on the title of this post and go online to hear.
Nobody wants hard times. But amazing voices, music and songs can grow in the heavy soil of adversity. Where would the blues be, the classical lament, the bluegrass wisdom story, the dark pop ballad, the rock rage song without life storms and pain? The trick is to learn to use the storm like eagles do… ride the winds to higher sky. This Thanksgiving, my voice is grateful for it all.
The voice is affected by everything. There is so much in my life that I had no idea would eventually influence my voice and my work in music. Situations that have informed, strengthened and given value to my voice range from chores of childhood to very difficult life storms… some that in fact looked like the end for my voice. Here are some light and heavier burdens that became blessings for me and my work:
Childhood demotion from lead to harmony
Mandatory piano lessons
Little did I know how I would use this abuse! I finally grew to love it so much I used to hole up in a college piano practice room for 5 and 6 hours at a time… for class and for the sheer joy of the sound and feel of my fingers touching the keys. The music theory I learned has come in handy on so many levels, including being able to get a job as a teenager playing for church and teaching beginner piano, getting a job as staff jingle singer which required reading music, later being able communicating intelligently with professional musicians as a producer. That theory I had to learn for piano lessons enabled me to create and write vocal charts on staff paper. Just recently I experienced the joy of playing piano in a little band at church on a Dixieland jazz version of Just a Closer Walk With Thee! To this day I depend on piano playing in teaching, performance, songwriting, arranging, vocal coaching, accompanying. Thank you so much for making me stick to those lessons – it’s a gift that keeps on giving, dear Mother of mine!
Paying dues with vocal abuse
I don’t recommend that anyone challenge the voice like this because it IS dangerous, but I’m now grateful for every hard thing I put my voice through. It has helped me become a vocal coach who specializes in protecting the voice and conquering vocal strain. I wouldn’t fully appreciate or understand what I was doing correctly til decades later, but remembering what had always worked for me in studio and on stage would light the spark that eventually become my vocal training method ‘Power, Path and Performance’.
Developing serious illness and vocal damage
Failing
- Losing my jingle work
- Losing my record deal
- Losing my songwriting deal, harsh criticism
I even began doing a lot of studio production and songwriting again with fresh participant fire. In addition to new songs and co-creating a couple of musicals, I wrote and released a new project with my husband in 2015 which I feel is the best music I ever made. So thank you, Dave… you pushed me because you believed I could rise to the challenge. Thank you, Carol… your friendship has been a life changer. Thank you God… for putting this tapestry of events – and people – together!
Kindness
About YOU
When you come upon a hard place in your journey (and everybody does), use my story to encourage you. Every time I thought I was facing a dead end, it was just a turning point, a redirection. None of it was wasted! I have experienced God as the Great Compost Maker. When I turned ‘it’ over, that which looked like crap became incredibly useful fertilizer. So my advice is: Trust your journey! Do your very best and whatever comes, embrace it all. Then use your stronger, wiser and more useful voice to benefit the world. Your vocal gratitude list, like mine, will be full of colorful surprises, twists and turns, dips and heights…. and storms that birth rainbows!
I’d love to have your comments. Have you had hard times that fed your voice, your journey, in ways that now surprise you? Please share!
Edward says
Oh yes!
Meredith Colby says
I believe it was hard to go through at the time, but still a career most would envy. Thanks for sharing, Judy.
Judy Rodman says
Edward… glad you can relate; I love our vocal lessons and I know some of your voice's magic comes from the harder parts of your road.
Judy Rodman says
Meredith… thank you, I truly am grateful for everything, and for the friends I've made along the way such as other voice experts who share their work – like you!