| To be at "the top of your game" as a professional | | | | professionals focus on the results of their practice |
| singer or musician takes more time than most people | | | | rather than thinking how awful it was to use up all |
| would ever guess. You do hit some plateaus along | | | | that time. Hell, they could have been watching TV |
| the way. They can feel like stagnation, like you are | | | | instead, right? |
| stuck. Like everything else, how you look at things is | | | | The pleasure derived from being a professional singer |
| vital. When you hit a plateau, it is very likely than you | | | | is almost infinitely more rewarding than watching |
| will never get worse than you are on that day. You | | | | even the best that television has to offer, but no |
| have reached a level that can be maintained without | | | | one knows this better than a professional singer. The |
| nearly as much effort as the effort it took to get to | | | | same goes for writing and arranging music; it is hard |
| that level. | | | | to put into words the amount of fulfillment and |
| Spending a total of 3 hours a day is common, yet | | | | gratification one gets from making music. Is the price |
| you have to build up to that, if you are not at that | | | | paid worth the effort made? Ask anyone who has |
| level of practicing. Between 3 and 6 hours a day is | | | | "made it". |
| not uncommon among people who are professional | | | | Do you want the reward without paying the dues, so |
| or are heading in that direction. If that sounds | | | | to speak? If so, don't expect anymore back than |
| outrageous, you can learn to bake a cake in an hour | | | | what you have given. That's the reality of it. |
| or so and make an edible cake. However, learning to | | | | But wait, there's more. Great performers have also |
| bake a cake is not like learning to be a great singer | | | | spent time in dance class, acting class, and/or |
| or musician, because "knowing" and "doing" are not | | | | working with a mentor or mentors, who can help |
| the same thing. You can know how to do something | | | | with these things. To see what happens with those |
| but you have to work on it for many many hours | | | | people who did not pay their dues, go out and see |
| over a period of months and years to achieve | | | | your local band who looks like one or all of them is a |
| greatness in the arts. It is true that in the culinary | | | | mannequin, or worse yet, spastic moving things |
| arts that hours are involved and many great chefs | | | | trying to create charisma or stage presence but in |
| have spent more time in the kitchen than you would | | | | actuality are hiding from the audience, disconnected, |
| in several lifetimes. Practice (or the "doing" of it) is | | | | as if the crowd does not deserve any better. If you |
| usually done alone and the audience doesn't ever see | | | | insult your audience, don't expect anything better |
| it, nor would they find it as interesting as the | | | | than what you are giving them. |
| performance. | | | | If this sounds harsh, there is nothing more harsh than |
| I have heard that some of the great singers spent | | | | the sting of failure. Plenty of "has-beens" or |
| 20 hours in the studio on just one song. Multiply that | | | | "never-weres" can attest to this as they blame |
| by 12 or 14 for a CD. How much time was spent in | | | | everything and everyone, other than the fact of |
| individual practice outside of the studio? How much | | | | never having put in the time to learn and practice like |
| was spent prior to ever arriving at that stage? Most | | | | the real professionals do. |