A “Podcast” is an informal online radio show with host and guests. This one is fun, informative and free! In this first “All About Singing” Podcast, voice expert Meribeth Dayme, and I talk about mysterious “energetic” ways to become more creative… Very unique and compelling ideas!
(If you are inspired by this show to !stand up and sing! find information about online singing lessons with Barbara Lewis here.)
Click here to LISTEN! TO THE PODCAST! And if you want to READ AS YOU LISTEN!, here is the transcript from the podcast:
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Hello.
Welcome to the first podcast in this new series called, “All About Singing.”
My name is Barbara Lewis.
Today I’m going to talk with Meribeth Dayme, the founder and director of Core Singing, an approach to singing that brings new perspectives to the field of vocal performance based on energy, awareness, imagination, practice, and performance. We’re going to talk about ways to create the right energy in a lesson or coaching session, – the kind of enrgy that will bring more creativity and more fun to lessons, and in doing that, help us to sing better.
Meribeth has several important tips to share with us today based on her unique work in Core Singing.
Hi, Meribeth.
Meribeth: Hi.
Barbara: First, tell us what you mean by ‘energy’.
Meribeth: Okay. You asked me…you gave me a little bit of forewarning that you were going to ask me this question.
Barbara: Yes, we had a little chat.
Meribeth: So I thought, just for the heck of it, I will look it up to see if there’s a decent definition, okay? Just so I would have an official one before I give you the one I’m going to give you that I use. And what I found was no one has a really good definition of energy. It’s typically thought of as being work. I think of it as being movement.
Barbara: Oh. Wow.
Meribeth: Okay? And I think of it as something dynamic. Work is dynamic but, you know, creating heat…like people normally associate it with physics and thermodynamics and things like that. But also people associate it with healing, with anything that makes a change in something else. You need energy to help that change be made.
Barbara: Um- hmm (agreement).
Meribeth: For instance, people who do hands-on healing use certain kinds of energy to make a change in the other person.
Barbara: The other person’s energy.
Meribeth: Yes. Or you will say about somebody, “Gosh, they have a lot of energy today.”
Barbara: Or yeah, that can mean that they seem to…that they’ve eaten a lot and they’re very excited and ready to go but it can also mean the kind of energy where you say, “That person has great energy,” whatever that means.
Meribeth: Exactly.
Barbara: It’s mysterious, but we all know what that means.
Meribeth: Yes. But we can’t really describe it.
Barbara: Or say what it comes from.
Meribeth: Yes.
Barbara: When you say “Gee, when I walked into this room I just felt that there was such great energy here.”
Meribeth: Yeah.
Barbara: And we’re going to be talking about that. But it’s a mysterious thing, and you bring this into your work in a way that’s much more tangible. And that’s what you’re going to talk about today in your tips for us.
Meribeth: Yes.
Barbara: Let’s start with your first.
Meribeth: Okay, but let me just say again, people say, “energy follows thought,” and it’s very very interesting if you’re going to make a shirt, you first think about it. You conceive and then you do it. Almost everything has an idea behind it before it happens.
Barbara: Hmmm…okay.
Meribeth: And that is the basis of what I want to talk about in terms of energy in the studio. Because the energy…the thought patterns…the way you work with people, the language you use, all contribute to how good or how bad the area around you feels to somebody else.
Barbara: The way you think about it.
Meribeth: Yes.
Barbara: What you’re thinking. So when I walk into a lesson, if I’m in a bad mood then that’s obviously going to affect the lesson and obviously the teacher’s in a bad mood or has preconceived notions of about how this lesson is going to go, that can be harmful.
Meribeth: Exactly. So I think that when you understand that your thoughts, the things you do in your space, and in this case your studio space, all have a direct effect on whoever walks in there. Then it is going to…certainly for me, give me a different sense of responsibility of how I work with the space in which I live. And most of us are familiar with, “Okay, I’ll put some flowers in here, I’ll do this…and it does change the energy or change the feeling of how that place is.
Barbara: True.
Meribeth: But for teaching, I don’t think we’ve ever thought enough about clearing our thought patterns before somebody walks in. Because if I’m sitting there thinking, “Here comes Jamie Smith and every time she’s sung that song she gets that note wrong on page 3, then I am actually creating an atmosphere for her to come and exactly do that again.
Barbara: So how do we exactly prepare ourselves for the next student, if in fact that student doesn’t do any of the work and just keeps coming back with the same problems. How do you clear yourself so that you can give them space to not do that again?
Meribeth: Right…for one thing, I would change the way they approach that music. Okay? So that’s a different…that’s another issue.
Barbara: True.
Meribeth: If I’m trying to do something the same way 16 times and it doesn’t change then it’s no good to keep approaching it that way ’cause it’s not working.
Barbara: Right.
