SINGING & SELF
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Loving what is
My practice in the last week or two has very much been focused on this principle, embodied in the book by the same name by Byron Katie. I've been sitting more deeply in who I am: as a human, as a musician, as a singer, and just owning it. I've been beginning each...
How not to recoil from the hug
I've been pondering several things this week in my practice, but a major theme has been self-love. In recognition of the fact that my singing journey is very connected to my life journey, I observe that I tend to recoil from the hug. That is to say that, when I think...
How S-L-O-W can you go?
Slow as molasses...(Kimberly Barber, July 2020) This past week has been full of realizations and the challenging of old notions. Although I have been teaching voice for over 18 years and have been practicing seriously as a singer and musician for at least 40 years, I...
Life Post-Epiphany
lay down Sally (Kimberly Barber, June 2020) Beware the epiphany. Or better said: beware the assumption that the epiphany will of necessity be the immediate beginning of something new. Last week I described a breakthrough in my singing practice that was based in a...
The Bullfight that never was
Dropping the red rag (Kimberly Barber, June 2020) When I began writing this blog last August, my intent was to explore the relationship between the act and art of singing and the excavation of selfhood. I had always understood these to be intimately connected. I also...
Embracing the Goddess
Two goddesses: Jana Philipp I've lost count on how many weeks in we are now...15? One thing I can say is that the goddesses in my life have continued to give me support, courage and meaning in this time of isolation. These women are colleagues, friends, family and...
Steady as she goes
It's been a tough week for a lot of people. The events unfolding in the US, in Canada and around the world in response to the murder of George Floyd have rattled us all to the core. It seems perhaps frivolous to ponder matters of art and its practice in the face of...
Finding my Zen
Do I look serene? I'd like to think so... Although I thought I might, I clearly wasn't ready to start practicing this week. At least not singing. But I DID start to meditate, which has proven to be a game changer. I joined, at the invitation of my dear friend Anna, an...
One step at a time
(10 weeks in)
I thought I might be on a roll last week; I talked of emerging from a cocoon, butterfly-like. I had grand plans that I would begin practicing bit by bit. Maybe even start gently: ten minutes. Fifteen minutes. Twenty minutes. I had one day where I spent some time doing...
Re-emergence
Wake me up when it's spring (my garden: May 14, 2020) I just got tired of titling what had become a weekly "in isolation" series in relation to, well, isolation.* I'm sick of it. You're sick of it. We're all sick of it. And hopefully, we're not actually sick. Because...
Singing in Isolation, Part VIII
Keeping Still
Some days it's about all we can do to keep our heads above water. Other days, we feel an inkling of hope. Often it's in the stillness that we are able to hear the voice of truth inside of us. I heard a quote last night that resonated with this very message: "The way...
(not) Singing in Isolation
Part VII: Rest Assured
Will it ever end? That's the $24,000 question. And not just if, but how? One thing seems for sure, though: Rest is Assured (that is, if we are able to quiet all that inner turmoil). We are being asked to upend all of our routines, let go of many of the things that...
Singing in isolation,
Part VI: Digging Deep
The courageous task of grabbing the figurative spade and plumbing the depths of inner feelings often means charting new territory, an expedition that feels terrifying in and of itself. But what I am realizing is that in this new context, while such anxieties may be real, they are irrelevant…
Singing in isolation, Part V: Hibernation
I feel like I am in vocal hibernation. But perhaps it’s only hibernation from the sort of “diligent practice” that I try to model for my students, the kind of practice that is set on some sort of performance goal…
