Wednesday, December 17, 2008

HOW TO DEVELOP VOCAL GRATITUDE

Gratitude is a tool that brings singers confidence.

1. Allow yourself to enjoy your voice - like you did when you were a kid. Don’t get caught up in technique. Let an experienced vocal coach walk you through that. Your job is to enjoy the experience of your voice.

2. Realize that peace, ease and freedom are our natural states of being. If we can be grateful for these things in our life, then our voice will reflect that gratitude and sound more confident.

3. Start noticing what you like about your voice. It’s much more enjoyable than noticing what you don’t like because when you focus on what you like, it gets bigger and better if you allow it to. This builds confidence. For example, I never used to like the sound of my voice, but I knew I could hold out notes for a long, long time and also hit low notes for a girl. This was the beginning of me discovering and expanding the range and power of my voice.

4. Acknowledge your Musical Intelligence (M.I.):
If I were to hit a note on a piano and sang a note that wasn’t quite the right note along with it, there’s a pretty good chance you’d be able to tell and it would feel quite unpleasant. So far, I’ve never met anyone who didn’t know. This is because each of us have the ability to recognize truth. When something is “out of alignment” we can tell. I call this awareness “Musical Intelligence” (M.I.) and it is a gift we are all born with. This awareness is something to be grateful for! If you can recognize hearing what is wrong, then you’re capable of hearing what is right. It is a foundation for creating a solid voice.

5. If you’re concerned about knowing if you have a good voice, then click here for some tips and read #3

Especially during this festive time of year, recognize that the power of our thoughts has a direct effect on our singing success, and work through limiting beliefs, allowing ourselves to conceive only of what we want, as we affirm and realize our utmost desires. Gratitude is key in understanding what we have and building confidence. I hope these tools provide a safe soil for you and your voice to be nourished, just as a planted seed needs nourishment in order to grow.

Monday, December 8, 2008

Inspirational tips and specials to get you through the holiday season!

Hello Dear Singers!

Here are some inspirational tips and specials to get you through the holiday season!

"The thought impressed upon the mind is like a seed in the soil...what are you creating?"

It's that time of year to be grateful for all we have. A time to count our blessings - whatever our circumstances are. Our world teaches us to look at our outward circumstances and show gratitude, but true gratitude can only be felt if it begins in the receiving heart. True gratitude brings confidence, the magical ingredient evident in all successful singers.

Naturally, the voice carries the energy, power and essence of our thoughts. Unfortunately, many of us don't have very nice thoughts about our voice. We're afraid that if we actually give ourselves credit for sounding good, that we might be wrong and look silly.

It all began when we were young and free and vocally expressive at the top of our little growing lungs, when some OTHER person unexpectedly came up to us and said something painful to us, like, "Oh, you're making too much noise, be quiet!" Whether it happened to us, or we saw somebody else go through this humiliation, we chose at this pivotal moment, to never endure this sort of pain again. Our solution: to allow that "critical voice" that initially came from
somebody else, to enter our mind and become us. We figured this voice would protect us. "I'll make sure I catch my mistakes before anybody else can!" We thought. So we hired an "inner critic" and allowed it to go to work! Pretty soon, we forgot that the "inner critic," was just a defense mechanism, and we started to believe everything it said, as if it were us!


"Inner verbal abuse is destructive behavior"

What we failed to realize was that every time that inner critic spoke within us, we recreated that same pain and fear we had that first day we felt criticized from someone else, or watched them get criticized! So our plan to protect our voice literally became a jeopardizing tool that
chipped away at our inner peace and freedom, slowly leading us to...


WAIT! It is so unlike me to get all depressing like that!


O.K. What can we do to overcome the inner critic (which is found in the left hemisphere of the brain)?


How about FIRING it, since we hired it for no good reason in the first place! How about creating something new to believe in that might actually do some good and get us the vocal confidence we want?


"But Dot, I've been letting this negative inner-dialogue dominate my thoughts for years - and now all of a sudden, I'm expected to get rid of it? HOW?"


Tips for firing the "INNER CRITIC"

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Sincerely,

Dot
Vocal Empowerment Coach
Dot's Voice Studios
www.dotsvoicestudios.com