Last month I taught a workshop called “Left Brain Right Brain Singing” at the Sound Connections Music Conference, and I passed along some important tools that singers can use to help them let go of inhibitions to have a fuller, richer voice.
My voice teacher, Doug Su Su Mago, was the first one to teach me about how our left brain gets in the way of our signing. I learned that the left brain is a task master. It likes order, logic and rules, which is terrific for keeping our bank accounts in order, but not much for letting go and creating.
The right brain, on the other hand, just wants to sing, create and play, and when we can let the right brain take over, we can truly sing our hearts out.
In my “Left Brain Right Brain Singing” workshop, I explain that if you want your singing to be clearer and more present, one of the best things you can do is give your left brain a task to do to keep it occupied so your right brain can be freed up to sing.
For example, I often use Doug's method and have my voice students sing the Star Spangled Banner and replace each consonant with the letter “d.” By giving you something challenging to think about while you’re singing, your left brain stops worrying about how you look, how you sound and what other people are thinking of you and instead frees your right brain to just sing.
Another tool I sometimes use for voice students is to sing nonsense lyrics, make up their own lyrics to a song, or even play improv theater games to get them out of their heads and into the moment. In fact, one of my friends, improv teacher Jimmy Carrane, recently discussed in his blog how he uses similar techniques in his improv classes, as well.
If you are interested in learning more about how we can stop letting our left brains shut down our creativity, I am planning to have a Vocal Master Class this year where we will dive right into this left brain/right brain issue. It will be a three week class, culminating in a concert. Contact me if you are interested and I will keep you posted!
My voice teacher, Doug Su Su Mago, was the first one to teach me about how our left brain gets in the way of our signing. I learned that the left brain is a task master. It likes order, logic and rules, which is terrific for keeping our bank accounts in order, but not much for letting go and creating.
The right brain, on the other hand, just wants to sing, create and play, and when we can let the right brain take over, we can truly sing our hearts out.
In my “Left Brain Right Brain Singing” workshop, I explain that if you want your singing to be clearer and more present, one of the best things you can do is give your left brain a task to do to keep it occupied so your right brain can be freed up to sing.
For example, I often use Doug's method and have my voice students sing the Star Spangled Banner and replace each consonant with the letter “d.” By giving you something challenging to think about while you’re singing, your left brain stops worrying about how you look, how you sound and what other people are thinking of you and instead frees your right brain to just sing.
Another tool I sometimes use for voice students is to sing nonsense lyrics, make up their own lyrics to a song, or even play improv theater games to get them out of their heads and into the moment. In fact, one of my friends, improv teacher Jimmy Carrane, recently discussed in his blog how he uses similar techniques in his improv classes, as well.
If you are interested in learning more about how we can stop letting our left brains shut down our creativity, I am planning to have a Vocal Master Class this year where we will dive right into this left brain/right brain issue. It will be a three week class, culminating in a concert. Contact me if you are interested and I will keep you posted!
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