SINGING & SELF
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Fear of Exposure
Kimberly Barber, January 2020 We're in the Deep Freeze in Canada at the moment. In some parts of the country, exposed flesh can freeze in a matter of seconds. No wonder we are afraid of exposure... As artists (and ordinary humans) we are afraid of outing ourselves in...
The Spaces Between
The Spaces Between, photo: Kimberly Barber, 2020 This week I've been pondering the spaces between. We tend to focus on the concrete, tangible stuff. But what about what lies in the openings on either side? In music, we have silences, or rests. These moments of repose...
There and back again
I have been reminded multiple times in the past week about the spiral nature of learning and experience. We experience, reflect, experience, reflect, constantly returning back to the practice each time with new knowledge…As Samuel Beckett famously said: Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.
At X purposes
We all do it. Why? Sometimes it can simply be blamed on ignorance or inexperience. We all misstep. But so frequently, we act in spite of knowing better. We choose the path we know all too well is not the most efficient, beneficial one, but rather the one that feels so painfully familiar. We work at cross purposes to ourselves and our goals.
Brave New Year
It’s a new year. A new decade. I’m reflecting with intention on whatI’d like the next days, weeks, months and years to look like as they pertain to my singing life. And as we know from these last few months of Singing and Self, I take the idea of Singing and Voice personally. Which is to say that I believe that they are metaphors for life itself.
Peeling the onion
the way I experience it, both as singer myself and as a teacher of singers, is that the act of learning to sing better is a microcosm of life itself. So it has some kind of poetic sense that a living thing–an onion–might be used as a metaphor for this process.
Soulstice Sisterhood
As I ponder sisterhood within the context of this blog, I think of all the amazing women I have encountered in my singing life, my Singing Sisters. There are so many of them and they have supported and sustained me over these many years of my singing life. I apologize in advance if there are some who aren’t mentioned here–it’s a long list.
Such a long journey
This past summer when I was teaching in Lyon, I walked up these stairs every morning to work. It was no mean feat (where the photo was taken is about 2/3 of the way up--it's steep!). Today as I pondered what to post, I remembered this photo; when I took it I was...
To bud or to blossom
One of my students spoke of an epiphany this week in performance. She had been reflecting on the disconnect between her idea of perceived vocal “control” and what she imagined to be freedom in her singing and performing. She noted that every performance in which she felt she had done “all the right things” (thinking this must result in a feeling of vocal freedom and abandon), when she watched the video of her performance, she was crestfallen by how tight and rigid it all seemed.
Burn out
Burn out. It seems it’s that time of year. As the light of day gets dimmer heading to the Solstice (my birthday, as chance would have it!), it seems like many in my midst have candles that have burned down to stubs. Including myself…
Life Boat(s)
My teacher, Neil Semer, often tells me that I’m a “lifeboat person”. What he means by that is that I am the kind of person you want to have in your lifeboat. A survivor. A survivor. Someone tenacious. Someone you can count on in a crisis. A person who will hold on to life with an iron grip. Who never gives up. And this is true. The only downside, as he puts it, is that these attributes are not generally that helpful when it comes to singing…
The Body’s Score
Anyone who knows me knows about my respect for the body’s wisdom…this week’s realization comes from my own body and what it’s been telling me…
The Disowned (Singing) Self Or Noticing the (w)hole in me
I’m reflecting today on lessons learned while teaching…again and again, shame, trauma and grief came up. And a whole lot of fear. I kept asking them to show up with their whole selves, and to park the baggage of their past at the door. I asked them to reclaim who they are in their deepest selves, without judgment, without filters…
The weight of oneself
For the last 3 summers, I’ve taught voice at the Académie de Fourvière in Lyon, France…I thought about how as artists, and particularly as singers (because the instrument is within us and encompasses us), we must carry the weight of ourselves. We are tasked with knowing ourselves better each day…
