Singing is so much more than the notes!

Ever since I can remember, singing has been about expressing myself. When I was a kid, if I felt lonely, I sang about it. If I was excited, happy, angry: I sang about it! My only challenge was going from throwing my heart into a song I made up to one that someone else wrote. But since I already had the knack of showing my emotion through song, now my task was putting myself into the shoes of the songwriter so I could express their message as my own. And isn’t that really just like acting? You have to get into character.

But if you think about it, I may have written “Standing on the Rock” Standing on The Rock Audio when I was feeling all agitated by the 2008 presidential elections, (and it sure fits again now!) but I still had to do a little acting to return to that emotional place when I sang the song in 2013 in the recording studio for the album…

I was working with a voice student today. She was singing a fun song with a catchy groove, “If You Don’t Have Love” by Holly Starr: https://youtu.be/S31R-ENSj4g and a positive message.; The trouble was I wasn’t getting any of that from her performance. Singing for an audience is so much more than being on pitch and reaching all the notes! I suggested for her to speak the words to me like she was giving my advice. This was very hard for her, she said. I gave her the homework to practice feeling the song; speak it, sing it, dance it to get the meaning across- This got me thinking.

How do we tap into our emotions in a way to really communicate them to someone else? Isn’t that exactly what a really good song, a really great performer does for you? That’s who I want to be! My music is all about sharing my heart to touch yours… and somehow that makes us one. That moves us closer to hope, love, action, compassion and God Himself.

Ezekiel 33:32

Indeed, to them you are nothing more than one who sings love songs with a beautiful voice and plays an instrument well, for they hear your words but do not put them into practice.

Heaven forbid my songs have so little impact as this!

Let me write you a love song for your wedding, or sing about how God has changed your life… or sing an old favorite hymn at your mother’s memorial, or a rousing chorus of “The Wheels on the Bus” for your toddler’s birthday… but whatever I do, let it be from the heart.

I will continue to teach my voice students how to breath and smooth out their break and hear the pitch more accurately etc -but most of all I pray I can pass on that passion for communication !