vocal rest first). But you CAN learn how to improve and sharpen your abilities for the rest of your life.

The best illustration I can think of is this: Imagine I found a painter beside the road who was doing portraits. He was very good. But he only had 3 tubes of oil paint. A black, a white, and a brown. So I ask him why he didn't use more colors. He says "because I only have these three tubes of paint!"

Brett finds singers like this all the time. They say "This is all I've got!" He usually answers, "You have no idea what you've got." Then he proceeds to give them more colors to paint with, vocally speaking.

He has no interest in forcing them to paint like Picasso or Rembrandt. He just wants them to have all the colors they desire. It's very exciting to watch.

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