It is a very common question, and the mindset behind the question fascinates me.

What is it that makes someone ask this question?

I believe the reason people ask the question is because a large percentage of the population has been brought up with the mindset of “either you can or you can’t”. Many children come to believe early on in life – even if it’s in a subtle, subconscious way – that they are good at certain things and and bad at others.

And if a child shows high-level skill in an area early one, the child is told he has been given a gift of “natural talent”.

This is exactly the mindset that keeps people where they are, and hinders them from discovering what they are capable of. In fact, we seldom give ourselves permission to discover what we are truly capable of for this very reason.

However, many successful career’s come out of what the person was once considered “bad” at. Those who refuse to settle for “can vs. can’t” go on to do what is perceived as extremely challenging – even impossible – and change the world. I would go so far as to say that there is likely not a single highly successful person who has not at some point been told that the/she was not good enough. This is exactly what drove them to become so successful.

So…

1. The word “anyone” is the first thing that makes the question ludicrous. Who is anyone? What does it matter to you if “anyone” can do something? All that matters is if YOU can do something?
2. What does “learn” mean? At what point have we learned to speak? At what point have we learned to play guitar? At what point have we learned to write? There are always levels of abilities in anything you do.

The question that matters is: “Can I Improve?” And the answer to that has to always be “yes”. How could it not be?

HOW to improve is a different matter. That is where strategies and methods come in. I have previously outlined why it is that people develop very little through decades of singing scales, but can develop dramatically in week shifting the strategies.

If you haven’t seen the free video where I outline this, watch the free video on how to dramatically improve your voice here.

So then the real question, frankly the only relevant question to ask yourself, is: “Do I want to improve?”

Then it is only a matter of engaging in methods to do so.

Do you have sinus problems, allergies, mucus, phlegm? Does that affect your voice?

Well of course it does. Sinus infections are a real dilemma for every voice user. And, naturally, it affects your energy and your body as a whole.

You’re not alone. It is estimated that sinus infections affect over 39 million Americans every year.

With every client that come to me to get help with their voice problem, there are underlying issues that affect the voice. My job as a coach is not to just give voice exercises, but to help the person become exposed to solutions for healing the underlying issue.

We may, for example, think a sinusitis is a sinus problem, when it is an inflammation problem. If we go deeper we may realize it is a fungi problem (very common), but when we go deeper we may realize that the reason the body is so bad at combating the fungi/allergen/inflammation is because of weak adrenal glands and because of what is going on in our gut.

Yes, 80 percent of your immune system is located in your gut, and since your immune system is your primary defense system against all disease.

So why not give your gut a chance?

Often we don’t see the relationship between our body’s inability to combat toxins, bacteria, viruses, allergens, etc., with what we eat and don’t eat.

And it’s not surprising. It’s hard to be educated when were are assaulted by big pharma and the junk food industries’ onslaught of advertising. Often we are not trained to know what to do with food, how to cook, so of course it becomes easier to go for the prepackaged, processed junk.

But what if it doesn’t have to be hard. What if improving could be far easier than we think? I love to learn, and I do so because I know improving can often be far easier than most think.

And that’s why I’m so passionate about helping people become aware of real solutions. There is powerful knowledge and skills we can acquire. There are many real experts out there who can help tremendously don’t have the massive advertising budgets to make their voice heard.

Yuri Elkaim is one of them. You may have seen the interview I did with him. If not, you can watch it again below. (Get his free gifts.)

Consider what a healthier gut could do to your levels of energy, your health, your voice and you life…

A singer/teacher submitted a question regarding why he gets hoarse and also told the following:

I tell my students to imagine breathing slowly and delicately into a balloon, like breathing out of a pin hole… So you’re breathing out slowly, always keeping your stomach in…

So, let’s address the big problem with this…

In order to fill up a balloon, you need to blow air into that ballon – and you need to blow hard. Yes, you need significant levels of air pressure, often to the extent that a child cannot do it.

Blowing up a ballon slowly and delicately doesn’t make it any easier. In fact, that would be even more difficult and take even more pressure and effort.

The pressure needed to blow up a ballon is far far greater than you ever need for singing. Trying to exert that kind of pressure (active blowing) while your vocal cords are vibrating would be a surefire way of damaging your voice. If you wonder why you get hoarse, this is exactly why.

