Tuesday, July 30, 2013

No. 253: Voice and B.S.




Voice is singular.

It's opposite is Voicelessness.  But because Voice is singular,
It can have no opposite.

In other words, It's opposite is B.S.

Only when we see B.S. in the Light of Voice
can we know It in the context of Voice's singularity:

B.S. becomes S.B.

The base slavery to which we can be subjected
through believing and valuing uninformed opinions
and incomplete experiences

becomes

Supreme Bliss.

Life as we thought we knew It
Stands on It's head.

From this upside-down
inside-out 
perspective 

We hear the Music of All We Are
constantly drumming:


It Is...It Is...It Is... .


Let Voice spook You gently with It's 
Rhythm of Life

out of the lull of B.S.


*goose-bumps and awe, wonder and amazement*


Swim in the It of All We Are: Do and Be in and of Supreme Bliss.


Heal the world.

Know Your Voice.

You may as well...

It already knows
You.



THIS is Life.  THIS is Love.  THIS is Opera Organically.














Monday, July 29, 2013

No. 252: No Conditions




True Voice, with a capital "V"
has no conditions.

It Is Who We Truly Are.

Let this blow your mind

and you know 

You're Singing through your heArt
You have Sung through your heArt
and You will Sing through your heArt

forever.


THIS is Life.  THIS is Love.  THIS is Opera Organically.

Saturday, July 27, 2013

No. 252: Today...




Today, do what makes your heArt sing, and your singing Voice will follow.  


THIS is Life.  THIS is Love.  THIS is Opera Organically.




Wednesday, July 24, 2013

No. 251: Of COURSE we wouldn't sing




If we look at the world
--really look--
and see 
how most of us view our voices
of COURSE
we wouldn't sing.

Who in hell
would subject themselves
to an environment
of such silencing fear?

Who in hell
would want to live
in a place 
of vocal impossibility?

We think we don't want to live there--

and yet most of us do.


Our automatic answers to 

"Can you sing?" 

are 
"NO".

--a fine answer--
if your Heaven is built in silence
or in spoken or written word,
not sung--
by all means, build It 
like that.

BUT 
if your Heaven 
is SINGING
and YOU
are in the CENTER of It
--but you're not there yet--

ask,
rather,
THIS question:


Do you WANT to sing?


If the answer always comes back

"YES"

look around you
and KNOW
there is an alternative to the madness: a H(e)aven
where Voice is safe
where you can build YOUR Body Instrument
to a strength where everything is possible
--to where your dreams become your life--
and everyone around you--including YOU--
is SINGING.


It's about paradigm shift.  About building Heaven on Earth.  About potential and possibility, honest inquiry, and powerful, individual and collective TRUTH.


THIS is Life.  THIS is Love.  THIS is Opera Organically.







Thursday, July 18, 2013

No. 250: The Magic of Fear



"Fear is the opposite of our true nature." ~Byron Katie.   



If we are afraid to sing, this fear is pointing to the treasure trove of Who We Are.

Will you follow this radical Path?

Will you allow the pull of your Truth to show you Voice?

Will you...?

Will you...?


THIS is Life.  THIS is Love.  THIS is Opera Organically.



Friday, July 12, 2013

No. 249: Let It IN.




The world's almost automatic admonition  
toward a singer who is Voiceless
or Shy
or Scared
or Unsure

is


"Just let it out!"


It works in the movies.

It works on American Idol.


But what we see in these popular stories is only the partial truth for most of us Seekers of Voice.  
Most of us need to experience something quite different in order to find Vocal Freedom.

Many would-be singers, 
in REAL LIFE,
must learn
to let Voice IN
before they can ever let It out.

This allowing Voice IN, 
facilitated by an organic, life- and Voice-affirming technique,
as well as a community of absolute positivity like Opera Organically,
creates the knowledge of a complete security,
a deep authenticity,

a Self-FULLness

that is tapped in to the power
of Universal Voice (the third tenet).

It's this little, itty-bitty, 
GINORMOUSLY IMPORTANT STEP
in the Inward Direction
which we're most often forgetting--
as we bang our heads and mangle our hearts
against a direction to "Let It out!"
when we often aren't even aware 
of what "It" is!


And so, we stand all too often
at the end of our lives 
thinking


"Gee, I wish I could have sung--I wish I could have had a voice"


When, all the while, Voice was embracing Us with such Love, Eagerness, Acceptance, and Peace,
ready to make the LEAP for us--
as we stood, unaware, never knowing how to let It into our lives to DO this FOR us.


