Storybookers

When I say 'I'm a singing teacher' many people reply, “I can't sing!” 

Now I'd have thought that would have been my perfect in.  But no.  For so many people their sheer terror at the thought of using their voice effectively, joyfully and confidently is something they'd rather not contemplate. 

I've been out and about promoting The Love singing method recently, so I've had the opportunity to talk face-to-face with people who haven't fully embraced the joys of singing.  What's even sadder was finding out how many people out there had been put off from singing at a very early age.  Which meant that for some people I met, many in their forties and fifties, past negative singing experiences had robbed them of them benefits of singing.  

I knew about this problem. I was just taken aback by the scale of it.   I used to say to new pupils that I should carry around a sealed envelope with the words, “When I was young someone I trusted told me I couldn't sing".  This was because for a great percentage of the people I've taught this is the case.  Somewhere along the line a teacher, a parent or a friend told them the sounds they were making didn't make the grade.

In my post Why Singing Is Good For You I gave a quick rundown on how singing — just singing not performing — can change your life.   Amongst the things you'll gain are:

• A happier healthier you

• Longer life

• the best free stress buster going

Seriously it's true.  I grew up in a culture steeped in Gospel music, so I was singing all the time.  And when we got together to party singing along to the latest hits was compulsory. And fun! Nobody ever told me told or anyone else to stop singing.  Not because we all had a great voices but because using your voices in an expressive manner was expected. And although many cultures do the same I was shocked to find out that many do not. 

I've found time and time again that people who are convinced they have bad voices actually have great voices but have been put off using them.  It's regrettable that you may have been put off by someone else's careless words.  What they said may or may not have been malicious.  An under pressure choir master, charged with putting together an ensemble in a short period of time may not have had the time to develop rough hued voice and would pick those ready to go. A stressed out parent may have been unaware of the damage being done by telling a child to be quiet.  

Everyone can sing

The main reason people say they can't sing is because they sing out of tune but singing out of tune doesn't mean you can't sing.

I'm always going to stick to that assertion though many will disagree.   The only people who can't sing, in the conventional sense, are those with something to their oral apparatus.  It used to be that I would also say that you be in the same boat if you had something wrong with your hearing as well but I've recently started working with a young man, 10 years old, who was born deaf and has cochlea implants in both ears and he's showing remarkable promise.

I will always take issue with people who will tell a child they can't sing and insist that that's the end of it.  There are a great many things a child of five can't do doesn't mean they will never be able to do it.   Driving a bus, solving algebraic equations, and tying shoelaces are things on a long list of things a five year old can't do.  But, of course, It doesn't mean they' won't be able to do them.  But just like singing for them to become proficient at it they have to be taught it well.  

People will often say great singers are born that way.  It's certainly true that for some the ability to hold a tune and make sounds pleasing to others comes easier than others.  But for them to become fully proficient at it they will need many years of study and hours of practice.   And as much as we like to laud praise on the 'gifted' we do them a disservice by thinking that there talents come easy.   

So sing and enjoy it for its own sake and enjoy the benefits it brings.