Have you ever believed that some part of your voice, or some problem in your voice, is just…unfixable? If you have, read on. If you haven’t had that experience…but you have had other problems in your life that seem unfixable…read on. 

Sometimes, problems have very clear solutions…a faucet is dripping, you tighten a screw, done. You don’t need to get to know how that faucet works, all its facets, all the types of faucets you could buy, etc. just to fix said problem. 

Other problems do not respond well when you try to “fix” them. Instead, they get worse. When your loved one already knows what to do for a particular problem, but wants some empathy from you, giving solutions and/or trying to fix the problem doesn’t help…instead it adds frustration and disconnection with you and that loved one. Not only that, but had you connected rather than try to correct, you may have discovered that the problem said loved one mentioned wasn’t the real root issue. 

Or another example, is paying attention to pain and tension as a problem to be fixed.  When I stare at my shoulder that is feeling a lot of tension, it creates a natural urge to DO something about it! The trouble is, tension comes from DOING! If my attention is on my shoulder that is “too tense”, my tension will likely be directed where my attention is…which is on my shoulder! So the shoulder just gets tighter and tighter as I try to “make” the tension and pain go away…so then I have the tension that was there PLUS the tension I’m adding to it to try to “fix it”. 

However…if the shoulder has been doing all the work that my whole side should be doing, and I start paying attention to my entire side sharing the work of the shoulder, then it's possible the shoulder will let go. 

This happens in singing all the time, maybe your voice breaks at a certain part of a song, so you sing it again, and again and again, get more and more fixated but don’t experience any benefit to your singing whatsoever and the problem only seems even bigger and worse than when you started. 

When you’re singing, focusing solely on problems is discouraging, defeating and usually not effective at actually solving them. For one, you don’t know if your problem is the root problem or symptom of something else. Secondly, you’re sacrificing enjoying your voice as it is right now, to get to some better version. You don’t have to do that. You can enjoy and improve in one go. In fact, enjoying is the way to improve. 

When I had a singer come to me and tell me “I have no rhythm, I simply can’t get my entrances right no matter what I do”. We had a look. We went through the backing track…and she sang, and sure enough, missed the entrances. We studied the rhythm but to no avail…so we moved on. Her voice was saying “this isn’t the real issue”. 

Now sometimes, what you’re seeing on the surface is reality, sometimes singers DO need to learn rhythm…you just can’t be sure unless you’ve really explored the other possibilities. 

When I get resistance from a vocal problem, I move on. We did. We enjoyed exploring other areas of her voice, with no pressure to get any rhythms correct. 

One of these areas was breathing. We explored various ways to breathe, got a sense of expansive freedom in the breath…and tried out singing with the song…and…lo and behold, she NAILED every entrance! Her rhythms were bang on, AND her singing felt better, AND she had more confidence in her singing, among other surprises. 

So the root problem was an unconscious habit to breathe in during the actual moment the first note was to be sung. The more anxiety there was over the rhythm, the more a panicked breath would show up. This wasn’t something I told her , this is what she told me, through her own experience…and this is key, because when you perform, no teacher will be there with a monitor in your ear to give you feedback every moment you’re performing that you’re on the “right track”. It has to be something you sense in yourself. 

This happens all the time in singing. This is why, in singing lessons and the Feel Better Sing Better Class [FBSB] we solve more vocal problems by mapping our voice and its possibilities, rather than trying to fix said problems. The bonus is that, when you map the voice rather than try to correct it, you end up solving multiple “problems” at once, all the while not looking at yourself as a “problem to be solved” but a mystery to be explored. It gets better though…because you end up knowing your voice, and self, better than if you had just worked on fixing a problem. 

So what in your life might seem like a problem on the surface, but is really a signal to connect and explore? What if you didn’t fix something…and instead learned more about it? 

Or a much easier question…how can you map/explore your voice in a way that solves multiple “problems” in singing while enjoying the process? Oh that’s easy! Lessons and the Feel Better, Sing Better [FBSB] Class 🙂 

Wondering what topics have been covered in the FBSB Class? Here are just some…

Sing Better by Doing Something Better than “Good Posture”

Easier Breathing for Singing & Life

How to Sing Loud Without Being Heard

How to Sing Well, Even with Performance Nerves

Singing in Tune Through the Power of Imagination

Discover Your Speaking Habits You've Never Noticed…and How They Help Singing!

How to Memorize a Song in a Way That's Actually Fun

How to Practice Using the Power of Play