It's a small shift, but an important one.


Do Voice a favor 
and insert this step
into every "success" story
you've ever heard about a singer.

Many do not tell about this step
because many do not know
just how vital It is...
or even 
that they've taken it.

Some breathe Voice naturally--
others must re-learn to live where It lives
or we can never take a truly life-giving breath.


So, my friends...


Let It IN.


and then...

Be aware

You ARE It.

And EveryOne Else IS It.

And then watch 
as something even more AWESOME happens:

All that pressure to do the impossible
disappears into ashes and smoke
as the clarity of Voice
opens your Singing HeArt
and you hear, stunned,
the most powerful,
still
small Voice
you've ever heard:




...........................THERE IS NO "LETTING IT OUT"!!!...............................




...there is only letting It IN...




and letting It amongst Us, and of Us, and between Us, and around Us.



Know the stillness of It.



Know the Joy.




Know what it is to Sing--without uttering a note--
and let THAT resonance live
through the Music that Sings YOU. Has sung You. And will sing You, forever.




THIS is Life.  THIS is Love.  THIS is Opera Organically.



Wednesday, July 10, 2013

No. 248: The Great LEAP




Opera Organically is a space of awe, of love, and of fascination.


For all the 'struggles' I lived while searching for Voice,
I realize now there was a constant thread of appreciation for the process of discovery.

At times, I remember not being able to sense the It: this appreciation.  

At those times, the oscuro ('dark') of my Singer's Way was thick and heavy.

At other times, the chiaro ('light') called me into excruciating bliss, 
pulling me up and away from balance.

But whether or not I experienced fascination, awe, and appreciation 
in the depths of pain, or in the joy of pleasure 
I know, as I look back,
that IT was always with me.


NOW I know, it is not the dark or the light that is the treasure.
The treasure is how I've learned to love both oscuro and chiaro identically,
as they have, and as the do, paint my Human Voice Experience.
The treasure is being able to see that, just by walking the Path of Singing,
I was loving Voice--even if unaware.


The good news of Opera Organically, according to the First Tenet, is


VOICE IS ALWAYS PRESENT.


The sometimes tricky news is that much of the world does not know this--or maybe they do, somewhere deep inside, in that place where heaven lives--but they do not speak it.  Much of the world speaks about how Voice must be earned, must be ethereal, must be elusive--must be reserved for the 'lucky' or the 'talented'.  This language keeps many of us from taking the Great LEAP Opera Organically has to offer:

Love 
Eagerness
Appreciation
Peace

at all times.

It is my Life Purpose to continue creating an Absolutely Supportive and Safe Space for Exploring Voice, with this Great LEAP as the foundation for my work. 

It is my mission, even when Voice is trapped in the weak definitions our world sometimes has to offer, to hold the strength of AWE and FASCINATION and LOVE for the discovery process in each and every singer's experience.
Even, and especially, when Great Breakings Open occur: when Voice bursts forth as a giant guffaw or a horrendous SPLAT, or crack, or Wonkiness--or tears, or anger--or when Voice goes inside to shelter Itself from the relentless judgment of common language--

It is my mission through Opera Organically and knowledge of the First Tenet, to hold the infinite strength of LOVE for VOICE ALREADY PRESENT.

Can you see what a a beautiful treasure hunt we then have laid out before us?

Can you sense what a celebration every day can be in this context?

Can you hear It, feel It, BE IT??

*Breathe It In*

*Breath It Out*


YOU. ARE. IT.

THIS is the Great LEAP.


THIS is Life.  THIS is Love.  THIS is Opera Organically.






Friday, July 5, 2013

No. 247: Something Much Deeper



As singers we're told

"get the gig"; "be paid for what we do"; "be 'professional' singers"; "get that company spot"; "get that album contract"; "form that group"; "get accepted into ______"...


...which is all well and fine, but




*GUESS WHAT*



THESE ARE SECONDARY ACHIEVEMENTS.


What we're NOT often told 
is to 
"seek connection with the awesomeness of Voice"; "hear It, feel It, be It"; "become a walking talking expression of Voice"; "love your Voice because your Voice is Love"...


There are no t.v. shows about this (yet).  There is very little drama about the deeper truth of LOVING Voice which, when it comes before all other "achievements" makes the singer's life path ecstatic, exciting, and beautiful.  There is very little drama but A LOT of excavation--a lot of HARD WORK mentally, emotionally, spiritually.  There is very little drama about a singer flying with the joy of expressing her complete Voice.  There is only reverent JOY.



