A Vital Music Lesson

Listening to music and singing is fun but high notes are really hard to negotiate. While singing, as the notes start moving up on the scale, the tension in the throat builds up and you need more force to get the higher notes right. This results in an increasing strain on the voice, and it gets gradually more and more difficult to move further on the scale. You cannot continue beyond a certain point; either the voice starts cracking, or you get out of tune, or start coughing. Have you experienced similar issues while singing?

Listen to a song by a professional singer and you will notice that they do much better with high notes. When I tried to study how these singers manage to do it, I came across following observations and information:

• They sing easily and let the voice flow smoothly as they move up the scale during singing.
• They seem to be relaxed throughout the song. We do not feel that they are using stress to render high notes. In fact they look carefully for any sign of stress and make efforts to get rid of it. They know that stress is not a performance booster but a performance killer.
• The high pitch notes can not be produced in the same way as low pitch ones, hence they sing the high notes in a different manner. During high notes, they use a thinner voice and they feel the resonance of the sounds in their head. This is known as “Head Voice”. 

I tried these ideas with my singing and I was amazed with the results. I was able to sing high notes with lesser effort. Once the stress was reduced, the voice strain went down and I did not experience  voice cracking down or going out of tune. Focus on using the Head Voice and learning to transition between Throat Voice and Head Voice smoothly made it possible to render the highs. It helped me restore the fun in singing.

No doubt this is a vital lesson in music useful for every singer; but same ideas can be applied to challenging situations in life as well. Difficult times or situations in daily life are very much like high notes in music that take the fun away from the life. We find it tough to go through these times and want to avoid them at all costs. Our mind and body is overwhelmed by excessive stress caused by these situations and it starts to take its toll on us. Beyond a point, we find it hard to continue and start breaking down.

Once we know the similarity between the two, let us see how we can apply the lessons we learned in music to handle difficult times in life:
  

• Approach the difficult times in an easy manner with a mindset that this will eventually pass. Continue the smooth flow of your actions and effort when faced with adversity.
• Convince yourselves that stress does not help deal with problems but comes in your way. Observe your stress levels and learn ways to reduce them. Use yoga, relaxation exercises, or meditation for example. Approach the challenging situation with a positive mindset and keep yourself relaxed in the midst of the toughest times. 
• Know that tough times need a different handling compared to normal situations. Find out what you need to do differently to handle it better. You may need to put in more work, or may need careful planning and management during such times. Every situation may need a different strategy, so ask yourself the question – What do I have to do differently to handle this challenge?

Looks like the music lessons can really work here. Why not try it when faced with a challenge next time? Use the easy approach and you may find that tough periods no longer pose an insurmountable challenge for you.