If You Can't Sing It To Me....

If you are fortunate enough in your life to hit a brick wall, count yourself blessed. Musically, for me, that came when I was sent by a noted guitarist/professor to another teacher to rebuild me as a musician. I had completed my undergraduate degree in music, having even played a senior recital. To this point my musical education had been pieced together with what I could find along the way and was held together by the bailing wire of pride and bravado.

The process began with this new teacher, informing me tht I was going to start over. He set me to the task of rhythmic training, tapping out rhythms and singing beats and rhythms. He then introduced me to Paul Hindemuth's “Elementary Training for Musicians. My teacher then told me, “If you can't sing it to me, You can't play it for me.” This was the brick wall that I ran into.

Being able to sing what I play has shown me that every musical instrument is an imitation of our first instrument, the voice. As I learned to sing what I play I was able to discover how a piece is played musically. Singing will show you where the music should breathe, as if you are singing it. This goes a long way to making your performances more musical.

It is also a good way to improve your singing. When practicing scales and arpeggios sing them while you play them on your instrument. This will help you to interiorize the music and the music will come from inside you. You won't be waiting on your fingers to tell you what you are playing. It will increase your focus on the music and will eventually shorten the distance from your heart and mind to your fingers.

-Adrian Yanez