Use Focal Points to Enhance Vocal Strengths

December 22, 2011 at 9:16AM

One of the strengths of Brett Mannings commitment to teaching is his respect for the uniqueness of each individual voice. The points of focus in his teaching truly honor the unique gift of each voice. His methodology, exercises, coordinations, and coaching technique are used to enhance and bring out the best in each individual voice.

Heighten + Strengthen
His goal is to heighten and strengthen aspects in the voice such as range, tone, pitch, and muscle memory so that whether youre pursuing a career as a singer, motivational speaker, broadcast journalist, musical theatre performer, you have the tools at hand to help you achieve peak performance - whatever the focus of your vocal-driven career.

Vocal Power
Brett also understands the power that the human voice has to inspire, encourage, entertain, enlighten, and educate. The voice can move an audience to tears, stir someone to take action, or persuade a listener to speak up, reach out, and bring people together.

Voice = Product + Service

Whatever the purpose and pursuit in your voice-driven career, it is vital that you think in terms of its potential impact as a product and service. Its important for you to identify the unique qualities and strengths of your voice that serve as its key selling points.

Showcase Strengths
This will help you with selecting material that uses your unique strengths and abilities for an exciting, dynamic showcase. You dont want the material you choose to be confining or mediocre. You dont want to sell yourself short. You want to stretch and grow as a singer, speaker, or performer while providing a provocative, exciting experience for your audience.

Objectives to Serve
Make sure you also include objectives you have for wanting to serve others with your voice. In other words, what would you like your audience members to feel, think about, or even want to learn more about? In what ways would you like your audience to be changed by hearing your performance?

Make A Difference
These objectives in how your voice can serve others will help you with choosing material for your song sets as well as selecting stories to share that resonate with your personal passions and your desire to make a difference. It can also help you with any affiliations you may wish to make in promoting your career such as special interest groups, social service organizations, human rights issues, and so on.

Service Check
If you find yourself lapsing into periods where youre down, or feel like youve stagnated or arent having much of an impact, stop and take a closer look at your vocal strengths and your objectives in using your voice to serve others. Set aside some time to think about any positives that have occurred as a direct result of your singing. Stop and think about people who have thanked you after a performance because of something that was stirred in them.

Key Influences
As you assess your potential performance impact, take time to think of those who have had a hand in honing your craft and in helping to shape and fine tune your singing voice. What specific qualities have they had a hand in developing or encouraging? What impact have they had on feeding your passions and objectives in the pursuit your vocal career?

Give Thanks
Give thanks for the opportunities to serve others that will come as a result of your desire to be your best and do your best. Consider the impact that your being served has had on how you strive to serve others. Write down their names of those who have inspired you to serve, and thank them any way you can. This can help you reconnect, regroup, and refocus.

Learn To Serve Your Best

Stay committed to bringing your best while serving others. You can do this by investing in Bretts programs, and by booking regular sessions with his certified master associates. How has Bretts teaching and the support of his coaches helped you to honor your strengths by nurturing and engaging them? Dont hide or shortchange your gift. Keep learning, improve your craft, review the basics, and dont be afraid to step out and try something new.

Fans + Followers
Get to know some of the people that youve come to see as your greatest fans and critics and learn from them. Find out what theyd like to see and hear. This approach will keep your mind supple, your heart open, your soul caring and generous and it will keep you growing forward. It will keep you informed about how well youre serving others. Its a great way to b ecome more aware of how your voice is perceived in terms of what works, and what needs attention.

Use the Forums

Use the singingsuccess.tv forums to share information and experiences that will help you remain open, strong, and also malleable when you need to change or adapt to a situation. Ask for suggestions on how to build on your strengths. Solicit new material for your song sets, ideas for new songs, or themes and topics for special events or speaking engagements.

