Last year, I blogged about our singing competition:

What I learned this weekend is that the competitive spirit and the desire to win is NOT what propelled me ahead. Instead, it is freedom from all that - releasing myself from the competition. How to do the release? Well, in this situation, we thought we had nothing to lose - if we did well, great, if we didn't, too bad - but either way, the same results: the quartet was retiring. This gave me a sort of permission from myself, that whatever I put out there would be okay. I wanted it to go well, but I didn't put myself under any pressure to make it happen. The big question is how to keep this feeling with the new group? I tried to memorize the feeling on stage, that confident, strong, performer's attitude.. and I have a feeling that I can re-create it.

After a year of rehearsals, L'Attitude will hit the stage. We were talking the other day, agreeing that "whatever happens, will happen" and other philosophical statements, and then I said, "really, I want to win!". Well, I do want to win, but mostly, I want that feeling of release like I had last year. And I think I can achieve it - because when all is said and done, we have prepared well, we have a great sound, we know how to put on a good performance, and we don't have any control over what the competition will do. I can't control any of it, so I might as well let go.

Pressure is the enemy - too much pressure in the voice, too much peer pressure, too much pressure from my own ego, all of this causes the tension that is not what music is made of. Music floats, it is a release of emotion and energy into the world. It floats like a kite string, bridging the gap between the listeners and the performers.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 14, 2005 at 11:50 AM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.