| What a strange thing it is that we do. Singing. To | | | | Music is pure emotion. Great music is deeply |
| organize our thoughts and sentences into structured | | | | emotional because the composer was deeply |
| rhythms. To further organize the words and syllables | | | | emotional when he or she first allowed it forth. When |
| into predetermined pitches on top of those rhythms | | | | repeated over and over through time, the music |
| and then sometimes hold those syllables and pitches | | | | becomes a symbol for these original emotions of the |
| to inordinate degrees. I've always felt that it is an | | | | composer. When we hear it played, we are |
| odd method of human communication. | | | | transported to the state of the composer when the |
| Animals do a form of it as well. They howl, they roar, | | | | song was originated. |
| they moan. And each of these moments in time | | | | So when the singer sings, during each held note, the |
| expresses deeply their primitive feelings. We | | | | emotion of the singer, the lyricist, the composer and |
| sometimes mimic them in their feelings. | | | | the pianist all pour forth. When a singer sings with an |
| As a song writer, I have often thought deeply about | | | | orchestra, the emotions of all involved are allowed to |
| this strange expression of human emotion and | | | | pour forth through each musical note and moment. |
| communication called singing. In the musical theater I | | | | This is why a concert is such a highly involving |
| was taught that when the emotion of the moment | | | | experience - because all attending, audience and |
| becomes so high that dialogue can no longer handle | | | | performers, all ride the same wave together in a kind |
| it, it is then that a song is born, that the character | | | | of emotional unity. A rare human/divine experience. |
| moves into singing because mere words just do not | | | | "In the ordinary mind, we perceive the stream of |
| suffice. When this happens naturally, the audience | | | | thoughts as continuous, but in reality this is not the |
| easily accepts the stylistic evolving into music and | | | | case. You will discover for yourself that there is a |
| song. | | | | gap between each thought. When the past thought |
| Ballads are especially high emotion moments. If you | | | | is past, and the future thought is not yet arisen, you |
| want a character to really express deeply their true | | | | will always find a gap in which the nature of mind is |
| feelings, give them a ballad to sing. Why? Because | | | | revealed. So the work of meditation is to allow |
| the slowdown of each moment in time, the | | | | thoughts to slow down, to make that gap become |
| stretching of each syllable, each word in time, allows | | | | more and more apparent." Glimpse After Glimpse, |
| the listener to peer deeper into the emotions of the | | | | Sogyal Rinpoche |
| character and the character more time to express | | | | Singing is a step towards meditation. In some cases it |
| the subtleties of each emotional moment. Not only | | | | is pure meditation. The act of singing opens up our |
| that, but each moment is pitched, if the song is well | | | | linear time experience so that we may more |
| written, to reflect the rise and fall of these emotions. | | | | experience these gaps allowing the true |
| Whenever I sit down to write a melody, if it's to be | | | | consciousness to come forth, our true spirituality to |
| written to a predetermined lyric, I always first | | | | emerge into this mortal experience. When a great |
| rehearse how the character would say the lyric in | | | | singer sings, whether it is a Pavarotti, a Maria Callas, |
| monologue. I become the character in the moment | | | | an Ella Fitzgerald or a Bonnie Raitt, we experience |
| and discover how the character would say the line | | | | man/woman on the highest of levels, we get |
| naturally. This predetermines for me the natural and | | | | glimpses of immortality and tastes of heaven. When |
| emotionally connected rise and fall of the melody in | | | | any of us mere mortals sing, even in the shower, we |
| the moment. I find that the deeper my focus in this | | | | reach for something higher that our human normality. |
| preparation, the better the song is. Then I don't have | | | | When we all sing "Happy Birthday", we celebrate |
| to "make up" a melody, rather, the melody simply | | | | birth. "Ave Maria" mourns a death. "Yesterday" |
| flows out from my understanding of the emotional | | | | mourns lost love. "Amazing Grace" praises God. |
| moment. | | | | And in these moments, "the nature of mind is |
| In this slowing of time, the emotions pour through | | | | revealed". |
| the stretched moments that the music supports. | | | | |