Service Success
Honor the individual strengths of your unique voice by using them to enhance the material you present and perform. Understand your passions and objectives in communicating with and serving your audience. These are your focal points for optimizing your vocal strengths. This positive attitude of using your unique gifts to serve others will give you peace and purpose through the rough patches and smooth stretches. It will help you press on past any unexpected stalls and crawls that will creep up occasionally on your journey to true singing success.

Practice Tips to Perfect Your Potential for Singing Success

December 22, 2011 at 9:13AM

The pursuit of success requires you to cultivate a commitment to consistency. In other words, you want to always be prepared to give your best performance - while you also have a plan in place to keep getting better.

Life Happens
This makes sense and sounds simple enough, but simple isnt always easy. Life happens - the unexpected or unthinkable shows up as Murphys law takes you to court. Sometimes you have too much on your plate or theres additional stress, and you find it difficult to focus. So, you have to cut back on rehearsal time. Then, what rehearsal time you have suffers because youre exhausted or distracted. When the time comes for that special live performance gig youve been dreaming of, you stumble and fumble your way through, and its not quite up to speed.

Taxing Times
There will be times when things go wrong, or youre busier than youd anticipated. But, life works that way; and the entertainment industry will likely present challenges to tax your nerves, demand extra attention, run interference with relationships, and defy any perfect planning youve enforced for rigorous rehearsals.

Discipline Rules
Discipline is vital to your arrival, survival, and potential for thriving in the pursuit of your voicedriven career. Realistic pacing and realistic goal-setting are both key to helping you stay disciplined and keeping your commitment to consistency.

Dont Skip Steps

Think about how many times you lose focus when you start skipping or shortchanging something as basic as a daily warm up. How does that impact performance? How does it affect how you feel about singing or speaking? How many times have you been unfocused in your daily practice? Maybe there are several areas of your voice that you know you need to work on. But you simply skim quickly through without focusing on anything specific. Youre afraid to take it all piece by piece or you lack the patience. Its true that you worked out, but that general, non-specific approach may not have sufficiently addressed issues that need attention.

You want to set specific goals for a realistic, manageable routine so that you know what your focus will be on a daily basis.

One By One Point of Focus

If there are several key issues or areas of focus that need attention, dont skim or shortchange any of them. Give each issue the time and attention thats needed and deserved one at a time. Choose a different point of focus for each day, and set aside a day for a fully integrated and coordinated practice session or rehearsal that assimilates what have been your points of focus earlier the week or in the previous few days.

No Skipping No Skimming
You must avoid rushing, skipping, and skimming because other aspects of your training, commitment, and quality will likely be compromised. It begins to snowball or spread like an infection. Then, you get more frustrated, stressed, discouraged, and your gift is not honored nor is it properly served.

Keep Challenges In Check

The same approach applies to issues with the material you perform. If a song or two in your set is presenting some challenges, set aside time to work it out. If its case where a piece isnt working at all; find a suitable replacement. The quality of your performance should never be compromised because of a lack of focus or by deficiencies in time and attention.

Rehearse Rough-Spots
Devote specific rehearsal time to the more challenging pieces, arrangements, staging, or other aspects of your performance. Then, incorporate that work into a regular rehearsal or run-through.

Set Specific Manageable Goals

By setting specific manageable goals for your daily and weekly practice sessions, you will be better prepared for contingencies and challenges that may come when show time has arrived; or when youve booked time in the studio.

Forums + Coaching
Share challenges and effective scheduling tips with your peers through the singingsuccess.tv forums. Offer advice on what works and what to watch out for that can throw you off track. Talk about the impact of having more focus-driven practice sessions that are followed by a more integrated rehearsal or practice session where the pieces come together. Also, share any success stories where your performance has clearly been enhanced by this focused approach to practice with realistic manageable specific goals.

Discuss rehearsal and practice strategies when booking your next session with one of Brett Mannings certified master associates.

Positive Results
The more you focus on meeting manageable goals in a timely manner, the more positive results youll see in delivering on your commitment to discipline, quality work, and consistency. This approach will help you become more surefooted in directing the steps you must take to achieve the full measure of your true singing success.

