Reflect, don’t Project

‘My only task is to know myself and to reflect this knowing through the sound of my voice.’

Students ask me all the time, ‘how do I project my voice?’ A very good question indeed. What does it mean to project the voice and what kinds of issues does this approach cause if not clearly understood?

And, if we are not on board with this concept of projection then what is the concept that replaces it?

This is a big topic for singers and at first we will certainly look at it from the singers point of view, but then we might need to step back, I mean way back to look it this word projection from a distance.

I going to skip to the end first and then work my way back in order to help clear things up.

Quite simply, projection can cause the singer to bypass the Self thinking that the goal is to reach the audience and not the Self.

Instead of thinking that I need to project myself out to the audience I need to cultivate the energetic awareness of the principle of reflection before one is really able to project the voice in a balanced way that includes the singer (Self) and the audience.

Projection - (this is so good) Projection (physics), the action/process of light, heat, or sound reflecting from a surface to another in a different direction.

Reflection - Reflection, mirror-like reflection of waves from a surface.

They both say the word ‘surface’, this is so interesting because what exactly is this surface they are speaking of? In terms of singing it is the surface of the Self - the body, the vibrational field, the sounding board of the energetic being that is made aware of by singing.

So let’s deal with the question above - what kinds of issues or problems does projection cause if not understood properly?

Over the many years of teaching I run into this all the time and all of it is understandable but built from a foundation that has nothing to do with singing and everything to do with psychological wounds that are human in nature.

It causes an abandonment of the singer and a great big giant need to please the audience. This causes a pushing and overworking in the voice which creates a domino effect of stress on the singers nervous system. Overtime this creates an overall fear of singing and being not good enough that can go on for years unless it gets intervened.

Most singers who have grown up singing and have taken singing lessons and have been in competition are told time and time again to project themselves into the audience and to connect with their audience.

Sounds pretty normal doesn’t it? To connect with their audience? Now this does work for some, only it can cause really big problems for some, and I will say a LOT of singers.

They are coached out of their natural instincts - their sweet shy naturalness which gets pushed too early and they begin to swallow the pill that they need to push themselves out into the audience for the audience to approve and judge them.

Don’t get me started on how I feel about singing competitions!!

It is a complete paradigm shift when these singers come into my studio and I ask them how do they feel when they sing? Where do you feel your voice coming from?

This also applies to singers that start later in life too. They think they need to bypass themselves to get themselves out in order to get it…somewhere other than themselves.

Ask a cello, ‘how do you make sound to get it out to the audience?’ The cello says, ‘I just play myself.’

Our body is our instrument, our tool and our emotional barometer for measuring how much or how loud should I sing. For example if I’m singing too loud then I can’t feel myself or my feelings, I block them by pushing the nervous system out of the equation.

The nervous system is our guide in regulating how loudly we sing.

The reverse is true also if I don’t sing loud enough then the lightbulb of my voice can’t light up my energetic awareness of my body which is my instrument and measurement device. So, we need a balance of the amount of voice in order to connect to the Self, the instrument and in order to achieve this reflection I’m speaking of.

Reflection - the voice is a reflection from the connection, it offers a feedback loop for us to know that we are connected to the voice, not pushing something out of us that we have to get somewhere else.

Try this exercise - put your hands up near your face and hover around your eyes, ears and mouth. Now when you get really good at learning reflection you will easily feel the energy of your field, but at first you might need the sound of your voice to activate this awareness of You.

Can you feel your voice in your face, chest and head? Try it again and move your hands away and then come back to the hands and shuttle back and forth noticing if feel more reflection coming back to you creating a felt sense of yourself as well as your voice.

This is key because when we don’t have awareness of ourselves when we sing we are focussed only the sound sound of the voice and not the feelings of the what the voice is creating in us.

When we connect to ourselves and this beautiful reflection that is being created from our voice then noone out there exists. My only task is to know myself and to reflect this knowing through the sound of my voice. Then and only then will the audience feel this connection for themselves. It’s quite magical to know that for true connection to happen it’s through me connecting to me first.

Me first. Then you. And then it happens simultaneously. Connection. The projection has been reflected through everyone like a mirror reflecting and measuring exactly what is seen, only it’s through what is being heard and felt inside of the singer.

So I think you get that we need the singers energy, their connection to themselves first. And this needs a cultivation to happen for that singer to be a reflective singer. This is magical to say the least.