Meribeth: So, that’s that issue. But for me what people need to do…what teachers need to do in their studio is make sure that they are being neutral about the people that come in and not issuing negative thoughts and energies about the person and it is also the student’s responsibility to do that. Now they may not know that, so maybe part of your teaching in your studio is to help them understand that the language they use and the thought patterns that they have around their singing are just as important as the singing itself.
Barbara: Um. It seems like a simple thought but it’s actually quite radical.
Meribeth: Yes.
Barbara: Because I don’t think too many of us as singers or as teachers do that as a matter of course.
Meribeth: No. We like to say ‘we create our own reality’.
Barbara: Yes. Yes. So give us a couple of examples of things that you might do in order to clear the energy for the next student.
Meribeth: First of all, I would clear myself. And clearing energy is about your intent…your mental intent. So I might visualize light in the studio or I might breathe in light and breathe out any negative energies that are there.
Barbara: Um-hm. (agreement).
Meribeth: I would certainly clear myself of any thoughts I had about the student who came before…
Barbara: Okay.
Meribeth: …so that I’m fully present myself and I…in an ideal world I would welcome the next student who came in as if they were coming in for the first time.
Barbara: Hmm…wow.
Meribeth: Okay? That I have no preconceived ideas about what they were going to do or how they were going to do it.
Barbara: So, no matter what happened the last lesson or the last few, today is a new day.
Meribeth: A new day.
Barbara: And it’s a possibility for a new person.
Meribeth: Exactly.
Barbara: It’s also…it’s important that the student also do things for themselves. They have to take some responsibility for their own thinking and their own energy. What do you suggest that students do that might be something that they would not ordinarily do?
Meribeth: I think first of all it’s the teacher’s responsibility to help them understand that they need to do that.
Barbara: Okay. Yes.
Meribeth: And as part of the teaching that the student learns to take responsibility for their attitudes and their belief systems around singing. Because if they’re coming in saying, “Oh, I can never sing high notes,” then they simply will not be able to, so no matter what the teacher does, that student will negate the good work that that teacher is trying to do. So there’s an understanding about that kind of language, that kind of attitude, that kind of belief system from the very beginning.
Barbara: That makes a lot of sense. Sure. You stress the importance of play during lessons. Talk a little bit about what that means to you. How do you play through a lesson?
Meribeth: Well, I go back to the example of children playing. They play with sound all the time and they have a great time and they think it’s funny and they enjoy it and they’re not embarrassed and it’s just a matter of life. Well, when we get serious, our left brain comes in and we start analyzing everything and then we lose that ability to play and to have the imagination fully available to us. And creativity and certainly singing and performing arts are about having that imagination there because that’s what the audience enjoys. And I often say to pianists, “You play the piano, you don’t serious the piano.”
Barbara: (laughter). Oh, that’s good. But is there not…we’re going to talk more about play and its importance, but is there not a place also for some seriousness or some I mean…maybe there’s another way of terming it…
Meribeth: I would say playing seriously. Seriously playing.
Barbara: (laughter). Seriously playing. Because now you’ve got a …for instance you’ve got to prepare yourself for a performance so now you’ve got to pull all this play together in a way that…that allows your instrumentalists to play with you, that you’re not going to give them trouble…so but you know you’ve set something in your mind. You know, there’s a certain kind of practical seriousness that has to happen.
Meribeth: Yes, but it’s serious in another way. It’s serious…I would say, you know, when you’re in the zone you don’t know whether you’re serious or not, do you?
Barbara: Oh, no…absolutely not.
Meribeth: You’re just being taken over…
Barbara: Yes.
Meribeth: …in a sense. By the music, by your imagination, by being with it, and I think this takes a certain type of preparation and practice.
Barbara: Yes.
Meribeth: …and students, again, need to be taught that you don’t walk into a studio and just go plunk, plunk (sings several notes) plunk, plunk.
Barbara: (laughter).
Meribeth: You know. And I was thinking today about this and I thought, “Okay, here’s a question. What are ten ways, ten different ways, you can do a five-note scale? Okay?
Barbara: Yeah.
Meribeth: And it can be dotted notes, it can be triplets, it can be jazz, it can be whatever…and you’re still doing your scale but you’re not doing it as a boring routine.
Barbara: Yes. True.
Meribeth: And to me the moment that we take boredom or ‘I must do this exactly this way’ out of learning music, then by the time you get to performance you’re still able to play with the music.
Barbara: There are people who are going to be listening to this podcast who are quite used to going into a studio and having to do these scales the same way every week, and they may ask you, and I’ll ask for them, “But do you, does your voice, do you get the ability in this playful way of doing things to really have good muscular control over big tone that you have to have to cover an orchestra? Does that happen when you approach it in a…in this way?
Meribeth: It happens even better. You gave the key words there that are the key way to block your sound…muscular control. Okay? It happens. I mean a good athlete doesn’t look at their muscular control while they’re on the court or on the golf course.
