The Desire to Communicate

When you work with a singer, several things become apparent pretty quickly.

There are those who think they have to 1) get it right, and those who 2) desire to communicate.

The aren’t the same thing at all.

The student who approaches singing from the standpoint of having to sing “correctly”—whether he is taught to do this or does it unconsciously—usually from wanting approval—is miles away from singing correctly. That’s the paradox. The singer who approaches his craft from the standpoint of having to sing—from a desire to communicate? That’s a whole other matter!

The classical Italian song-school teachers had an age-old vocal technique regarding the desire to communicate. They boiled it down to a directive: Call!

It’s no more complicated than that.

The singer who gets caught up with whether he is calling correctly? He’s like the centipede who tries to move one leg at a time. He becomes paralyzed.

Don’t be like him. JUST CALL. Pure and simple. Your ear will organize everything for you.

Think about how you feel when you run across someone you haven’t seen in ages—you simply adore them—and they are walking away from you in another direction. Your joy in seeing them makes you want to connect with them. You do this by CALLING out to them.

(Get this right and you’ve gotten a lot. Do I need to mention that calling isn’t yelling?)

Extra credit? Go to Italy, sit in a town square during a festive occasion and observe how people intact with each other. Their vocal exuberance will delight you.

Photo Credit: Stapes in the inner ear which mediates the conduction of sound and is connected to the Stapedius muscle, the latter being connected to the facial nerve. The desire to communicate sets everything in motion.