3D-Printing vs. Sculpting

3D-PRINTING VS. SCULPTING

So many times I'm directing choirs full of students who "like to sing" but just don't sing out. There's tons of reasons why, including:

-shyness
-fear of "sounding bad"
-fear of voice cracking
-doesn't want to be perceived as a "show-off"
-lack of awareness

Helping singers overcome fear is a whole different animal and another post entirely. For right now, lets just take a look at ysheer output. Many beginning singers don't understand all the muscular coordination required to sing properly, but they can take a big step forward by just singing louder/bigger. By getting involved. By MAKING SOUND. I'm a big believer that increased activity is good, because then that activity can be steered/refined.

I began to condsider how one "builds" a voice. I think a lot of my singers think "I'll sing out when I know that part" or "My voice is what it is." Even if they plan to build their voice stronger over time, they approach it like a 3D-printer: adding one tiny layer at a time, over a long time. They start small and only make incremental changes, slowly.

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I think of singing more like sculpting: let's start with a BIG hunk of stone, then knock away chunks until we have a closer shape to the desired sculpture. Over time, we'll use finer and finer tools to get into details until we are sanding and then polishing the stone into a work of art. It just makes sense to me. If we want to improve sound, we must start by making sound! It would be impossible to make a life-sized statue of, let's say a dog, with only a golf-ball-sized stone.

YES - a beginning singer's "stone" will be smaller than a trained singer's "stone." The stone gets bigger as technique is established and muscles strengthen. But first and foremost is the idea, the visualization, that something substantial must be created before it can be shaped. It is said that sculptors can see the beautiful art within the stone, that they just have to set it free. I think the same is true of the human voice - get it out so we can get a good look at it - then let's get to sculpting to set that beautiful tone free!