You may wonder if your guitar teacher takes guitar lessons- and if that teacher takes guitar lessons from an even better guitarist and so on in some kind of pyramid scheme. I don't take guitar lessons currently, but I do take music lessons.
My students who know me a little better know that guitar isn't the only instrument I play. In addition to playing instruments I also sing. The lessons I use my income from Hip Cat for are singing lessons.
I've made a few attempts throughout my life to learn how to sing. Up until a few years ago, none of these attempts lasted more than a few months. I did sing in choir my senior year of high school, but the choir director was also the band director and did not have much experience developing voices.
In November of 2023 I got the urge to learn to sing again. I googled vocal coaches in Bloomington and came across Megli Voice Studio. I sent an inquiry through the form on his website and began taking lessons with him.
For the first time in my life I began to actually get better at singing. Dan knows how to take a voice, hear the potential in it, and then guide it towards that potential. I've worked with several music instructors throughout my life. Many of them have been good teachers, but my favorite lessons have been with Dan.
I believe that all humans are born to sing. This does not mean everyone is born to sound good, or to become a great singer, but that singing is one of the most human things we can do. The act of singing is beautiful in itself. We learn to sing higher than we thought possible.
When I play an instrument and I make a mistake, my ego can defend itself by blaming the instrument. This isn't right, but it's easy. When we sing, there's nothing to hide behind. That is your voice, there's nothing external to hide behind.
Most of the male singers I enjoy don't have a voice that sounds like mine. To sing well is to accept that your voice is not the same as others. We must find where our voice sounds good and not force ourselves to sing exactly like others. A great deal of my development has been learning to accept the voice I was born with.
Daoism has a concept Wuwei. This concept has been given a few different translation, and I am not an expert on Daoism. For this article I'm going to take it to mean giving effort without forcing.
Singing is not about making a great effort from your body. We must learn to engage our muscles while remaining relaxed. Using the muscles with too much strain is just as bad as using them without enough physicality.
The goal is to create a new intuition for your body. Singing the correct way becomes something you don't think about. I am still far from this point but every week my new intuition develops.