I was learning from Robert about parasitic tension, meaning tension that comes along for the ride when trying to make certain isolated movements or sounds. For example, he asked us to raise an arm and to see if the shoulder went up, as well; to see if our necks crunched, etc. During reflection, he asked what sort of parasitic tensions could come with singing.
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Once over a thousand years ago, there was an old master singing teacher, Fa-So-Mi, and he had a young apprentice, La-Ti-Re. Fa-So-Mi asked of the young apprentice to belt a high Q in the style of Patti LuPone and to sustain the note with tons of vibrato at the end. Shocked at his master teacher's request, La-Ti-Re gulped with fear, but one is to never disobey his master teacher and La-Ti-Re fulfilled his duty with valiant efforts. Fa-So-Mi was very pleased and he bowed to his apprentice with delight. "That was FAAAAAAbulous, La-Ti-Re. Just faaaaaabulous."
But La-Ti-Re was not satisfied with his singing. He quickly ran to his master teacher's fish pond and looked at his reflection in the water. "Oh, but wise master teacher, my face contorted and twisted so!"
And master teacher said, "Ah, yes, but that sound....that beautiful sound..."
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Robert's lesson was far more intellectual than my dumb fake proverb but his lesson got me thinking. I was happy to hear someone whose teaching I respect speak about allowing the facial effort (notice I'm saying effort and not tension) for the sake of producing the correct sound because this was something I was saying to my own clients with some hesitation: "Don't worry about the face. Make the awesome sound; we'll worry about the face later."
But this also got me thinking about how this relates to just life, too, because I'm all about a good metaphor.
Sometimes we want to fulfill our lifelong dreams of "reaching a high Q"... but we find that some ugly, parasitic consequences (whether expected or unexpected) come with this beautiful, coveted sound. We can choose to allow the inevitable parasitic issues make us choose not to fulfill that dream after all because the prospect of meeting these parasites is too overwhelming....
OR we can continue to pursue and eventually reach our High Q's in spite of the contorted, ugly faces... and maybe the faces ARE ugly but the High Q is beyond beautiful-- so beautiful that we forget all about the faces. Or maybe we come to learn that the faces are not so bad after all.
Sing the High Q. Worry about the face later.
