Trust Yourself

In my opinion singers need to trust themselves as far as their ability and technique, and try not to judge themselves. I think it is a mind body connection, and a long process, which sort of keeps on going. I just found this quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson, which I find really relavant to singing psychologically. He says "Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string." Once a singer reaches a certain level technically, executing that technique is psychological. As a singer the belief that I can do it has to come from the heart, and the mind follows. If my mind tells me I can't do something, and my heart is out of the equation, my larynx can start raising and causing me problems. If that starts happening, I need to calm my throat down, and keep it nice and quiet. If I sing something that is right for me, I need to have the belief that I can do it. The belief comes from the heart. Other people, can say that they know I can do it, but when I believe it from my heart, then I get the confidence mentally. At first the belief has to come when I'm practicing or having people with ears I trust listen to me. I think I can hear what I sound like sometimes, but that's a laugh. I can't hear what I sound like when I speak either. Trusting my voice in public is an even more difficult task than practice or singing for my voice teacher. The idea of trusting from the heart is even more important when I am performing in public. If I can come to trust my technique, then my mind follows and reminds me that I can trust it. The way I tie in Emerson's quote to singing is that if I believe in my heart that I can trust my technique, then my mind and body convey that confidence to the audience. The iron string is that feeling of confidence people get from showing trust versus showing fear. Trust comes from my heart, then to my mind. Trust is deep down and with in. Performing from a place of trust is an awesome phenomenon. It is not easy to get there. I know that I sometimes sing from my mind, versus my heart. There needs to be a combination of both. There are places where we must think technically in a piece of music. But, that is different than evaluating every note, because evaluating every note is judging, and prevents my heart from being in the music. When my heart is in the moment of a song or aria, the mind follows, and the audience gets pulled in by that iron string.