The best therapy I’ve ever had, and I’ve had a lot of therapy, happened at the two Natural Singer workshops I attended, facilitated by Claude Stein, www.naturalsinger.com.
The workshops are for anyone who wants to learn how to sing better, from the person who thinks they “can’t carry a tune in a bucket,” to professional singers. Claude has taught at Juilliard, plays a mean piano, and is a little bit psychic. He creates miracles for everyone who attends.
I mean that. It is an honor to be a part of this most personal reclaiming of our most personal connection with the world: our voice.
In most of my presentations all over the world, I lead groups in a song I wrote called “Beauty Like a Rock”. (You can check this out on my You Tube channel http://www.youtube.com/user/vickihannahlein.)
When I’m teaching this song, I asked people how many of them are singers. A few hands go up sometimes even up to a third of the group. Sometimes no hands go up.
Then I ask the group, “If I asked a group of five-year-olds how many of them were singers, how many of them would raise their hands?” The response is always, “All of them!”
“Where did our singing go?” I ask them. “When did you lose a sense of yourself as a singer?”
I always hear stories that break my heart and make me cry. One woman said that her grandfather told her she couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket when she was four years old, and she had never sung again. She cried when she talked about this forty years later.
And just for the record, who made her grandfather God? Who made anybody God who says to anyone, “You can’t carry a tune in a bucket.” I don’t think her grandfather intended to take her singing away from her for the rest of her life and break heart, but he did. It was a power-play. Someone had shamed him this way or some other way, and he was getting back his due. Let’s forgive him and ourselves immediately, for we have all done this to ourselves and others.
Claude Stein and his magic
Everyone can sing. Everyone can sing, including you, including everyone you’ve ever seen on American Idol. With the right support, anyone can learn to match tones, which is part of what singing is about.
At the second Natural Singer workshop I attended at Breitenbush Hot Springs, a short drive from Portland, Oregon, a man for my community began the four-day workshop trying to sing Row, Row, Row Your Boat. The only way you could recognize the song was from the words because I don’t think he got one note right. He didn’t even go up where this song went up and down where this song went down.
But he was willing to get up and sing in front of over 30 people because his desire to sing was so great he was willing to look like a fool if he had to in the process of reclaiming his voice.
Claude asked him and all of us to do some wild and crazy things. We would fling our arms while singing. He had me sink into my hips and shake my booty while helping me learn how to sing like Bonnie Raitt. He even dragged a man across the floor to help him let go of his fears and get into his body.
By the end of the four-day workshop, our tone deaf friend was singing Row, Row, Row Your boat quite well. He did everything Claude asked him to do and he didn’t give up, so he learned how to sing.
But that’s not the end of the story.
This brave man came back to his hometown and joined two choirs. He sang and sang and sang. Six months after the workshop, he tried out for a musical and was cast in the chorus of Jesus Christ Superstar.
Not bad for someone who couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket.
Entertaining New Ideas
All you have to do to free yourself from limiting ideas you have cherished your whole life, is be willing to entertain a new idea. Be willing to say to yourself, “Maybe I am good at math,” or “Maybe I love technology and I’m really good at it.”
If you’re reading this and wishing you had a chance to work with Claude, I have good news for you. He is doing a workshop at Breitenbush at the end of May. Check out his website for more details. I guarantee this will be a life changing event. At least as life-changing as you let it be. www.naturalsinger.com
My Singing Epiphany
I walked into the first workshop I took with Claude thinking I had a tiny, weak voice unworthy of ever singing solo. I walked out being able to belt a song across the gymnasium with heart and soul and confidence. I have never sounded the same since.
Whatever is holding you back doesn’t need to hold you back. If you are willing to entertain the idea that you could be free, and you’re willing to let yourself look like a fool if you have to in the process of gaining your freedom, then the sky isn’t the limit, it’s just the first floor.
Blessings,
Vicki