Fear has many connotations and understandings. It is something so many of us live with, hate, want to get rid of. When we are solo singing, fear tends to jump up and bite us. Some of us listen to that fear and never sing. Some of us taste the wonder of singing, get frightened, and then stop. Then some of us decide to say ‘feck off‘ to fear. The majority of people who come to Simply Sing have finally decided to conquer their deepest singing fears and in moments they begin to see that it is possible to overcome them.
Why do we get fear when we sing solo? There are many reasons, but the one core fear is that we are fully exposing our true self. We are sharing our own voice. Our voice is one of the most sacred parts of who we really are. It is extremely hard to share that with people. A lot of us only want to share a certain sense of ourselves to the world and the idea of stripping ourselves down fully to our true selves is just too much. But the big secret is that it is not too much to share yourself fully, it is actually unbelievably rewarding. It is life-enhancing. It is like you have tapped into gold when you jump in and experience it. Last weekend, Simply Sing delivered a two-day Vocal Empowerment Retreat. I watched the participants move from real fear in the first few hours, to end the final day of the retreat with a sense of power, poise, and transformation. One participant said ‘I had battled with the fear of singing for over 50 years. Today I’ve now achieved my lifetime’s ambition.’
In the coming weeks, we will be sharing some tips on how to manage solo singing performance fears. To get us started, our first tip is to understand that your voice is totally unique.
Tip No 1- Unique Voice
When you are sitting watching, listening or waiting to sing, have a listen in to what you are thinking. If the thought of ‘I will never be able to sound like that singer’ comes across your mind, stop that thought. The answer to that is YES – you will never sound like that singer. The truth is you will never sound like any other singer in the world. You can never compare yourself to another singer. It is totally futile thought. The fact is, your voice is totally unique and exceptionally different from anyone else’s. This is the beauty of the singing voice. Next time this thought comes, stop it in its tracks and do not compare your voice. It is totally unique. Don’t try to sing like anyone else, except yourself.
Come back to us next week and we will have another tip on managing performance fear. Any other questions, please email us at hello@simplysing.ie.
