I am just shocked and amazed at how complexity distorts reality. If we are not grounded in the fundamental truth, we can go bananas so easily! It’s all so simple and it scares me how complicated and disconnected from the ground we can be!

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This comment was left anonymously on my post about the role of the teacher. It is such a true statement. I think anyone who has struggled with understanding their voice can relate to this comment.

I think this issue might be the biggest stumbling block we face in our journey of understanding our voice. It is so easy for us to complicate things. I think it is perhaps the most difficult thing in life to think about things in a simple manner and resist the temptation to make it more complicated. It can make us bananas.

This is especially true when we start talking about singing. It gets to a point where we are convinced the act of singing is a completely foreign, unnatural act. Even though it often feels that way, it is helpful to remember that singing actually is a natural act. We may need to fine tune it for our purpose. But the underlying principle of singing is natural. It is hardwired in our instinct.

It can be helpful if we can imagine what it would be like to live as a human animal, like a caveman. In this life we would be much more in tune with our instinctive behavior. This is where we can explore our instinctive desire to sing. I like to think of singing as a physical response to an emotional feeling. It is in the same family of physical expressions as laughing and crying, cheering and celebrating. Things of this nature.

Now, artistic singing as we know it may not be what would come naturally from the circumstances I’m describing. But the basic physical response necessary, the basic gesture, would. This is what we need to base our singing on.

If we can discover this relationship in ourselves it makes the act of singing much more automatic. And that is the basis of simplicity. We complicate everything by thinking we need to consciously control it all. We don’t. Much of what happens can be allowed to happen reflexively. The challenge is that, contrary to what we may believe, it does not happen by itself. We still need to stimulate it so the automatic response happens. This takes time to develop and is the real skill of singing. Please respond below if you have comments or questions. Thanks.