Time for a new blog. Each day, my voice feels new to me, like I discover something new about it. My age and experience don't matter. I am not a voice expert or teacher of singing. Just a guy who likes to sing. I am not professional in the sense that I do not get paid for singing. I never have been paid for that. Though I have sang in front of others in a variety of situations from singing to the pets at home to friends at a party to strangers in a bar or club, to singing for friends at a campfire. If anything, my experience is more about playing guitar and singing, rather than recording or having a "stage act." Which I grant is also important.
I had several blog posts before and recently deleted them. Some of the info was outdated. Such as what to do about negotiating record deals. Which can still be done and the short answer is to get an attorney speicalizing in music business law.
Songwriting, write what you feel, what matters to you. Even there, rules are made to be broken. But often, people are looking for a starting point and there are a number of them. The right one is the one that gets you writing
Posts on self-study and study with a teacher. The advantages of either and the importance of your perspective on the value of each.
Writing a blog was all about my personal "process." It ran long and maybe included bits others disagree with. And I could say, well, that's the way it is. But pride goeth before a fall. Better to remove the tree trunk in my own eye before I try to remove the splinter that is in someone else's eye. And whatever other Bible verses come to mind.
Is there anything I can post in a blog that is helpful to others? I had some positive responses in my previous blog posts. Are my observations secondary or doubtful because I do not represent myself as a singing teacher or singing expert? That reminds me of my step-grandfather's humorous etymology of the word, "expert."
Do I have the right to make blog posts, not being an expert or singing teacher? Just about all of the people posting blogs are singing teachers, one way or another. I've not spotted another blog series like mine. Stream-of-consciousness observations from an "average joe." And prone to make statements that mean something to me, rather than to appeal to the widest audience in hopes of gaining students and the income generated by teaching students.
Which is going to make a difference. I may not know enough about teaching singing to students but I do know about business. My "day job" is operations manager for a business, which does include the collection of monies for services rendered and materials installed. No one works for free.
To apply that to singing teachers, these are people who have spent considerable time amassing materials and thoughts and procedures to effectively bring a student to a level of competence in singing. And the time spent teaching that. In my business, we have an hourly labor rate for jobs not easily defined by the line item rates of new construction. And it must cover the cost of the business, for we also provide warranty of services and materials for 1 year from date of installation. I don't know if there is something like that in singing teaching and I don't know if singing teachers carry liability insurance as a business practice.
And there I go, again, talking about business when really, we are more engaged in the passion of singing, rather than the business.
But it is my hope that my observations help other singers that are like me. And if I suggest getting a coach, it is not because that is what is popular to say among the members who are teachers, it is because I think that is the valuable and efficient thing to do. And it all starts with perspective.
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