How common is it that a young singer, 24, would have a time where it seems like there is no vocal progress being made? Three months earlier I had been singing the best I ever had (according to my teachers). But then as the fall semester began again I just didn't make any progress, I actually picked up old habits I had been trying hard to rid myself of.

I just want to know if I'm alone in experiencing a set back like this. I want to have a more productive spring semester.

What did you do to help yourself move forward?
Thanks in advance for any insight.
-MZD

It's frustrating as hell, but true.

Part of dealing with it is not let yourself think about how frustrated you are. Usually, believe it or not, this actually helps get the vocal progress moving again.

Take it from someone who learned the hard way.

You are a very blessed young person to have experienced the joy of making vocal progress early in your life. When I hear young singers, and see them getting good training and hear them progressing and growing I think how fortunate they are. The fact that you write about your progress last semester is a beautiful thing, and is not worth nothing.

I did not have it so fortunate in my younger singing years. But in my "unluckiness" while trying to learn to sing, I feel that I have learned a lot about how to live with no progress. I spent 25 years making "no" progress. Going around in absolute circles. It's possible that I may be an expert in it! (lol) I am not the same as what you describe your situation is, but by studying an extreme example, sometimes we can find a few answers. Maybe. Maybe not. It depends on what ears one has to listen with.

About six (or was it seven) years ago, after years and years of voice lessons and thousands of dollars spent, I was singing a simple and small solo with my choir and I breathed in the middle of a word!

How could it be that I had tried so hard and for so long to learn to sing and still couldn't get through a simple phrase?

I braced myself, and with great determination decided that I was going to get to the bottom of this singing thing once and for all.

I found myself the best teacher I had yet had. I worked very hard, even trying to study vocal science. I sought out as much information as I could possibly find, including finding this message board. I finally did begin to make SOME vocal progress.

And yet ... AND YET ... after five years of my best attempt ever, and with the best teacher I had yet had, I was still ashamed that my progress was so wanting. I sent TS from this board a clip, with a great apology that I would have hoped to be able to present something much better for the passion I had put into it, and yet, still, I had shown not much progress.

Then last year, I started taking lessons with TS. And now, for the first time in 25 years, I am experiencing what it is to progress! (Pause for moment of silence to deal with tears of joy and relief welling up.)

Wow, I had to pause for a really long time and can hardle continue typing because of the emotion I feel over this.

Anyway, I'll try, if it's possible to pass on what I experience about living with no progress, and what it's taught me.

I have learned to live for the process of learning and working, instead of for the results. I have embedded the activity of singing (which is multi-layered and faceted and does not consist merely in the actual act of singing) into my life in such a way that is part of my daily life as much as eating, breathing, cleaning, dressing, taking out the garbage, etc... It has become a way of life for me, like the way they say exercise becomes a way of life for an athlete. It is simply something that I work on every day, woven into the fabric of my life.

Waiting for results! I have great patience now. I know that results will show up. I don't panic. I don't try to force. I don't try to rush. When I've tired my voice from working vocally, and can do no more singing for the day, I turn to other apsects of the songs ... learning the accompaniment ... studying the words .... thinking about the intentions in the song ... making up study sheets to take in the car with me ... making copies for the accompaniest ... listening to how other artists have worked out phrases ... exercising so my body is strong and energetic ... resting and eating right so the voice will be healthy. There is so much to do!!

(A young person who reads this board told me recently that when one has a passion like this, all the rest of what one does feeds into the passion.)

And waiting for results ... it's kind of like being a pregnant woman waiting for the birth of her child. It is a gradual process, and it will come and there will be things to do each day that don't seem very glamorous or exciting, but the adding up of all the little things ends up with the results.

It's also like getting in shape. You do your pushups and maybe the next day all you feel is sore, and it doesn't look like the shape of your muscles have changed a bit. But there is something happening!

It's also like saving money. You put your nickels and dimes in the piggy bank, and it never seems like you have that fortune you want! But it is coming!

And, if there's nothing happening, the quest to find out why may occupy that person! Finding the right doctor if one is sick, or trainer if one needs to move on.

The real beauty of it is the forming of a life. The embedding of something and weaving it into the fabric of one's life in such a way that it is a part of everything you do. You are little by little, becoming an musician ... an artist. You begin to live the artist's way. This becomes the joy, and it's never ending.

So, keep putting your nickels and dimes into that bank account every day, and sit back and wait for the interest to grow your money. And make really great life and times for yourself while you're waiting for the dividends!

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"It's never too late to be what you might have been."
Dinah Mulock Craik

Thank you Frescamari! It's a great honor to teach you and learn from you!

TS

Be not the slave of your own past. Plunge into the sublime seas, dive deep and swim far, so you shall come back with self-respect, with new power, with an advanced experience that shall explain and overlook the old.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

TS's Blog: http://tsvocaltech.blogspot.com

Thank you for that!

I think what you said about learning to "live for the process of learning and working, instead of for the results," was something I've needed to hear again. I have a friend who has told me as much, but it never hurts to hear it again.

I think one of my previous downfalls was that if I felt like practicing vocally wasn't going well that day, I would be so discouraged I'd walk away without delving into the other aspects of practicing that are also important. Like studying the words, learning the accompaniment, and thinking about the intentions, etc. And you listing those was a great reminder!

I also have been trying harder to take care of myself, by eating healthy, exercising, and getting enough sleep...something I know I need to have a successful day.

Now the most important thing for me to do is, to take the advice I've been given by you and my wonderful teachers. Be patient, Don't panic, Embrace the process of learning, and Let it come naturally. (Because it is there, but stressing myself out about a bad lesson and being to hard on myself as I practice doesn't allow for progress.)

Thank you again, for reaffirming and reminding me that it is not something uncommon.
-MZD