People often describe themselves as perfectionists. They seem to think this is a good thing, an admirable trait that explains their neuroses, an enviable “humble brag.” But in student after student, this mindset is the single biggest impediment to their success. So, I propose that we replace the pursuit of perfection with the pursuit of excellence.
First and foremost, perfection can never be attained and is, thus, an eternally frustrating and alienating goal. Excellence, on the other hand, can be attained every day, however briefly, in every practice session, lesson, or performance. By setting an expectation that can be met, you will be encouraged and motivated to seek excellence time and again. Here are a few practical ways to achieve this.
Set Clear Goals
Would you like to feel empowered when you’re on stage? Then, set goals that you can actually achieve and that you can control. For instance: in an audition, you can’t control whether the panel likes you, what they ask to hear, or whether you get the job. Therefore, fretting about any of these things is frustrating and pointless.
Instead, set a goal you can control: “I will keep my shoulders loose as I sing the Mozart” or “I will keep my ribcage expanded for every breath.” You will know immediately if you have achieved your goal—and the most important feedback will be from you, not from someone you’ve just met. The magic of this mindset is that by focusing on something tangible, your whole performance will come into focus and you’ll do your best work. This is a win-win: you have less anxiety and the audience likes you more, all because you’ve freed yourself from worry.
Make your goals more concrete by writing them down. For goals related to a single song or aria, write them at the top of the score, and then make a point of saying them aloud every time you practice the piece. These goals may change over time, but it is helpful to always have a goal for each piece. Try writing a goal for each song set for a recital on a sticky note and post it on the stage door. Then just before entering the stage, “load” that goal for the following set. This practice will strengthen your focus and improve your chance of an excellent performance.
At any given time, every singer is working on larger, more universal goals as well. For those on an academic calendar, it’s extremely helpful to define semester goals—what specific and concrete things would you like to achieve this semester? Again, writing down the goals is crucial. For example, “I will perform all of my jury repertoire, from memory, in studio class by the end of the semester.” This goal fits all of the parameters set out by financial expert Dave Ramsey. He recommends making all of your goals “S.M.A.R.T.”—specific, measurable (you’ll either do it or not), attainable, realistic, and timely (you have an end date—the last day of the semester).1
It is tempting for young singers to have lofty dreams without a concrete plan for achieving them, such as the often-heard “I want to sing at the Met.” Dreams are great for fueling your work, but S.M.A.R.T. goals are the actions by which we attain our dreams, and the achievement of these short-term goals provides much-needed encouragement and confidence along the journey.
Think Ahead
One of Steven R. Covey’s tips from his bestseller The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People is to “begin with the end in mind.” To achieve excellence in singing, we must do the very same thing! Thinking ahead in order to envision the end product is useful both in a macro and a micro sense.
In the macro sense, visualize what an excellent performance will look like, sound like, and feel like. What will it feel like to have the energy of the audience before you? What will the stage lights feel like on your face? What would it feel like to walk off the stage at the end of the recital, having absolutely “nailed” it? Top athletes are famous for visualizing success and for simulating the circumstances under which they’ll perform, and singers can benefit greatly by doing the same.
In the micro sense, every phrase provides you a new chance to reset your focus on excellence. As you learn a new piece, start “zooming out” to see phrases as whole entities. In this case, I define a phrase as a unit that’s all served by a single breath. Sometimes a phrase can be a single note, and sometimes it can be much, much longer. However long or complicated a phrase is, you must think ahead before the breath is taken to ensure that the breath is sufficient to fuel the entire phrase.
If you practice this from very early in your process, this will become natural, and you won’t have to think about it onstage. Thinking ahead is also crucial for stage business and choreography in opera and musical theatre—with a bit of forethought, comedic timing improves and the stage business becomes more organic to the music.
Manage Mistakes
Fact: you’re going to make mistakes. We all do. Rather than trying to avoid or ignore this reality, work with it! The good news is a performance can still be excellent with a few minor mistakes. The key is how quickly and gracefully you recover from your mistakes. When singers recover artfully from mistakes, those who know they messed up are impressed by their panache in covering it, and most have no idea there was a mistake at all. If you cringe or have a meltdown at every mistake, then everyone in the room knows there was a gaffe.
Recovery from mistakes needs to be practiced—it’s a skill that you shouldn’t just assume is present. So, in the late stages of your preparation of a piece, be sure to practice performing the piece. This means running through the piece in its entirety, either with your pianist or with a recording. Notice where there are wrong notes or intonation problems, where your memory gets foggy, where you feel lost in your character or your translation, etc. After your run-through, go back and solidify the spots that are weak. Whatever you do, don’t let an actual performance be the first time you’ve run a piece from beginning to end.
During your preparation, pay particular attention to repeated mistakes, as these are a sure sign that more practice is needed to achieve excellence. Use video and audio recordings to do self-evaluation. Mark your score with trouble spots and again, pay particular attention to repeated mistakes. If you’ve learned something wrong, it’s going to take focus and many diligent repetitions to build habit strength once it’s corrected.
Practice Excellence
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”2 Aristotle knew thousands of years ago what musicians find day after day: any good habit must be ingrained by repetition. But not just any repetition will do—you must ensure that you are constantly insisting on excellence. If you truly want to meet your potential, excellence must be your constant companion—in every breath, in every tone, in every practice session, in every rehearsal. As Dale Carnegie said, “If you do the little jobs well, the big ones tend to take care of themselves.”3
This concept will also enliven the vocalise section of your practice time, which many singers will admit is their least favorite part of practicing. Bring an attitude of excellence and mental focus—along with a checklist of technical issues you’d like to address—and suddenly your exercise time will be much more effective, mindful, and enjoyable. And by insisting on excellence in every phase of your singing life, you move closer to Aristotle’s idea of excellence becoming a habit.
Mental Focus and Vision
A great goal for singers is “first time, best time.” What does this mean? Well, think about every time you’ve sung in or watched a masterclass—no matter the singer, the second time through always goes better. So, the question is how do you achieve your best the first time through? In any audition or performance, you get only one shot, so you need to harness your very best.
Again, this must start in the practice room. Visualize what a performance or audition will feel like. Visualize how nerves will affect you, what you’ll feel like in your attire, and what you’ll feel like in the presence of your audience. Visualize what an excellent performance would sound like, what it would look like from the audience’s perspective, what it would feel like from your perspective as the performer. We must visualize excellence to know if we’ve achieved it. We must define the target in order to know if we’ve hit it.
Confidence
True confidence is a belief in oneself born out of preparation and dedication. It is the ineffable quality of the great performers, and it is unnecessarily lacking in student performers and young professionals. Too often, young singers think that excellence is years away, when in reality excellence is achievable every day, at every stage in your career.
No matter where you are in your singing journey, it is possible to prepare as well as you can, visualize an excellent performance, and deliver the performance with confidence and joy. Make this your intention in the practice room, and great results will come!