Now, let’s address the important “imagine” stuff…

Imagination/visualization techniques are used by athletes for the purpose of creating similar neuromuscular responses as if you were doing the activity for real.

Visualization techniques are exceptionally powerful. Unfortunately, laymen use abstract visualizations without the knowledge of the real physiology and therefore create havoc.

A classic example would be the suggestion “relax your shoulders as if you held a heavy bucket in each hand”. This nonsense is written in a classic book on singing and I have personally heard it quoted by many teachers. From an external point of view it would seem that this visualization would make the shoulders relax downwards.

However, the person who understands physiology knows that if you actually held a heavy bucket in each hand, your shoulders would do anything but relax. Nor should they.

Your shoulder muscles should automatically engage to protect your shoulder joint. The heavier the bucket is, the greater muscle contraction is needed to make sure the arms DO NOT succumb to the downwards force. (Those who have done the Sing With Freedom program understand force vs. counterforce.)

The person skilled in visualization would indeed be able to create the same physiological response and would create the exact opposite from the intended “relaxation”.

A student of mine had once been given the instruction to “feel like a pelican swallowing a salmon while you sing”. Again, those who know physiology know that if an object tries to enter your throat, your gag reflex would, and should, immediately engage. The person who is skilled at visualization would engage the same gag reflex.

Often the defense tends to be: “Ah, but you know what I mean. I just mean to have an open throat”.

Really? Well what does “open throat” mean? That is just as vague as any other of the standard statements that are thrown around.

Now, I don’t mean to bash singing teachers. Quite the contrary. I want to encourage and inspire all the wonderful teachers out there to raise their game and not fall into the trap of just repeating old mantras they’ve heard in the past.

Singing teachers are some of the worst offenders of these kinds of disastrous “visualizations” or “imagine as if….”. The reason is because singing training is so captured by tradition. While sports training and sports coaches evolve all the time, singing teachers many times say they same things and play the same scales.

Singing teachers are seldom trained in physiology, anatomy, advanced learning strategies, or the mental aspects of learning and performance unless they have a deep and intense athletic background. Many do not know what they do when they sing, how they do it, and how to help the person with a completely different “talent” to discover their unique voice.

The old statement “feel as if you’re yawning” is no better. Anyone with has a moderate level of kinesthetic awareness (which most gain after lesson 1 of the Sing With Freedom program ) recognizes the muscle tension in the midst of a yawn. The skilled visualizer knows that “feel as if” is complete nonsense in this case. Either you yawn or you don’t.

With an increased level of awareness and muscle isolation skill, you recognize the difference between a larynx that is low through relaxation (release of compensatory muscles), and a larynx that is low because it is being held low through tension (engages even more compensatory muscles).

Now, this kind of well-meaning, but counterproductive advice is not new. This is the very reason why so many have come to believe in “breath-control”, when what they have been taught is, in fact, breath tension and breath pressure. This is the very reason why so many sing with tension and restrictions, when they attempt to do it “correctly”.

This is also why so many believe they are lacking talent when after years of training they still don’t sing anywhere close to where they could and would like to. This is also why numerous contemporary singers shy away from “singing lessons”, and rightly so, because they realize it will change them rather than improve them.

So…

…to the person who wrote the ballon example” I sincerely hope you get going with the Sing With Freedom program quickly so that you no longer give your students this kind of advice, and you become a far more effective and successful teacher. And also, so we can fix your own hoarseness.

To everyone else: What kind of confusing “imagination” or visualization” suggestions have you been exposed to?

Over the years I have coached many singer/songwriters, and it’s always interesting to see how the capacity of the voice influences a person’s songwriting skills.

Let’s face it, if you write a song for yourself, you really don’t write it to the maximum capacity of what the song could be. You write it so that it fits your voice so that you can confidently sing it.

It goes without saying that with a voice that is limited, the song also becomes limited. A common trap for the up-and-coming singer/songwriter is that the songs start sounding the same. They are written and performed within the same comfort zone – the same range, similar dynamics, and similar expression.

But when you develop your range, something very interesting happens to the writing. The writing becomes bolder and more interesting. You have a greater palette of choices. Your song becomes more interesting because you, the singer, can do so much more with it.

And it’s nice when you, the singer, can embellish the melody/song even beyond what you, the writer, had intended.

