After reading this moving blog entry from the singer Adele on her recent vocal troubles, I felt inspired to respond to the issue of time and art. I know many well known singers who have gone through similar experiences in being forced to take time off of singing in order to re-train or just regroup. I too have had my own experiences with vocal rest.
Today I taught a lesson to a student where we were remarking on that wobbly balance between work and play, being productive and chilling on the beach. Even the most Type A of Type A’s often find themselves forced to take time off due to injury/burn out. With friends I know having various back/voice troubles I thought I would recommend a great book called Do Less Achieve More by Chin-Ning Chu. This book really reaffirmed for me that in the storm of to-do’s there has got to be time to do nothing. Schedule it in if you have to! Doing nothing is PART of the creative process. It’s when we figure out endings to songs, music theory clicks into place, you find the perfect performance outfit, etc.
Yet in a very right brain/competitive/”end gaining” based world (as Alexander Technique folks would say), this kind of advice sounds flakey. Sometimes we even have to work through feeling guilty but when in doubt remind yourself you ARE getting things done. Art takes time. (I am reminding myself as I write this:)
One of the best examples of of this I can think of is my father’s frequent walks. Being a professional composer all of my living years, I am accustomed to seeing my father sitting at his piano banging out groups of dissonant notes like spots of paint being spattered on canvas in one heap. Whenever he has a piece of an idea, he seems to go to the piano to work on it. (This isn’t anything he has expressed verbally. It is just what I have witnessed). However, at the same time a huge part of his practice is also taking walks. He regularly gives himself time to unwind and by unwinding, he actually winds it together, weaving the thread (wink wink).
So remember a little bit vocal practice, Alexander awareness and a dose of free time does everyone good.
