Yikes! I simply can't get over how fast the time is fleeting by and half the time I don't even notice its passing.
Here we are once again with another Holiday Season upon us, and as singers that means invitations to parties, and dragging out the
Christmas tunes, making sure that we can still sing them in the same key that was good last year. If we're over a certain age, that particular element
can definitely change from year to year...UNLESS of course you have mastered the "voice for a lifetime in 30 days".
My keys haven't seriously altered since 1979. (Oh, Chrys! Quit braggin').
I feel very fortunate to be working this season because as many of you know, the "holidays" are not my favorite thing. But the one thing I DO love about them is singing the music of the season, and this year I will do a lot of THAT!
Looking forward to riding the train over to Los Angeles to spend Christmas with my son, AND to conduct a workshop for the singers I left behind when I originally left there in 2006. It'll be great to see...and HEAR them all again.
Earlier, it occurred to me, as I was sitting on the floor with sheet music strewn everywhere, that being a professional singer...at any rung of the so-called ladder to success, is hard work...that is IF you really want to do this for a living and for a lifetime, and the the often hateful or simply mean things people say about musicians needing to get a real job is ridiculous!
This IS a real job, and I just spent 6 hours on my livingroom floor working out sets of music for a variety of functions I will sing at this season and then writing out the music in my keys, and alphabetizing all 168 songs into a readable format for myself, my guitar player and bass player. And I have to ask..."Why does loving what we do NOT count as work?"
Shouldn't everyone love what he/she does for a living? Do you?
A lot of my younger students don't get that....yet! But I am confident that they will at some point. Even they have bought into the myth that being a professional singer is a walk in the park. Or that one never has to work at it. Just ask any "famous" artist about that! The rude awakening is enough to lead many young artists into harmful behaviors. If it isn't having to work to stay on top of their game, it's reading their own press and thinking that they are somehow in a space where the air is more refined and they get to breathe it in over the rest of us.
However, with the right influences early, I think young aspiring artists can be educated in a gentle and non-intrusive manner about the business of music.
One of my dearest young students has been with me since the age of 12. When we first met, she was into some really poor excuse for a singer on the Disney Channel.
I used to tell her that she'd outgrow her childish admiration for these people, and even pass them, leaving them all in the dust with her talent.
She would listen politely, and ignore me. It's 5 years later and she's turning into as beauty as well as an accomplished singer AND songwriter.
She sings rings around Miley Cyrus, and her writing skills are getting better every day. And she no longer thinks singers on the Disney Channel are all that much. And she has parents who are involved and keep her grounded.
And this makes me wonder about the so-called "Pop-Culture", as its defined by 12 year olds. I guess I wonder...WHY??? Why is the culture of what is happening in the movies, on TV, and in the music industry, being dictated by 12 year olds?
And then I recall the days of doo-opp an how much my parents hated it. Same chords for every song, same rhythm.
Lucky for me, my mom's brother was into jazz and he used to play it for me constantly...
and my father had 3 passions, 2 of which I embraced just to be near him, (because, as the middle child, I felt less loved than my older sister), and the passions he passed on to me were for baseball, and opera. So I had a foundation of music appreciation that served me well as I grew and matured.
I guess when I think about it, these men were the models for what I try to teach today in a way. I expose my students to different kinds of music so that they can know, that
there IS history at work here and that although they can enjoy the top 40, just like my generation did and as every generation has, stretching oneself into another KIND of listening, can only enhance the overall musical experience. I certainly have no intention or desire to dissuade any young person from the latest pop culture symbols...except....when it comes to GLEE!!!
Oh, the music is okay...the production levels pretty fine, the dancing top-notch, so what's my beef?
Its the celebration of MEAN, UNDERHANDED, DEVIOUS, UNSCROUPULOUS, JEALOUS, UNETHICAL, HATEFUL behavior of the characters that just really burns my
brain! Maybe I'm just an old fogey, (I believe we are often called "Old Pharts"), but there's more than enough mean-spirited TV on the airwaves right now. Wouldn't it be nice
if the show that has the minds and hearts of our youth at the moment, demonstrated KINDNESS, INTEGRITY, FRIENDSHIP, SELFLESSNESS,
LEADERSHIP, ACCEPTANCE, AND JOY, be something?
Hey, I don't know. I sort of live in my own world more and more as the years pass. Like the song says...
"I got plenty of nothing and nothing's plenty for me...got my Lord, got my song, got Heaven the whole day long..."
Let's talk about GLEE...whaddaya say, huh?? Come on over to the Sing Your Life Singers Network and put in YOUR 2 cents.
Or you can just respond to one of the places where this newsletter will appear:
Here are the addresses:
And before I forget...WE'RE on "MY SPACE" NOW TOO!
Here's that URL: www.myspace.com/556673795 (or just search for "Chrys Page" in the music devision)
See you over there???
Happy Holidays Everyone...
Sin[g]cerely,
Chrys