And it’s not just improved range that improves a song. We’d like a song to have dynamics. A common trap for the average singer is to sing the entire song at a similar volume and similar emotional intensity. That singer may feel that there are a lot of dynamics in the song, but since his/her voice doesn’t have a big dynamic range, those differences are minuscule to the audience.

Again, when you develop greater strength, it’s remarkable how much more interesting your song and your expression becomes. Now the soft section isn’t soft because you have no strength, and you therefore just sing soft our of habit. It is now soft because of your emotional expression. And now the power notes don’t become loud just because you can’t sing them without screaming, but because of emotional artistic expression

Creativity opens up for the songwriter, when you have more voice to express with.

Do you sing your own songs? Please share what your writing experience has been when your voice has improved?

Do you want to hear “before” and “after” recordings of people who have done the Sing With Freedom/The Singing Zone program?

Once in a while I get a request to provide “before” and “after” audios. Interestingly enough, there is often an underlying aggressiveness behind these “requests”.

“Show me a “before and after” to prove your method works”, one person demanded. Another one exclaimed: “The proof is in the pudding. Show me before and afters if you want to convince me.”

Now, I completely understand the desire for this. And that is exactly why I thought it would be appropriate that I outline some reasons as to why I won’t try and dupe you with “before and afters”. They are, in fact, very misleading and unethical marketing practices.

Let’s put our thinking cap on and ponder some questions:

1. Do you realize how easy it is for a good singer to sound bad on purpose?

   That’s right. “Before” and “after” recordings that show impressive improvements could easily have been done within 5 minutes of each other.

2. How would an honest “before and after” be accomplished?

   Should people send us recordings before they begin the training? Should we travel and record them before they have become customers?

3. Why would someone ever want to send me a “before” recording?

   What’s the incentive? Is there a reward? If so, wouldn’t that encourage them to send a “bad” recording? How would we know how it was done?

You might want to know that people have actually contacted us and offered to give a “before and after”. Guess why? It turns out they haven’t bought they program. They think by offering us a “before and after” we will give them the training for free. How ludicrous.

Now, there are numerous more reasons why a “before and after” is not only unethical, but extremely misleading. Here are just some…

Even if a “before and after” was recorded in earnest, how would that help you? Before what? After what? Is it after 40 minutes or three years? Of practicing what? The truth is that you have no idea of what the person has actually done to achieve results.

What if you don’t like the style of the singer? Do the many singers on The Singing Zone success stories page sound the same? Of course not. If for some reason you come to believe that you will sound like another singer, you have been grossly mislead.

Is every improvement always heard in a recording? Of course not. Going from tension, strain and anxiety to confidence, joy and freedom is life-transforming. It has an enormous impact on your career and life. But it’s not necessarily heard in a bad recording.

The hundreds, probably thousands, of success stories that you see on this site, as well as at www.PerBristow.com or on The Singing Zone facebook page, speak about the individual’s experience. Yes, it is the experience that counts. And however great you become as a singer, there will always be someone who doesn’t like the way you sing.

Does a professional with a voice problem want his struggles recorded and spread to the world? Of course not. Nor would I ever ask for it just to dupe someone into buying my program.

Does a beginner singer want his untrained voice to be broadcast to the world? Of course not. What if I asked: “Hey can you send me an audio as a “before”, and, by the way, make sure it sounds really bad.”?

We could go on and on. The bottom line is that singers publish their material when they feel they are ready, and they do it on their own websites.

I should add that it is certainly extraordinarily powerful to be able to witness progress, to be able to sit in on lessons, and learn exactly what the person is doing, and why he/she accomplishes such tremendous results. In fact, I do provide this sometimes. But that is a very exclusive setting and only for the serious students.

So back to the idea of providing “proof”. If you were ever misled into to believing that a “before and after” provides any “proof”, hopefully you are rethinking. In fact, I hope you think twice if you ever see/hear that somewhere else. The FTC has strict guidelines against such false and misleading advertising for a reason.

In the weight loss and muscle building industry they can get away with it still. It is of course far easier to simply take a photo of what you look like than creating an accurate recording of what you can really do with your voice.

Most importantly, you realize that no serious education engages in providing “proof”. My life and business has never been about providing “proof”. My job and my passion is to help those who want my help, and I do so the very best I can.

What do you think? Feel free to leave a comment below.