Quick Tips For Better Communication

December 22, 2011 at 9:08AM

To have a successful and effective voice-driven career, you obviously must develop the full potential of your vocal skills and qualities. But you must also become an expert communicator and storyteller. The most effective singers, motivational speakers, singer-songwriters, broadcast journalists, teachers, musical theatre performers, radio personalities, stand up comics, talk show hosts must be able to clearly communicate key information and points of view to their respective audience. Observe - Listen This ability requires two key communication skills that are often overlooked or are underplayed in the pursuit of a voice driven career. But, if engaged, they can help make you standout as a strong, caring communicator. These two skills are keen observation and active listening. Shifting Focus These two skills require you to shift your focus from what you have to say or sing and how youre coming off, to affirming something about someone else. Think of how many people you meet that can have some influence on advancing your career and building your fan base. It can be a production assistant on a video shoot or an engineer in the studio. It might be a booking agent or venue owner. It could be one of Brett Mannings certified master associates - or even Brett himself. Gain Support By Giving Support With each person you meet in the studio, at an audition, in a workshop, at a live performance - there is a potential opportunity to shore up support for your career by using your active listening skills and powers of observation. Find Out Fun Facts To get in the habit of affirming others, learn something unique about each person by getting a bit of information about their interests, concerns, passions, or goals. This sounds like it requires a lot of work, but it really doesnt. All you need to do is listen, observe, and ask questions about their goals and what drives their passion. Ask Questions You can ask simple questions such as, how did you get started? You might ask, who are your favorite artists, or who are you mentors? Then, follow up with a question like, what is it that your mentor has influenced most, or how has that artist impacted what you do?

Where Are You From You can start out by introducing yourself, and then simply find out where somebody is from originally. Then, you just learn how they got to where they are in their career. This opens the door to further conversation while revealing valuable information. It gives you a point of reference, and likely prompts something you can relate to, with each person. Just One Piece Even if you dont get the chance to talk with someone, keep your ears open, a nd make mental notes on what they respond to and talk about. Make a point of remembering at least one piece of information about each key person you interact with or encounter. You might notice something they were wearing. You might remember that they had been sick or in an accident. Someone might have lost a loved one or even a pet. Maybe they just moved. What Sticks Out Stays With You Keep your ears open for things that resonate for some reason. Then, you can ask about the issue, or bring it up the next time you work with them. More often than not, it will surprise the individual that you knew this about them, and it affirms their importance. So, your assignment is to sharpen your observation and listening skills by learning names of, and at least one piece of unique information about, the key people you encounter in the pursuit of your career. Feel More Connected It will also make you feel more connected to others as you go through various stages in getting established - from meetings and workshops to auditions and interviews, as well as checking out rehearsal spaces and performance venues. Forum Fact-finding Use the forums at singingsuccess.tv to gain more information about others that helps to more clearly distinguish and identify the passions and interests of each individual. Find out how others go about gathering information and share stories on the positive impact that sharpening observation and listening skills has had. Talk about any missteps along the way as well. Your Next Session Make it a point to learn more about others you meet when showing up for your session with one of Bretts certified master associates. And, of course, remember key information that makes each of his vocal coaches stand out.

Heightened Awareness This will help to heighten your awareness of the impact you have on others. This will also help you shift your focus from self-consciousness to audience-awareness when you perform and will make you more comfortable at any post-performance meet and greet opportunities. Use your observation skills and active listen ability to build positive support in the pursuit of your singing success.

Bypass Roadblocks with Support that Drives Success

December 22, 2011 at 8:58AM

Its important to have resources to tap for positive energy. It can be anything from meditation and prayer to motivational reading material, from engaging in hands-on hobbies or listening to specific pieces of music that inspire or uplift.

