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Hi everybody!
My name is Justin Stoney and I'm the founder of New York Vocal Coaching
here in New York City.
Welcome to episode 39 of Voice Lessons To The World.
The show where we want to help you guys as singers by answering your
questions from all over.
And I'll give you a chance to ask questions later but
our question for this week comes from Donna H. in Atlanta, Georgia.
And Donna writes, "Dear Justin, I go to a performing arts high school
and my voice teacher says I don't have what it takes to be a good singer.
I'm so discouraged I feel like giving up.
I always thought I had a good voice but I guess I'm wrong."
Wow.
Well, Donna here's what I have to say,
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry your voice teacher said that.
And to anybody out there who had an abusive voice teacher,
a person who was negative, doesn't matter if it was a
friend, family member, somebody told you that you can't sing,
somebody that told you you shouldn't sing,
somebody said it's not a good idea for you to sing,
that you just don't have what it takes,
that you're just not good enough, I'm sorry.
The voice is something that is inside you.
I'm sure Donna you know this.
You have to sing, you must sing.
And so for somebody to tell you that you're never
going to be any good at it, I can just tell you it's flat-out wrong.
Not only is it "incorrect" wrong, but it's also wrong to stifle
somebody's gift like that.
And so let me tell you Donna, you can sing and you must sing.
And you will be a good singer.
The voice needs a positive environment to grow.
This is whether you're in your own practice space,
it's got to feel positive.
Whether it's in your own home.
It's got to feel positive.
But definitely, definitely, definitely if you're in the voice studio
with a voice teacher and it's not positive
you know you're in the wrong place.
You need people that are behind you,
people that are going to value you and your singing.
And the biggest reason why is the voice is not just your
muscular instrument but it's also you.
You go and learn how to play the piano in a
negative environment, that wouldn't be the best
but you could do it.
You could have somebody saying no that's not good, that's wrong.
And you could still learn how to play the piano.
But the voice is you.
The voice is not just an instrument,
it's not just your muscles, but it's also
your mind and your spirit.
So if you're crushed down in your mind, Donna and all,
if you're crushed down in your spirit
there's no way your voice can really soar.
It's always going to be tight,
it's always going to be hesitant,
it's always going to come out and be judged.
And so we can't have that, we can't have a negative environment.
And any good voice teacher knows that.
So if your voice teacher said that to you,
honestly I'd encourage you to find a different situation.
Because you need people that are
behind you one hundred percent.
So I'm behind you one hundred percent, Donna.
And I encourage you on that.
But now let's talk about why you're going to be a good singer.
The voice is muscular coordinations.
If I wanted to be a great athlete
then I would start going to the gym.
I would workout every day and I would train
the muscles that I need to train.
I would eat the right diet, I would get enough sleep
and I would hit the gym a certain amount of times
and I would listen to my personal trainer
and I would do it right so I get strong.
The voice is no different than that.
It's a series of muscle coordinations on the inside of the larynx
as well as the breathing.
If I want to get my voice in great shape I absolutely can.
Anybody can train these muscles
if they're willing and if they're disciplined.
Anybody can do that.
So Donna, you can do that, and everybody you can do that.
Now I will admit this there's a thing about
talent versus discipline.
There are really some singers who are just sort of
naturally great athletes.
The kind of people where if you were just walking
down the street and you saw somebody and
they look in great and you say, "Hey you must workout, right?"
The person says, "No I never workout at all".
That's just a natural athlete.
If that person hit the gym they'd get super strong.
But just in life they're pretty athletic.
There are some singers who are just pretty athletic, right?
They didn't even take a lot of voice lessons,
nothing like that.
They're just pretty good singers naturally.
That's a lot of talent.
There's other singers and other athletes
who maybe weren't so natural but they wanted
to work for it really hard, they wanted to train their muscles
and they wanted to do everything that they could do
to be the best that they can be.
This kind of person has the potential to be as good
and as athletic vocally as just about anyone.
So you don't want to have any natural limitations standing in your way.
Actually you want that to inspire you to go even further
with your discipline and to really work on it.
Now again you're not going to be able
to do that in a negative environment.
But if you get into a positive environment
and you work really hard on your vocal muscles
you will in time get to be a very good singer.
Now I also want to mention I've mentioned this in the past,
that not every singer needs to sound perfectly pristine
in order to be a great singer, right?
There are a lot of voices that we admire so, so much.
When the singer has some uniqueness,
has some character to their voice.
What we really care about is an instrument that's coming
from the heart and soul,
that is expressing something that's unique about the person.
If you're getting crushed down because people are telling you
you're no good, you can't sing,
you shouldn't sing, you better quit,
then there's no way that uniqueness can come out.
So whether or not the actual voice is pristine,
we need to have you Donna, we need your voice to come out.
Even if it's got some flaws right now
that doesn't matter.
That's not what we really love at the end of the day.
We love you.
Now, I will finally mention, Donna and all, that you must sing.
All right?
There's no lukewarm reactions to singing.
You ask somebody, well do you sing?
Are you a singer?
Do you like to sing?
You're either gonna get this reaction,
Oh yeah sure I'm a singer,
and I take voice lessons and I love it.
And, you know, I enjoy singing.
Or oh no please no don't make me sing.
I can't sing.
The reason why that is, is because singing
is just so native to who we are.
Everybody, somewhere deep inside, wants to sing.
But maybe they were told that they can't.
Maybe they were told that they shouldn't.
But they're wanting to sing even if they're terrified.
So we can't stifle this gift that's been given.
We can't block this down, even if other people try to do it.
We can't block it down, we can't use negative language
against our own gift.
So since it's so personal, since it's so from the soul,
you know when somebody is trying to discourage you
that's just not right.
So, Donna and all, you do have what it takes
to be a good singer.
And I know this isn't such a technical lesson
but I think it's a really important thing to say
because I can't tell you how many people lost their
chance because they listened to somebody else.
They lost their chance to give the world,
or just give the people in their life, their gift of singing.
Because of what somebody else has said.
I've had so many people come through the studio
with an abusive voice teacher, a negative voice teacher,
with friends, family, somebody telling them they can't,
somebody telling them that they shouldn't.
And how many times have I seen them turn that voice around
and come up with something absolutely stunning?
I can't even count it.
So Donna and all, I want you guys to
be one of those people, one of those people who
does not listen to the negative messages but
pushes right through that does the work,
and ends up being the singer that they wanted to be.
So I hope that's been helpful for you guys today as singers.
If you have questions you'd like to see us answer on the show
you can send an email to Questions@VoiceLessonsToTheWorld.com. [♪]
So today more than ever we encourage you not to lose that joy, [♪]
not to lose that passion, get with a great voice teacher [♪]
who's going to stand behind you, [♪]
who's going to believe in you. [♪]
Not somebody who's going to knock you down [♪]
and tell you that you can't do it. [♪]
If you guys are in the New York City area [♪]
you can visit us at www.NewYorkVocalCoaching.com. [♪]
And if you like these videos you can visit [♪]
www.VoiceLessonsToTheWorld.com. [♪]
I'm Justin Stoney. [♪]
We'll see you next time. [♪]
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