How to Master Singing by a Master Teacher of Swimming
Today I heard the most profound tips for singing mastery I’ve heard in a long time. I discovered them in an unusual place for singing tips. I heard them in a Tim Ferriss podcast entitled “Terry Laughlin, The Master Who Changed My Life”. I cannot recommend more highly that you listen to this entire podcast.
This podcast is not about swimming. It’s about learning a physical skill. It is immensely important to listen to and apply to your study of singing.
Here are some significant highlights.
1) Avoid Error Points. Kicking and breathing are the two major error points in swimming. What are the major error points of singing? In my opinion it is the larynx rising and the vocal cords not adducting adequately.
2) Purchase the Book “Mastery” by George Leonard. I just ordered mine. George wrote a magazine article for Esquire in the late 80s. More reprints were requested of that article than any other article they had ever printed. The story George was telling was about taking up aikido at age 47, a very advanced age, and becoming the latest starter ever to reach the master teacher level in aikido and how he managed to accomplish that.
The book is a set of prescriptions or principles for attaining mastery. The essential idea of the book is that life is not designed to make things easy for us. Rather to present us with challenges that help us grow and that we should embrace these challenges. If we apply certain behaviors we’re going to experience a lot more success.
A) Always be focused on improving the skill itself. Any time you are doing it focus on improving the skill. The amount of time you spend is secondary to doing things that improve the skill.
B) Focus on weak points, don’t focus on your strengths
C) Love the plateau. In anything we learn, as we’re working our way through the most basic and easier skills we learn pretty rapidly and then things start to slow down. Things may slow down to the point where you only experience breakthroughs every 6 to 12 months or so. George Leonard wrote that ‘when you practice guided by the principles of mastery, there is always positive change taking place at the cellular level, below your threshold of awareness, and that periodically this change consolidates into a thrilling leap forward.
After 50 years of swimming, when in his mid-60s, Terry said, he was still learning things that thrilled him. He was getting insights about his own stroke that were literally thrilling and they were coming at really, really long intervals. Having read George Leonard’s book on mastery he was really prepared for plateaus and thrilling discoveries.
3) Be passionately curious to learn more
4) Love what you’re doing so you enjoy it today
There are many more gems and wonderful principles to apply to singing that you will find in this podcast. The next time you go on a walk or for a drive listen to this podcast and apply its wisdom to your learning to sing.
If you liked this video give it a thumbs up, subscribe and share it with a friend. Has your singing progress plateaued? Let me know in the comments section below. Also let’s get social on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at @powertosing.
You can make a thrilling discovery by discovering your vocal type. Your vocal type is what you tend to do when you sing through the bridge of the voice.
Go to powertosing.com and take the vocal test which I call the PowerTest. Take the quiz and discover your vocal type. Then visit the Knowledge Center and watch the videos about your vocal type. Download the free exercises and start working on those. It’s very likely you will make thrilling discoveries about your voice.
I’m Chuck Gilmore with Power To Sing. You can sing higher with beauty, confidence, and power. I’ll see you inside the next video.
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