singing makes you an artist, and art makes you human

Singing Makes You an Artist, And Art Makes You Human

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I trust that the journey for you in reading and following this report will as challenging and rewarding as the journey I faced writing it. I want to reflect with you on broadening the self-definition that is central to my work, the I am a singer belief. What does it mean to be a singer? In the simplest sense, a singer is someone who sings. This is the definition we started with and its a great way to get going. If thats all it takes, after-all, anyone can do it. And its true; anyone can take that step of singing every day and become a singer. But very few people do. Why is that? A writer writes, a singer sings, a dancer dances, a speaker speaks, a poet writes poetry, a painter paints. You hear so many in life saying I wish I could be a _______. If all it takes to own that label is to perform the action every day, why do people wish to be writers instead of writing? Why do people wish to be singers instead of singing? It requires the blind leap of making art. Art is one of those words like love, the more you try to define it, the more it eludes you. Like holding on to a handful of sand, the tighter your grip the more slips through your fingers. But calm yourself, still your hand, and the sand sits in your palm. Likewise, if you can sit with the uncomfortable amorphous beast called art, it will sit with you and allow you to enjoy its presence. As a singer, the simplest part of what you do is the physical. We get caught up in proper breathing and posture and ear training and intonation and matching pitch and singing high notes and singing louder and singing sweeter and singing more powerfully and stage presence and all these outside techniques. They are seductive, because they are easy to work on and they provide easy excuses for us not to try. Not to leap. Not to risk rejection. When someone asks why dont you get up there and try? at karaoke night, you can sit back and say oh Im not properly warmed up, Ive got to work on my technique a bit more before I let anyone hear me. This instinct to hide, to protect ourselves from ridicule, is the death of art.



Many artists greater than I have sought to explain and define art. Ive quoted several of them throughout the book. Ill share now my incomplete and probably wrong beliefs around what art is and isnt. I hope youll find something helpful. Art is risk. Art is fear, Art is vulnerability. Art is accepting that some people will hate your art, and some people will hate you for your art, and some people will hate you without even looking at (or listening to) your art. Art is accepting that more people will ignore you than hate you, and that will hurt most of all. Art is a child breaking moms favorite vase, and loving her and trusting her enough to step into the fear of admitting it, the pain of possible rejection, the terror of abandonment, and admitting the truth. Art is breaking up with someone who is in love with you, because you love them enough to let them know you dont feel the same. Art is letting your son or daughter go out into the world and make their own mistakes, knowing you could protect them but knowing theyll be better off for learning their own lessons. Art is embracing shame, heartbreak, and isolation. Art is standing in front of a mirror, or a person, or a crowd and screaming I made this! and hearing no applause. Art is seeing yourself, truly seeing yourself, perhaps for the first time in your life. Art is leaving the makeup at home and exposing all that you are to the world. Art is arriving to the biggest event of your life completely naked. Art is putting your life on the line to connect with others. Art is risking everything.



In our evolutionary past, we lived in tribes no bigger than about 150. Known as Dunbars Number, this is supposedly the approximate limit to the number of people we can maintain stable social connections with. Much more than that, and you start to forget birthdays and faces and who is whos cousin. Thats the environment our brains evolved in for thousands of years. Think about how small that is. There were probably more people in your highschools graduating class than your brain can possibly hold a connection to. For most of human history, rejection from the tribe meant death. Death of your genes certainly, as without a tribe your mating opportunities are limited to unusually friendly mastodons. Death from the elements, as building shelter and maintaining fire and all the other protective measures become far more difficult on your own. Death from predators, almost certainly. Humans didnt evolve sharp claws, powerful teeth, or thick hides. We evolved brains and social structures that allowed us to climb the food chain. Ten humans with spears and strategy can fell almost any beast they encounter. One human on his own is an easy meal for anything bigger than a housecat. So thats the root of the fear of the big rejection. The huge error that gets you kicked out of the tribe. Thats what keeps you from recording your own album and putting it out to the world. Fear of death. If a majority of your tribe (75ish people) might hate what you do, your brain will SCREAM not to do it. You might die! Our brains havent caught up to the fact that we dont expel people from society for embarrassing mistakes anymore. That there are millions of people in our country and billions on our planet. With numbers like that, 75 haters is actually a pretty sweet ratio. In fact, if 99% of people HATED your art, youd still have 700,000,000 who dont hate it. Can you live with 700,000,000 fans? I know I can. But what about the smaller fear? The fear of that one small display of creativity, one small risk, might ruin everything.



