A couple of things this week reminded me how important mistakes are when learning something new.
One was performer, song leader and composer Brendan Taaffe’s substack: The most important thing you can do is fail”, and the other was a workshop I attended on Voice, Body and Rhythm with Helen Chadwick and Tania Bosak.
I used to create a choir from scratch over six rehearsals – all strangers, no auditions. We would then present a concert of the songs we’d learnt. I was always amazed at how good we sounded.
One day one of the participants explained: “There’s no way we’re going to be perfect with so few rehearsals, so we let go of that possibility.”
Last week I wrote about the notion of being “good enough” and how it could be applied to choir leaders: The good enough choir leader.
This week I want to look at how singers can usefully use this idea.
We all aim to do the best we can. But if we wait until we’re perfect, we’ll never get anything done!
It’s OK to be “good enough” at what we do. Here’s why.
I was honoured to be invited for a video interview/chat recently with New Zealand singer, musician and composer Tony Backhouse.
One of the things we discussed was how we like music to be honest, gutsy, muscular and authentic. But how to describe exactly what we mean?
You don’t have to be the best, or famous, or sing to a professional standard.
Singing is reward enough in itself.
We all strive for perfection in our singing. At the same time, we realise that being 100% perfect is impossible.
By aiming for perfection we can become blind to our achievements and how good we actually are.
Most singers starting out are terrified of getting it ‘wrong’. They hold back in all sorts of ways and approach singing hesitantly.
But if you’re not ‘failing’ and getting it ‘wrong’, then you’ll never progress.
We had a concert recently where pretty much every song went wrong in some way.
Yet we ended up having a fantastic evening and the audience enjoyed it enormously. How is that possible?