Was just on the chat line with my BFF and the phrase came up - from me - "Stupid negative WORLD"...well, it is, isn't it? A very negative world. BFF says, "like life is hard enough without always focusing on the bad stuff and making it way worse than it needs to be." Um...dingdingding...hit the nail on the head with that one.
She continues:
"like when i scratched up my car, i could have cried and screamed and pouted, but instead i thought well, this will cost me some money, then went in the pool. and it was nice."
Have I ever said how much I love that girl? Someday I am writing a book on us.
Anyways, so negative world. I was trying to think of being positive and thought of one of my favorite books:
The Art of Possibility by Benjamin Zander.
He's a conductor dude so he's working with us negative, hard on ourselves musicians all the time. His philosophy is, hey, why not start out by giving everything an A instead of an F? Got a tough audition? Why not say, hey, this audition is going to be great and I have all the tools necessary to sing a great audition! Instead of, oh man, this audition is going to be so hard and I'm gonna suck.
It's like, you've already got a 100% - all you have to do is keep it there. Waaaaaaayyyyy easier than taking a 50% and trying to make it a 100%. Or, another example I use with my voice students all the time - it's way easier to sing a high note if you are not trying to raise 50 lbs with your voice to get UP to it. I mean, right? Downhills are way easier than uphills, right?!
The other book I like, although not strictly about positive thinking, is:
"The Talent Code" by Daniel Coyle
Pretty interesting study on talent pools and what makes people turn into true proficients. Turns out, according to Coyle, it's about productive practice. Fifteen minutes of focused, productive practice can take the place of 3 hours of unfocused practice and hey, I'm always about being more efficient and spending less time in the practice room...shhh...look at the eyes, the eyes, the eyes, don't look around and...you're under...I did not say I hate the practice room...when I count to three you will act as if I did not say that...1..2..3...you're back in the room.
And so, I watched the last half of the MET HD's "Carmen" on PBS the other night. I was very excited to see Keith Miller, the Don Giovanni that little old me got to sing with in Fairbanks, on national television!!!! Sooooooo cool - but not the point of my story here. My point is about Barbara Frittoli's performance. Ok, I mean, everyone knows she's a fantastic soprano...but...WHY? Is it just the voice? For my part, I think not. What struck me more about her performance was that she was giving it 100%. She was totally engaged and sucked me right in. I started thinking about other great performers and you know, I think that is really what does it for me - the 100% thing. I think about Richard Bernstein as our Leporello in Fairbanks and how everyone loved him - again, fantastic voice, but also 100% totally engaged in the music and drama. Let this be a lesson to us all in singing and in life!
Here's Barbara:
NEWS: I am finally updating the blog with more pictures from recent performances as well as links, new performances, and all kinds of other stuff. So check it out!
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