Uploaded August 2020 | Updated September 2026, 9 hours ago
Hi guys I'm Madeline Harvey. And thank you so much for hanging out with me today. So if you've been with me for a little while you know that I love talking about things that are all a part of the exploration process with your voice and love me some technique. But I love even more the human heart of singing because it's deep it's it's where all the treasure is buried. It's where all the good stuff is and it's why we sing. So today I want to talk about something that is very crucial to the learning process with your voice and that is how to appreciate the voice that you already have and ultimately come to love the voice that you have now. Most people when they start to train their voices there is this really twisted relationship that we kind of all have with ourselves and our voices and that is something that we are completely ashamed of. Our voices are sound is something that we're ashamed of or something that we're embarrassed by or something that maybe even disgusts us. And so when we have that kind of relationship with our voice we carry forth into lessons with this sheer determination to change everything about who we are. And that's no good that's no good. And I'll tell you why your voice is controlled entirely by your nervous system. It's a beautiful thing. That means your thoughts your feelings there. They're the instant manifestation they're instantly manifest in your voice. Now that means if you don't like who you are if you don't like what you have to say you're going to send those impulses through your body that that trap the voice and the locket inside of the body and that makes obviously that makes it harder to sing right. It sets a domino effect a chain reaction of tension and that it can feel like it's so micromanaged and so maneuvered and so manipulated from one note to the next note to the next note and part of that is we said we just said it way too many conditions for the voice. Now a condition is as simple as I want to sound good. Well that's a big condition. That's a big condition. Now I'm not saying that the opposite is sounding bad. It just is that when you really want to sound good you tighten around the voice that limits the spectrum of choices that your voice can make and your voice is designed to be spontaneous. So let's say I want to sound good is a really big condition. The other might be I want to sound like my favorite artist or it needs to be on every pitch. God forbid I sing off of one pitch here or there. It needs to be loud. It needs to be this it needs to be that needs you know I'm so on and so forth. When you have that that much conditional response for the voice it will lock the voice into a place that it can not change from. Now that's that's no good when you're singing because music is literally energy in motion. Emotion is energy in motion. So if you're tight around the voice it can't move and if it can't move then pressure is going to build tension is going to build and ultimately it's going to start shaking it's going to start wobbling and then Will what do we do when that happens will we turn some are how dare it. How dare it wobble. And that creates again a push pull mechanism. So the answer is very simple but it's very sophisticated and I'm going to talk about that with you. The answer is to allow your voice to flow allow your voice to be what it is right now. Now I can feel you getting tight around that maybe because sometimes people think that if I allow my voice to be what it is then that just is like a shorthand way of saying I'm doomed to have this voice for all eternity I'm doomed to sound the way that I do now for all eternity. And that's not true in the least. You are a dynamic being you change from day to day. You change from moment to moment. So your voice is also dynamic. It's an expression of who you are. So what we have to do in lessons or in your practice in your own experimentation is you have to create first an environment where that spontaneity and flow can happen. Now allowing is a wonderful way to do that. So what does that mean. That means that you're not going to react anymore to what your voice does that's so hard. That's so hard but a wonderful way to come into allowing IS to play.
Hi guys I'm Madeline Harvey. And thank you so much for hanging out with me today. So if you've been with me for a little while you know that I love talking about things that are all a part of the exploration process with your voice and love me some technique. But I love even more the human heart of singing because it's deep it's it's where all the treasure is buried. It's where all the good stuff is and it's why we sing. So today I want to talk about something that is very crucial to the learning process with your voice and that is how to appreciate the voice that you already have and ultimately come to love the voice that you have now. Most people when they start to train their voices there is this really twisted relationship that we kind of all have with ourselves and our voices and that is something that we are completely ashamed of. Our voices are sound is something that we're ashamed of or something that we're embarrassed by or something that maybe even disgusts us. And so when we have that kind of relationship with our voice we carry forth into lessons with this sheer determination to change everything about who we are. And that's no good that's no good. And I'll tell you why your voice is controlled entirely by your nervous system. It's a beautiful thing. That means your thoughts your feelings there. They're the instant manifestation they're instantly manifest in your voice. Now that means if you don't like who you are if you don't like what you have to say you're going to send those impulses through your body that that trap the voice and the locket inside of the body and that makes obviously that makes it harder to sing right. It sets a domino effect a chain reaction of tension and that it can feel like it's so micromanaged and so maneuvered and so manipulated from one note to the next note to the next note and part of that is we said we just said it way too many conditions for the voice. Now a condition is as simple as I want to sound good. Well that's a big condition. That's a big condition. Now I'm not saying that the opposite is sounding bad. It just is that when you really want to sound good you tighten around the voice that limits the spectrum of choices that your voice can make and your voice is designed to be spontaneous. So let's say I want to sound good is a really big condition. The other might be I want to sound like my favorite artist or it needs to be on every pitch. God forbid I sing off of one pitch here or there. It needs to be loud. It needs to be this it needs to be that needs you know I'm so on and so forth. When you have that that much conditional response for the voice it will lock the voice into a place that it can not change from. Now that's that's no good when you're singing because music is literally energy in motion. Emotion is energy in motion. So if you're tight around the voice it can't move and if it can't move then pressure is going to build tension is going to build and ultimately it's going to start shaking it's going to start wobbling and then Will what do we do when that happens will we turn some are how dare it. How dare it wobble. And that creates again a push pull mechanism. So the answer is very simple but it's very sophisticated and I'm going to talk about that with you. The answer is to allow your voice to flow allow your voice to be what it is right now. Now I can feel you getting tight around that maybe because sometimes people think that if I allow my voice to be what it is then that just is like a shorthand way of saying I'm doomed to have this voice for all eternity I'm doomed to sound the way that I do now for all eternity. And that's not true in the least. You are a dynamic being you change from day to day. You change from moment to moment. So your voice is also dynamic. It's an expression of who you are. So what we have to do in lessons or in your practice in your own experimentation is you have to create first an environment where that spontaneity and flow can happen. Now allowing is a wonderful way to do that. So what does that mean. That means that you're not going to react anymore to what your voice does that's so hard. That's so hard but a wonderful way to come into allowing IS to play.
