Lockdown Lessons
As a furloughed individual of the past five months, I’ve definitely taken advantage of every moment and filled my empty days with vocal practice and creative endeavours, which have all equipped me with oodles of musical skills and high self esteem.
orrrrrrr …….
No, let’s not do me a disservice. There have been several days where I’ve felt motivated to do more than scroll through Twitter and periodically bother my boyfriend as he’s trying to do work by updating him on what ‘crazy thing Boris has said/done now!’ and all the ways I feel about that. I’ve actually had a somewhat consistent practice schedule throughout the majority of lockdown and, as I’m back to work next week, I thought it’d be a good time to regret that I haven’t done more reflect on all the things I’ve learned about my practice habits!
Coffee is great for singing high, but terrible for tension (personally).
I wish I’d never discovered this; the internal crises this dilemma causes everyday. The tension caused by the anxiety caused by the caffeine should never be worth it – but the sound made by the high larynx caused by the anxiety caused by the caffeine also gives me a bit of an ego boost.
Singing after a workout will no longer be allowed.
As someone who over-supports, you would’ve thought I’d figured this out before March. It’s not an easy breezy time getting through a song after activating every muscle in your body that you don’t need for singing.
Mental state is a POWERFUL thing!
I’d done it. I’d finally gotten over my fear of my boyfriend hearing me practice. After three years of living in this flat, I was able to practice with another person in my proximity. And then I heard someone on the other end of his zoom call through the wall and completely shut down.
There’s always something to work on.
I just love how, with singing, your body parts are constantly overcompensating for other body parts that aren’t working how they should and, as soon as you work out which body parts aren’t working, you focus on those instead and start overworking them so much that the body parts that were previously overcompensating for those not working efficiently are forgotten about so then they’re not working properly and it’s just a really cool cycle that I love so much.
Consistency is a good thing … who knew?!
I would not have realised any of these things practicing the way I was pre-lockdown. When I actually made time to practice, I would prioritise everything else I had to do that day and shove in fifteen minutes before having to leave for work. As well as not having the time to think through what I was doing, I also wasn’t making the time to enjoy it. My practice was rushed and fraught and I probably used that as an excuse for any issues I was faced with. If my throat felt tight, I put it down to worrying about time or being tired from a late shift the night before. Taking those external factors away and being able to relax – knowing that, if things didn’t feel right that day, I could try again tomorrow – has highlighted actual physiological problems I’ve got going on and meant I can take steps towards remedying them. It doesn’t take a genius to realise that regular, thoughtful practice works best and it definitely doesn’t take a global pandemic – I’d much rather none of this had happened in the first place. I actually feel quite ashamed that I’ve had all these epiphanies during this time and I think that makes me more determined to make sure I don’t fall into the same bad habits regarding practice. I’ve been really lucky to not have more going on over the past five months and had the mental space to be able to think about these things at all. It feels really trivial to boast about all these things I’ve realised when millions of people around the world are in such dire circumstances, so rather than this be a post about how I was able to slow down and appreciate the little things, it’s more of a kick up the arse to be more mindful in my normal, non-pandemic day-to-day life because it’s absolutely possible and didn’t actually take up much more time than I already had.
*reading comprehension test: can you identify the moment overwhelming guilt took over this blog post?