It comes back to the primary drive, mating and reproduction. If you dont have babies, your lineage dies with you. So more than any other drive, the drive to procreate directs our thoughts and actions. If your tribe is 150 people, only 75ish are the gender you can make babies with. Of those, probably a third are too old, and a third are too young. That leaves you about 25 potential mates. Of those, probably around half of them have partners already, are sick or dying, or are just uninterested in your charming caveman features. If were generous, you might have 10-15 potential mates in the entire world. Remember, to the human brain, its not a long time since the 150 people in your tribe was your entire world. Now the fear of failure starts to make sense. The fear of risk, of vulnerability, of shame. If we expose ourselves, if we try something new, if we put a gift of art into the world and only one potential mate doesnt like it, weve just lost 10% of our potential mates. What if a few of them dont like it? What if all 10 dont like it? If your brain is telling you all it takes to kill your genetic lineage is 10 potential mates rejecting it, would you ever get up on stage at karaoke night? Art is fighting the voice in your head that says youll die, youll never find love, youll lose everything. Art is facing the fear and doing it anyway. Art is opening your mouth to sing. I believe singing is the most raw, open, vulnerable, pure art form. Ive been singing since I was 3 years old and have always enjoyed it, to the point where people see me as a musician, as a singer, as someone whos life revolves around music and singing. That image isnt who I am. I enjoy singing, especially with others, but it doesnt touch my soul the way it does for some other people. Dont get me wrong, Ive had top of the mountain experiences in singing many times, but they arent a result of singing. For some, mastering a difficult song, using the sounds to express something deep inside, this gives them an intrinsic satisfaction and pleasure. Im not one of those people. I dont say music is my life. For me, my deepest emotions and truest joy in life come from openly connecting with others. A raw emotional bond where both people have let down their walls, taken off their masks, and come together as equals.



This isnt an easy thing to find in our society. Nearly everyone is playing the game, carefully watching what they say and do and how it makes them look to maintain this image of a person they want others to see. Some are so caught up in their game they actually see the mask looking back at them in the mirror, and have lost sight of who they truly are. Producing correct notes and rhythms, learning the lyrics, mastering breathing and posture and relaxation and improving your range isnt singing. Running through a song on autopilot, the same way youve done it a hundred times before, practicing until theres no risk and feeling safe the entire time isnt singing. Singing is stepping in front of a crowd, a person, or a mirror and opening your soul. Singing is releasing the outer self that protects you, tearing down the wall, tossing the mask, even if only for a moment. Singing is exposing your sheltered, vulnerable, terrified self to the light of day and knowing that if you are hurt and crushed 99 times out of 100, that 1 time you feel a true connection with others is worth the pain and suffering. Singing is knowing that being ridiculed for exposing your true self is no where near as painful as hiding your true self from the world day after day, until it begins to wither and fade. Its knowing youd rather be bood off the stage thousands of times than face the quiet despair of the masses, the crushing knowledge that nothing you do will ever be good enough, that you will never be good enough. Singing is saying Im enough. Flaws and all, sweatpants and bed-head, croaky voice and breathy voice and out-of-tune voice alike. Singing is taking one of the things that most defines us - our voice - and exposing it to others for their judgment and rejection. Singing is saying here I am world, love me or not, I love you. Singing is loving yourself and the world enough to let them take you to the emotional brink of death, because it is only at that brink that we ever start to truly live. Singing makes you a singer. And singing is art. And making art makes you an artist. And being an artist can be feel like the loneliest life possible. But a life without art is only the shadow of life.



Sing a song Sing your soul Sing your heart Sing for the world Sing for yourself Sing something new Sing something true Sing something you never knew you knew Sing



Art isnt painting. Art isnt dancing. Art isnt singing. Art is the risk taken by someone who has no idea how their true self will be received. Art is staring into the void, facing the dark inner judge, and choosing to stand for truth and beauty. The way a babysitter plays with a child, letting him win sometimes, and sometimes teaching him the lesson that not winning is okay too. Admitting to a friend that your feelings may be a bit more than friendly. Applying to a school that no one thinks you could get into. Staying up for days to complete a project you committed to, before its due. Writing a book without a degree in writing, or any real experience or credentials. Reading a book that asks you to step outside your comfort zone. Taking a risk, failing, and getting up to try again. Seth Godin says art is saying this might not work and living in that space of uncertainty. Art is knowing that it probably wont work, but that the chance it might is worth more than the safety of never trying. Art is knowing that the growth of our true self and the evolution of our soul demands risk, vulnerability, and exposing our deepest truth to the light of day. Singing can be art. Dancing, painting, acting, speaking, writing, building, caring, loving, teaching, learning, planting, selling, giving, sharing, skiing, coding, coaching, preaching, and every thing a human does, when done with every piece of herself, is art. Its not the action that makes art, but the risk and truth beneath the surface. Music is just notes until an artist breathes life into it. Art thats impossible to reject isnt art. Art thats flawless or perfect isnt art. Art that cant fail isnt art. The only art that cant fail is the art you dont make. And, in truth, that is the only art that really ever fails.



