I love our Voice Club Student Sing Nights. It’s a great opportunity for students to get out and perform songs they love in front of many people who like them, which is always a bonus. But we had a really weird one not too long ago. It was kind of like watching a Nascar crash and the impending pile up. Almost everyone seemed to be having an off night. Forgotten words, missed notes. Confident smiles began to melt into nervous shuffling.
Between songs I asked the audience how many of them had ever sang publicly.
One hand went up.
Why did I ask that question? Because only someone who has put themselves up on a stage to be publicly judged really understands the risk involved. Heck, just getting out alive with a smile on your face can be a good night sometimes! That’s the experience of many singers.
But what does that have to do with voice teachers?
Well, take the pressure of the typical performance and add an element of potential professional suicide. Forget pleasing your adoring family in the third row. Imagine your reputation balancing on every note, every lyric and every move. That’s what it can be like to be a voice teacher singing in public.
O.k. Cut the violins.
I do empathize with the many instructors who rarely perform. I get it. I really do. I’m there with them. But it drives me crazy that those who work the hardest to know how to do what they love rarely peer out of their studios long enough to experience the joy of singing anymore.
It’s so sad to me that I’ve met so few voice teachers who sing outside of the privacy of their homes or studios. And even worse, that the ones who do are so often belittled and judged harshly, many times by other teachers who honestly won’t even take the risk to sing publicly themselves.
That hasn’t been my experience, but I’ve seen it happen. From time to time I do get a little jabbing from other instructors (you know who you are) correcting this or that in my performance, to which I happily reply; ‘Thanks for the input. Where’s the video of your latest performance so I can return the critique?’
The truth is that voice teachers don’t sing publicly for the same reasons you don’t. Every singer makes mistakes. And no one wants to be judged for them. But the joy of performing is not found in the opinions of amateur armchair American Idol judges and singers who’ve lost the nerve to take the stage.
It lies in taking the risk; that you’ll falter, that you’ll fail or that you’ll fly.
So to all my fellow and future voice teachers out there: take the risk. It will encourage and inspire your students and it will remind you why you choose singing in the first place. Let no one be the judge. Just enjoy what you can do. You deserve that!
Some people dream of things they literally will never be able to do. Never.
Singers can fulfill their dream any time they choose. Think about that…..ANY time you choose.
Are you fulfilling yours?
Critique at will. Mistakes and all. 
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