Why choice matters

Choice. It's the stuff that dreams are made of...quite literally! Maybe you've had old school lessons in the past where your teacher chose all of your songs for you and you didn't love all of them, or you didn't like the style of music they chose in the first place. Or...you were told exactly how to sound - what the "right" and "wrong" sounds were to be making. (Who gets to decide that, anyhow?) I firmly believe that it's important for you to have a say in what you are singing, and also choice in exactly how you sound when you sing it. If I choose for you, it's not going to mean as much to you, plus I might make the choice for you to go in a direction that isn't even comfortable for you in regards to how you want your voice to sound. Additionally, when others choose for you, it can be so much harder for you to do the work that it takes to make changes to your singing simply because it isn't what you want.

Having multiple choices in how we approach our songs is equally important, because sometimes it's hard to replicate something that has worked in the past...or you might start noticing that the one way doesn't feel so great anymore. For example, if you know your high note will come out if you tighten your abs in one spot, what do you do when that doesn't work on a different day? I want you to have other ways to approach that high note so that you can always work with the body/instrument that is showing up for you each day. Choices can help us be more consistent, especially given that our instruments can change each time we use them.

Choice in singing training goes beyond this, though, and that's because of the way that our bodies work. If you think of your nervous system as the software that directs your hardware (your body), things that are hard can really throw a wrench into the workings. We come up to a note or a passage that just isn't working and our body goes into fight or flight mode. This often translates into strain when singing, and while we can look around and see that there aren't any bears about to eat us, it can still be difficult to convince our nervous system that the hard passage isn't something to be afraid of. But, when we give our body choices it will help our system come to realize that it isn't all or nothing, and with our training we can then replace that response with something new that will actually help us to sing the hard thing. That is why having choice and working with choice is majorly important when it comes to your singing training.