…So I was just watching ‘The Pursuit Of Happyness’ on TV and was inspired to write this article…

During my life as a singer and over the last 18 years of teaching singing, I have had many people tell me that they can’t sing. They tell me they’d love to sing but believe that they ‘just don’t have the voice for it’. They go on to tell me their stories of how much they enjoy singing when no-one’s around and how embarrassed they’ve been when someone ‘catches’ them in the act. Needless to say, their happiness and enjoyment that singing brings to them, ends there…

Have you ever had this experience?

Have you ever wondered why it is that we sacrifice the true happiness that singing brings, because we’re afraid of what others might think?

‘We feel that if someone judges our singing negatively, they are judging us personally. This is because we are baring our souls – showing our true, vulnerable selves and openly expressing our feelings to others, at the same time as allowing ourSELVES to feel how we REALLY feel – about…STUFF!…

Your voice, your physical and emotional bodies AND your soul are ALL involved when you sing – just as they are when you rejoice or mourne or throw a tantrum or laugh hysterically’.

The Essential Voice – Vocal Training Program

Why is it acceptable for us to cry, laugh, be angry or jump around screaming when we experience a real high – but it’s not ‘OK’ to **sing** these feelings?

To be honest, I’m a little stumped myself…but after thinking about it for a while, here’s my take on it…

As humans, we are ‘expected’ to act within the ‘norms’ of society or else we are viewed as ‘abnormal’ (and treated accordingly).

Crying, laughing, talking, showing physical excitement coupled with animated vocal expressions, are emotions and actions that everyone uses in order to communicate how we feel about things. That’s EVERYONE…It’s a primal instinct of the body to use the voice as a tool for expression.

However, not EVERYONE sings.

There are probably billions of people out there that have their own personal reasons for this, but in my experience, there’s usually 2 common factors;

1) They don’t believe they can sing (because they’ve been told by ’someone’ that they ‘can’t')

 OR

2) They’re afraid of being judged (because someone’s judged them before)

Both of these reasons are based on external influences and these fears and beliefs were born from another person’s limited view of us.

One scene in ‘The Pursuit Of Happyness’ really brings home this realization:

‘Chris’ played by Will Smith in ‘The Pursuit Of Happiness’ says to his 5 y.o son, ‘Wayne’:

 ”Don’t let anybody tell you, you can’t do something – even me. If you have a dream, you gotta protect it. When people can’t do something themselves, they wanna tell you that YOU can’t do it either”

And that’s it in a nutshell. I believe that those of us who refuse to allow ourselves to sing out with joy, have usually been told by someone else who doesn’t sing, that YOU shouldn’t do it either.

My message to ALL of you is to open your hearts and minds and just let it rip! Who really cares anyway? Those that judge you go home and forget about it while we who have been judged, sacrifice our happiness to please them. The world still turns whether you sing or not. However, your little world would turn with more meaning if you do!

What’s your take?
The Essential Voice – Vocal Training Program

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