To the singer who is too hard on themself.

Dear Singer,

You’re going to crack.

You’re going to get breathy.

Your posture will fall when you’re not paying attention. 

Your stage fright will sabotage that performance.

Your tone won’t be ideal as you’re training.

Your high notes will fall short of the note and placement.

Your high notes will be airy beyond your control.

You don’t even know if you have high notes yet.

Your low notes will get heavy or be non-existent.

You will spend weeks practicing the same song and sometimes feel as if it’s going nowhere.

You will get pitchy.

You will completely lose the note you were just singing as it disappears somewhere in the black hole of your mind.

Your jaw will clamp and get too tight.

Your tongue won’t behave the way you want it to.

Your throat will squeeze. 

Your vowels won’t be clear.

Your breath won’t be timed right.

You will overthink.

You will underthink.

You will scour the internet looking for a solution to that one thing you can’t seem to change in your voice.

You will wonder if you’re improving.

You will wonder why your vocals are not consistent.

You will cringe when you hear these things played back in a recording.

You will wonder if you should even consider yourself a singer or if you will ever measure up. 

Keep going and don’t stop.

The more critical we are with our technique and our sound, the more tension we create in our singing.

Give yourself a little grace,

a little hug,

and a little love because your voice is a creature that cannot be beaten into submission. It doesn’t work that way.

Your voice is you, my love.

Be kind, gentle, and patient.

Let yourself take the time you need to grow

and you will be pleasantly surprised

at what giving yourself some honey will do.

xoxo

Taylor