What makes us human? The drive to procreate, the push for survival, the search for food and shelter, the building of communities, the working together for the good of the tribe. These are all things that helped us thrive in a perilous world, but they dont separate us from other creatures. Even altruism, the act of sacrificing for the good of others, is observed in several species. It is not our goodness that makes us human, as any pet owner can attest, many dogs are better people than most people are. I dont know much in this world. Im lucky to know just enough to realize how much I dont know. I dont ask you to believe what I believe, to embrace the worldview that I embrace. If you agree, thats wonderful, and if you disagree, thats wonderful. I hope well get to speak someday and you can share your views, I know Id have much to learn from the places where our beliefs diverge. That said, I feel what makes us human is the drive to make art. Agree or not, there is no higher purpose in life than exploring our true self, discovering a vehicle for communicating that self, and sharing it with the world. There is no more human act than creating something as an extension of yourself, an authentic expression of emotion, and putting it into the world. From the first caveman smearing blood on the cave wall to tell the story of hunting a wild beast to young children singing along with Disney movies to you, struggling with whatever risky project has your soul set on fire but feels too big and scary and imperfect to unleash. This is what we live for. Art is life.



Can Everyone Really Learn to Sing? Ive had this conversation countless times. Just yesterday I met up with classmates from poetry and photography course I was taking and they asked this question. If youve ever wondered if everyone can really learn to sing, read on. Now of course, we have to make allowances for extremes. Theres an extremely small percentage of people out there with severe mental or physical disabilities which will prevent them from singing. I wouldnt include deafness here because Ive witnessed deaf choirs bring audiences to tears. If you are capable of reading this sentence then you have the mental capacity to learn to sing. I dont know if you were born without vocal chords or without a mouth, so Ill just have to assume you have relatively well functioning physiology. If you can speak, you have a singing voice. If you can hear the difference between a man and a womans voice, you arent tone deaf. With that caveat out of the way, lets explore the question a bit deeper. One of the challenges with the concept of singing is a matter of definition. When I say everyone can sing, I mean you can produce a pleasant sound with your voice, enjoy yourself, and have an audience agree youre not terrible. When many people say, I cant sing, they mean, I cant perform like the best singers in the world. This comes back to the 1% problem we discussed at the opening of the book. In todays media-driven culture, we are exposed to the top and bottom 1% FAR more than the middle 98%. Singers like Beyonc, Justin Timberlake, Renee Fleming, and Whitney Houston are incredible, top-notch artists who take singing to a new level. On the other side, we see the blooper reel from American Idol and countless YouTube fail videos of amateurs butchering the national anthem or some pop hit so terrible we cant figure out what its supposed to be. When we only see the top and bottom 1% over and over again for a lifetime, it reinforces a false dichotomy. We begin to believe they are the only groups that exist. When we believe that a singer must be world-class or absolutely horrible, we know where we fit in. If those are the only two choices, I know most of my students and I fit in the bottom.



Luckily, there is a whole spectrum of ability between horrid and splendid where singers can enjoy themselves, spread joy, create wonderful art, and make an impact. Most of the school choir concerts, karaoke bars, talent shows, YouTube uploads, and kids singing in their basements fall into this middle 98%. Its only the lack of publicity and visibility that keeps us ignorant to the middle ground. We spend all day with the top and bottom 1%, and so when we do run into a middle-ground performance, it challenges our perception. You already know about cognitive dissonance. Trying to hold conflicting beliefs is painful. So we ignore the nice parts of our nephews singing and tell him to shut up, that whiny sound is driving me crazy! Or we go to the other extreme and tell our daughter, You have such an incredible voice! Like an angel! Youre going to be a star, honey! Its very unlikely that they are terrible or wonderful just yet. Embrace the art that scares you. Embrace the art that fulfills you. Open your heart to the song it was meant to sing. Singing makes you a singer. Making art makes you an artist.

And being an artist, with all the emotional baggage that entails, is what truly makes us human.



Sing, sing a song Sing out loud

Sing out strong Sing of good things not bad

Sing of happy not sad

Sing, sing a song Make it simple

To last your whole life long Dont worry that its not good enough

For anyone else to hear Just sing, sing a song

La la la la la

La la la la la la...

Sing, sing a song Let the world sing along

Sing of love there could be Sing for you and for me

- Joe Raposo

As performed by The Carpenters on Sesame Street

singing makes you an artist, and art makes you human

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