Singing is a process—a long journey filled with exhilaration, accomplishments and dashing disappointments. Sometimes we need new ways to keep our spirits up. The road of singing is just that—a road, not a destination. If we can see it as a journey, part of a life, not our entire life, we can be richer, fuller people, and as a result, more engaging, interesting artists. Singers grow in layers and curves and valleys, acquired over time and through exposure not just to our own medium, but to artistic and life experiences of all kinds.
We need to remember that many of the things we do, besides studying the printed page or singing scales, contribute to our lives as artistic people. Consider Thomas Hampson—if all he did was sing standard rep, he would be just another great voice, and we would all be a good deal poorer. Instead, he’s a smart, diverse singer who’s giving the world a lot of extra artistic value, using his singing as a medium to express the breadth of his curiosity.
Do you know what kind of hairstyles Figaro was fixing while singing, “Figaro, Figaro, Figaro?” Have you listened to any historic recordings of your current audition arias? Have you read Stendhal’s The Red and the Black? How about Henri Murger’s Scénes de la vie de Bohème? You can get something out of these experiences that will make you a better artist. And they have nothing directly to do with that thing in your throat, but the thing between your ears and the thing under your breastbone! Use them instead to make yourself a better singer.
Here are a few suggestions that won’t break the bank but just might help keep up your inspiration and add to your skills as a singer at the same time.
Stop criticizing yourself and your artistic skills or lack thereof. Just work to improve them. Criticism just makes you narrow; it’s a waste of time, and more importantly, spirit.
Read a Schubert song in translation, then take a walk in a nature setting. Try to see through his eyes and hear through his ears as you walk.
After your walk, write a poem about your experience and then set it to a melody.
See a movie. See if the plot would make an opera.
Write a poem about anything.
Buy some flowers and find a song about them. Give them both to someone.
Pray. Sing your prayer.
Get involved in contemporary music. Sometimes it’s strange, but it will usually make you think.
Using stick figures, draw your idea for the staging, in cartoon form, of a song, aria or ensemble.
Sketch your character from an opera or song. Paste a picture of your head on top of the neck. Put it on your practice keyboard or mirror.
Talk to someone elderly about opera and your singing. Their world has shrunk, and yours will seem vast.
Listen to other classical musical recordings besides opera. Listen, for instance, to symphonies and hear the exuberance of Mozart or the Haydn fatherly smile.
When you listen to classical music on the radio, for instance, play “Guess the Composer” with yourself. You’ll be surprised at how much you know, it will make you listen more closely, and you will learn a great deal about style.
Volunteer at something where you can utilize your music, like singing at a nursing home. The appreciation you receive will make you feel like a star.
Read a children’s story. Make it into a song or sketch out an idea for a children’s opera.
Sketch or write a staging outline of your favorite opera set in some strange locale, like Mars or Miami in leather and tutus. (Some directors get rich staging opera like this!)
Buy a cheap set of watercolors at the dime store and paint a picture of a set for an opera that you want to sing. Again, hang it up above your practice mirror with a picture of you center stage.
Before you go to sleep, fix a picture of yourself in your mind, in costume, on stage, in front of the orchestra. In the morning, try to remember the dream it produces.
Make a little proscenium curtain out of paper or material and hang it on your practice mirror.
Introduce someone to opera using a video or live performance. Explain it beforehand. (Magic Flute is great for first-timers.)
Get some friends together, sing through some things, then have a potluck meal. Invite non-singers to listen. They’ll praise you to the heavens.
Write a note, care of an opera house, Web site, concert hall, management, or another singer telling them how much you enjoyed their work. They might even respond.
Teach a kid a song.
Go to a museum and view artwork of an era and or a city associated with a composer during the time he wrote a particular opera. Make it a treasure hunt. Don’t just stick to one room; look at sculpture and architecture as well. It will expand your knowledge of the period greatly. Use the Web if you don’t have a good museum nearby.
Go to the library and check out one of those big photographic books on a city where your favorite composer lived or composed. Color copy the pictures and put them in your scores for reference.
Go to the ballet. You’ll be amazed at how people use their bodies on stage.
Get your exercise by dancing to a CD of opera or song.
Take an adult education class in ballroom dancing. Often you don’t have to have a partner. It will provide, fun, exercise, a tax write-off, and a new skill. Then go home and practice waltzing and singing at the same time. Or have friends over and waltz around your living room.
Listen to one new Schubert song a week. Draw a picture of what happens in the song. Read the translation. That’s 52 new songs a year!
Copy this and paste it all over your domicile and in your music books: Remember: Mastery of Process, not Product!
Here are a few books to read that might help keep your spirits up:
The Artist’s Way, by Julia Cameron
Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway, by Susan Jeffers
Art/Fear by David Bayles and Ted Orland
An Artist’s Book of Inspiration: A Collection of Thoughts on Art, Artists, Creativity by Astrid Fitzgerald