We CAN flow with the Love of what It Is to BE Voice--and trust that all else which should come to our experience
will flow naturally from our very BE-ing.


THIS is Something Much Deeper.


THIS Is Life.  THIS is Love.  THIS is Opera Organically!


Thursday, July 4, 2013

No. 246: On Physical Body Size and the Origins of Voice




Any singer who's accessed the complete power of True Voice
has probably heard something like this:

"Where does all that sound come from?"

As I personally walk the path of physical, mental, and spiritual health and wholeness
I am physically the "smallest" I have ever been.  
Yet, vocally, my singing voice has never been more voluminous, supple, strong, 
and connected to the authenticity of "me" than it is NOW.

Very well informed people who love and support me say:

"EAT MORE....You're fading away...What about your voice?...Don't you need more meat on your bones?...What...YOU?...an opera singer?  You're not BIG enough!"

Of course, being the educator and passionate lover of life and singing that I am,
I have taken the bait and deeply probed into this very important question:

If Voice does not come from our body size, from where does IT come...?


As we create the community of singers that is Opera Organically, I've had the pleasure of witnessing the awesome nature of SUPPORT that comes from an absolutely positive perspective of Voice.  
The first two tenets of Opera Organically are:

1) Voice is always present. 
and
2) Voice is always right.

The support I speak about here, based on the first two tenets of O.O., goes MUCH deeper than the usual "breath support" that is commonly addressed in voice training.  The kind of support which comes from singing as a part of the Opera Organically community is present even when "breath support" is not.  

This deep kind of support is synonymous with our hopes and dreams.  It is one and the same with the little Voice inside that says "I want to sing."  It is the knowledge we all have that, with the right tools, time, dedication, and support, we can share something uniquely beautiful with the world.

I believe the reason many people have a hard time wrapping their minds around from where Voice comes is that It's really not something that can be understood with the mind alone.  To understand how Voice from a size 4 body can fill a stadium, we must enter what I call the 
Collective Heart of Voice.

It is very easy to find head knowledge about the singing voice in our culture.  In year 2000, when I graduated from Oberlin Conservatory of Music, I came very close to joining a team at Bowling Green University which was going to build the world's largest model (40ft) of the human larynx.  I was fascinated with everything to do with singing, and the call to this project was strong.  However, the call of my HEART was louder, and I struck off to understand that thing which was not encouraged in my experience in music academia:  I now call it 
Heart Singing.

The challenging thing about Heart Singing is that it can only be experienced.  It doesn't exist separate from our very lives.  Head knowledge of voice can fill libraries; heart knowledge of voice fills our bodies, our families, our communities, and every corner of the Earth, if we only open our eyes and ears to see and hear It.  Head knowledge of Voice leads us to Heart knowledge, and vice versa--but to understand the nature of Voice which is much bigger than the individual, we need BOTH Head and Heart, simultaneously.

It is interesting to ask this question:

Is it so challenging to accept a huge voice coming from a tiny person because we instinctively know Voice IS larger than the individual?

*for me this question is mind-blowing, and is at the core of my work*

In my opinion, the paradigm of the singer being a lone individual, a separate source of singing--someone to worship and admire and put on a pedestal--is fading with our growing awareness of global Oneness.  

We are understanding that to fully ignite Voice in one person, we must also see the possibility of this ignition in ALL people--at least, that is the third tenet of Opera Organically:


3) Voice is Universal.


When I say to someone "My Voice is your Voice" most often I get "Nonononono" in response.  However once in a while I meet someone--and incidentally, this is happening more and more often in my experience--who nods and smiles when I say "My Voice is your Voice"...even as his/her expression of that Voice might be completely different than mine.

What we are really talking about is Heart Connection.

In Opera Organically talk, 
when I say "My Voice is Your Voice," I could also be saying "My Heart is Your Heart."

Filling a stadium and knowing where that voluminous Voice comes from has very little to do with "singing" and much, much more to do with Heart.

When we understand the natural power of desire, commitment, belief, hope, faith, life, and love, we know from where Voice comes--ah, YES, we know--
and this deep knowledge calls us 
to keep seeking supportive communities
like Opera Organically
where we can rest
in the power
of 
Who. We. ARE.
Together complete
Forever eternal
Infinitely powerful
and 
Life-enrichingly resonant. 


THIS is Life.  THIS is Love.  THIS is Opera Organically.