Heart Full of Friends

But - you also need to have a handful, or better still, a heart full of friends to help you stay healthy and positively focused in the pursuit of your voice-driven career. Emotions play a huge role in shaping, coloring, and energizing pathways and passages in your journey to singing success.

Negatives Create Roadblocks

Negative emotions create roadblocks and detours, and they can lead to serious breakdowns and crashes that can delay, disrupt, or even deny success you deserve. Remember that the company you keep is always supportive of something. Also, the circumstances you face always lay the groundwork or a foundation - for something. In other words, you want to keep people around you that do not feed negative emotions and will not tolerate circumstances that lay the groundwork for something negative, destructive, or counterproductive.

Lack of Preparation
You will find that many roadblocks you face come from a lack of preparation. In other words, you skipped rehearsals, didnt warm up, or you still havent invested in Mastering Mix or Singing Success or even one of the programs in the Top 7 series.

Fearful - Doubtful
Sometimes roadblocks appear because of a fear of the unknown or doubts about whether or not something will work. So, you dont try to sing songs that you like because you arent su re you can perform. Then, you get pigeon-holed by others as limited. Maybe youre reluctant to book a session with one of Brett Mannings certified master associates because youre afraid you might not be good enough or youre skeptical. You need positive people to encourage you to break through fears and doubts!

Avoid Arrogance
Roadblocks can also come because you think you dont need to rehearse. You dont need to check out new material or invest in training because you already know it all. Suddenly, you re stagnating and have started cutting back on practice sessions. You compromise by saying, you dont need to practice, and that makes you come off as arrogant. You then wonder why its hard to find decent accompanists or songwriting partners. So, youre starting to have issues with stress and focus.

This is all the more reason to have at least two or three positive people that hold you accountable in the pursuit of your voice-driven career, from training to dreaming and taking realistic steps to make those dreams come true.

Committed to Success
Your heart full of supporters must be committed to your success. They should never sugar-coat their assessment of your dedication, quality of material, work ethic, passion or pursuit in other words, they are there with you to help protect and secure your potential for success. These people must be relied on to alert you to any sense that you are slacking or lacking traction in the pursuit of your singing success.

Encourage Growth
They will encourage fresh ideas, additional training, and the engagement of positive practices, hobbies, and activities that promote professional and personal growth and integrity.

Advance - Enhance
You want this support team to keep you abreast of chances for advancement and keep you informed of any trends and enhancements in the industry that you need to take advantage of.

Active Support
Support is not a passive term. It is proactive, assertive, and always on the lookout for your best interests. These people know your weaknesses and vices, and they will intervene if necessary. They are also there at times of illness, loss, crisis, and personal challenge.

They Have Your Back

These are the people you can turn to when something isnt working out as well as youve planned. You can freely discuss family issues and challenges with them. These are people that you know will have your back, even when you may have turned your back on them. These people know what positives you respond to that can uplift, focus, encourage, and inspire you. They can see to it that these things are engaged or are readily available.

Anchors
It is important to find this core heart full of people for loyal support because the very nature of the entertainment and communication industry is driven to a large extent by changing opinions, varying tastes, and shifting trends. These people will help anchor you when the seas turn stormy and the tide dramatically changes in a matter of moments.

Forum Focus

Use the forums at singingsuccess.tv to make at least one solid connection with someone to include in your heart full of support. Talk about the concerns and challenges you face that most frequently create roadblocks or periods of stagnation.

Coaching Corner
Build a strong bond with one of Bretts certified master associates. Ask them to hold you accountable and responsible as the keeper of the gift of your unique voice. Give them permission to be ruthless, when necessary, in keeping you focused and flourishing.

Product Placement
Invest in one of the products available from Brett Manning, Tom Jackson, and others through this site. Let your commitment to nurturing your gift be part of the accountability check for those who provide a heart full of support for you and your career. By having support from people that have your best interests at heart, you will face less roadblocks and experience more rewarding scenic views, as you blaze trails to true singing success.