| Published: January 5, 2021 |
Let’s Everybody Get Free! (Artistically)
I’ve heard people say, “I just want to be able to sing and let it all out!” Have you ever felt that desire? As singers, we have the amazing opportunity to experience the endless freedom that exists within music. The problem is, many of us don’t feel very free – in life or in our music! The challenges of life and the fear of failure hold many of us back. All of us – and I mean all of us – have the potential to overcome these blocks, and “get free!”
The first step to being more free is to recognize that we are creating all the time. Every time we open our mouths to form a sentence, we have created something that wasn’t there before. The same is true for our singing. When you sing a phrase, regardless of whether you improvised it or it was written 200 years ago, you are creating something that wasn’t there a moment ago. In our artistic lives, we are creative all the time both through music and outside of music. We create webpages, we book a tour, we sing backups in someone else’s band, we put our own spin on a jazz standard, we write and we arrange. We create constantly in all of these ways.
The next step is to understand the root of expression. The root of expression is you. You are unique, with your own essence. Expression is transmitting what you carry around inside to the rest of the world. It’s sharing the unique fingerprint of who you are with someone else. I know this can be rather frightening to many people. We often do not feel comfortable letting our true selves show through! It may feel extremely scary at first, but the urge to do it is within all of us. Expressing what is inside you through your singing is the ultimate high of being a singer.
We hope that through the training you receive on Singdaptive this year, you will learn how to use your voice as your wings to fly. We hope you will learn to trust that you belong in the sky.
Everything I’ve written here I learned from Emily Braden in her lesson below.
Happy New Year and Best Wishes for Achieving Your Creative Goals.
Kathy Alexander
| For more help on how to express yourself more freely, take Emily Braden’s lesson Becoming Artistically Free |
Songwriting Help
Whether you are attempting to write your first song ever, or your 83rd, it can be tough to get started sometimes. Try these simple prompts taught by Songwriter and Singdaptive Instructor Laura Clapp, to get you going.
Memorable Performances
Filmed months before COVID hit us, “Strength of Love” by Award-Winning Vocalist Emily Braden was the perfect message for a world thrown into isolation. As we begin 2021, we hope this song inspires you for the home stretch as we overcome the challenges in our world! Emily is an instructor on Singdaptive who specializes in teaching improvisation and artistic expression.
Kathy Alexander is VP of Curriculum for Singdaptive. She was a staff writer for 6 years at VoiceCouncil Magazine and works for the University of Victoria as a practicum supervisor. Kathy is also a singer, vocal coach and choir director. Career highlights include guest appearances in Europe with Quannah Parker jazz fusion band in Norway, and back on the West Coast with Vision TV’s Let’s Sing Again, The Sooke Philharmonic Orchestra and the Victoria International Jazz Festival.