Barbara: But they do weights, they prepare.
Meribeth: They get ready, they prepare. They do all kinds of things to deal with that ball…whatever kind of ball it is in whatever sport.
Barbara: Yeah.
Meribeth: But there are times when the ball is not like you prepared for so you have to be able to adjust. Be spontaneous. Deal with it as it comes. And the same thing is going to happen in a performance.
Barbara: Oh, yes. And there you have the audience energy added to everything else which is…
Meribeth: And it’s the way you’ve rehearsed, it’s the way you’ve practiced, it’ the way you think about it, it’s the way you are in yourself…how centered you are that will create your ability to respond to that situation. I’m not saying you should walk out there never having sold a song or not having memorized the words. That’s another thing. But it’s how you approach it.
Barbara: You said…I thought it was very interesting…you said that in every lesson there’s…there is going to be a time for performance…whether it’s one phrase or two phrases or an entire song you said it’s always going to be a performance. Tell us about that. Why?
Meribeth: Because…certainly in my experiences most people who are going to perform only think of performance after they have ‘so-called’ perfected the piece.
Barbara: Um-hmmm (agreement)
Meribeth: Okay? And that may mean that they don’t actually think of performing it ’til a few weeks before they do it or even a few days or until the dress rehearsal. You know, ‘Now I will perform’, and what that means is ‘I will now sing all the way through without stopping myself, without criticizing, because I know the show must go on. And for me, every practice period, I don’t care if you’re practicing ten minutes, that…a phrase, two phrases or part of the song or if you know the whole song you worked on it…I don’t care where it is, there needs to be a full performance.
Barbara: So you’re exercising that part of you that’s in that special place we call performance . Where there’s an audience that’s giving you energy and receiving. Yes it’s a very different energy that you come into when you perform.
Meribeth: Of course. Completely different. But if you’ve never practiced it ’til you get out on stage it’s tough.
Barbara: It’s shocking. And plus, I think this is partly why we get so nervous…
Meribeth: It is definitely the reason we get so nervous. Yes. And people…it’s almost like sometimes singers feel like they have to keep it all a secret until they walk out on stage. (laughter)
Barbara: Oh really? Oh that’s a new one to me.
Meribeth: Rather than, like, calling their friends and saying, “Do you mind if I sing this for you?” Or, “Can I sing a couple of lines?” even.
Barbara: Yeah.
Meribeth: And this to me, in Core Singing, it’s built into the whole process in Core Singing. Because it’s part of every session. Part of every practice, it’s part of every lesson. But for most of us who grew up another way, thinking about how we perform, it’s sort of the crown.
Barbara: Yes, you get to do this once or twice a year or four or five times a year and anything else is in the studio and it’s very serious business.
Meribeth: Yeah, and I used to say, “You know, we get one shot. You know I was teaching in university so I didn’t do that many concerts a year. And if you did one or two concerts where the people who truly did concerts all the time are singing these programs all the time and I’m singing it once, and you get one shot…
Barbara: (laughter) The pressure. Oh, the pressure. Oh yeah.
Meribeth: Yeah. So it’s a whole different kind of way. This way, I think it makes performance much more natural.
Barbara: Yes. Oh yeah.
Meribeth: And it’s about sharing the joy with an audience.
Barbara: Yeah.
Meribeth: You know…I mean yes, you may be singing serious songs or you may be singing happy, sad, whatever…tragic…but it’s part of the sharing with the audience. And when you’re fully there with it they get it.
Barbara: Oh yeah.
Meribeth: They are able to share. But they are not able to share, “I’m thinking about my perfect voice.”
Barbara: (laughter). “I am thinking about that high C that comes at the end of this piece. The rest of the piece doesn’t matter without that C.”
Meribeth: Exactly. When I hear this perfect voice syndrome, I just want to come up behind them and kick them and have them go “Ah!”
Barbara: (laughter) Ah, geez, the sessions with you must be a lot of fun.
Meribeth: Well, I’m crazy.
Barbara: Good. Thank you so much for sharing this with us today.
Meribeth: Thank you.
Barbara: There’s so much to talk about. I mean, we could talk about this for hours. Hopefully you’ll come back and talk with us again.
Meribeth: Of course.
Barbara: Thank you Meribeth.
Meribeth: Thank you.
Barbara: Bye-bye.
Meribeth is currently bringing Core Singing to anyone who wishes to sing. Singers, teachers of singing, choral directors and speech and language pathologists. There are one-day and three-day courses for everyone, and a five-day intensive Teacher Certification Course for those who are already teaching. Find Meribeth Dayme at http://www.aosinging.com/.
And that’s it for us this week. Thank you for listening to All About Singing. My name is Barbara Lewis. You can find us at Singing-Tips-With-Barbara-Lewis.com
I wish you great singing!
