Back in 2020 I wrote an email to our subscribers called “What Can I Do Now?”

I’ve reproduced it below, but I’m also adding a 5-year update. Read on to find out what happened…

What Can I Do Now? (2020 version)

What if we could do anything we wanted? What if buried in our psyche are the seeds of ability to create anything we put our attention on? What if our job was to organise our life to express what we felt was important to us? Wouldn’t that be fascinating?

I’ve just read the excellent Dying to Be Me by Anita Moorjani on her NDE (Near Death Experience). It’s sparked a few thoughts about how I have organised my life so far, and how I might organise it in the future.

If I said that much of my life so far has been drifting along getting involved in whatever presented itself, it makes me sound like a human tumbleweed.

There’s just a little more to it than that! Even if I haven’t known exactly what to do with my life, I have a fierce concentration. So if something comes into my “field of life vision” that sparks my interest, I shine that concentration on it and go for it.

How does that apply to Music?

Well here’s some background. I’m a council-house child (raised in the Projects for the Americans among you). At 6 I could correctly play melodies (notes AND rhythms) on the chime bars in the school corridor. The headmistress recognised a completely unnurtured musical talent and recommended I start piano lessons. My parents bought me an upright piano for £8 which was more than a semitone out of tune and I learned on it right up to entering the Music Conservatoire at 17.

Fierce concentration? I just played that piano for hours every day, concentrating so hard I would forget my mouth was open and dribble.

Still happens occasionally…

Why do what you do?

I was 37 before I touched a computer (difficult to believe in these days) but within a few years I’d written my first book on it (Successful Singing Auditions) and was creating video ebooks & DVDs.

Every ebook, every DVD, every download I’ve created since then came from a frustration, a need: to support Vocal Process and Gillyanne after we’d revoked our Estill licenses, and to get solid information and techniques out there for singers and teachers that we could stand behind.

We have both worked tirelessly for 20 years to get decent, practical, accurate information about singing and vocal physiology into the singing world and clarify any misunderstandings and misinformation we came across.

​The pause

A year ago we paused to have some “deep thought” and rebalance our lives. In the middle of that, Gillyanne’s health diagnosis and then Covid19 contributed to that process. Now we’re back and we have a different agenda. I’m using my fierce concentration proactively to work out what WE want with our lives in the future. Shorter hours, more home time, and a more pinpoint-focused impact on vocal and performance pedagogy.

Our Online Singing Teacher Training is the first manifestation of that and it’s been phenomenally successful. Sold out three times since April with a fourth run for August/September already filling up. Extraordinary feedback. And we’re teaching online for just 2 hours a day and spending more time in the garden. My new book Why Do I Need A Vocal Coach shows more of me and my work than anything we’ve done up to now. And our new This Is A Voice podcast shares the joy we have chatting and gently bickering about anything to do with voice, performing and teaching. We’re truly finding what we want to do going into the future.

​Fierce concentration

What would fierce concentration do for you? If you had it, what would you shine it on in your life?

If your wish is for a great family life and well-balanced kids, how would that manifest for you? If you want a satisfying time in your job, what would make that happen in the most effective way?

What would that concentration reveal that you need to change in yourself (attitude, approach, belief, situation) or even to drop to move towards a better expression of who you are – in your family and in your work?
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We are in an extraordinary time that has never existed before – a global crisis with instant worldwide communication. We can come out of this “the same” or we can use it to examine ourselves and our attitudes and use our concentration to build something that works better. I’m 58 now and am only just realising that you can CONSCIOUSLY co-create a life that reflects who you are and what you value. The next few years are going to be fun!

 

2025 Update!

It’s now 5 years since I wrote that. What’s happened in the interim?

Well, I’ve been diagnosed with the same heart condition Gillyanne has (two hearts beating weirdly as one…). We’ve written two more books – The Voice Journal with Oren Boder, and Just How Boring Are You? (How to Be A Great Podcast Guest). The Online Singing Teacher Training has morphed into the Teacher Pathway Programme and is now incorporated into the Accreditation Programme. We’re on episode 113 (at the time of writing) of our This Is A Voice podcast. And I’ve expanded my studio reach into full career coaching for singers, teachers, musicians and artists.

So we’re still concentrating fiercely and producing groundbreaking work.

The biggest change came from my health diagnosis. We still work together and separately, coaching and mentoring individuals and groups online and in person. But we’re cutting our hours back and taking more time away to create new experiences together. We came back from our first cruise in July (Norwegian Fjords, would 100% do it again). August was our 25th wedding anniversary roadtrip, September is a spa, October is a trip to Europe and November is going to be a few days away in a cottage in Wales.

We’re doing all this while we can. So after 5 years I’m returning to my original questions.

What if we could do anything we wanted? What if buried in our psyche are the seeds of ability to create anything we put our attention on? What if our job was to organise our life to express what we felt was important to us? Wouldn’t that be fascinating?

Drop a comment below and tell us how your life would change.