Hello, and welcome to Groove sing and all the things.
I'm Amy Hailstone
I'm your host
Thanks so much for joining me today.
Today, I have one question for you.
Are you learning to sing or to play online? There's one powerful thing you need to do in addition.
So that's what we're gonna talk about today on the podcast.
If we haven't met yet, again, my name's Amy from Amy Hailstone Studios.
I am a vocal and performance coach, a guitar teacher, a performer, songwriter, and educator.
And I'm happy you're here today.
Let's jump into the episode.
So if you're learning to sing or to play online, let's talk about that one thing you need to do in addition.
Online learning is amazing.
And, oh, my gosh.
I wish it would have been around when I started to learn to play, um, when I was a kid, um, if if I could have dreamt of something like the internet, wow, that would have been like a dream come true.
Everything is just like at your fingertips, and there's just nothing we can't learn alone at home in our our homes, but learning music, learning to sing or to play, uh, online, uh, I mean, you don't have any immediate feedback.
And that That is where a teacher in real life comes in.
It doesn't have to be really in real life, but you can be online video teaching, which is how I do most of my teaching.
You just need that that person in front of you giving you that immediate feedback, having a teacher in real life can be absolutely life changing.
I know that sounds that might sound hyperbolic, but it is not.
It is the absolute truth.
A great teacher meets you exactly where you are that day serves you up exactly what you need.
And having a one on one lesson just makes you feel seen and uplifted by that teacher's energy and enthusiasm for your progress.
To be clear, I do love online learning, and I think it's here to stay.
I think it's part of our all of our future.
Um, it's an amazing time to learn music.
With, I mean, everything's available to us.
Um, one of the downsides, though, is learning to singer pro play online, it can give us that illusion that things should be easier and quicker uh, than they actually are.
There's no immediate feedback, no way of knowing if we're developing bad habits, knowing to ask specific questions as they arise, because they will.
We are all different.
All of our instruments are different, even how we play the guitar.
Like, like, you know, you might be pressing down too hard on the strings.
You might be bending your wrist too much.
You might be having too much tension in your right arm.
Singers can have too much tension in their, uh, their their tongue or their jaw, you know, shallow breaths.
We don't know.
We don't know what we don't know.
Right? If you're watching a video and they're like, let's do this exercise, and but you're You're kind of approaching it wrong.
You can really develop some bad habits, and and you don't understand that at the time.
None of us do.
So there's really no substitute for having a one on one lesson feeling seen and supported is just incredibly important when we're trying to learn something and expand our skills.
So if you're able to have a private lesson in addition to your online learning, this will be extremely helpful, and honestly there's no substitute.
A a a trusted teacher or coach can just understand how you're feeling and because they've been there.
Let's talk about how everything is at our fingertips.
And as I alluded to earlier, I was that kid that had to go find guitar magazines and try to learn songs by ear and and and and just buy CDs and and listen to the song over and over and mean, I learned scales and chords from books and and and magazine articles, like guitar magazine articles, I probably learned I learned so much from, um, but fast forward to now, um, we can literally is like, what are the what are the chords to this song that I'm listening to on the radio? Uh, and we got them.
You know, you know, they're not always right every time you look them up, but, you know, basically, they're there.
You can you can tell if they're if they're right or wrong.
Most of the time they are pretty pretty good.
But we're just a Google away.
We're just seconds away from what we're looking for.
You know, there was there were no teachers really where I lived, um, growing up in a small town.
Yeah.
I I felt really alone when actually I was lucky enough to start studying music at a community college when I was, uh, in high school.
So the last two years of high school, I just sort of did what I needed to do.
Did what I needed to do to get get by, and I took classes at the community college a couple nights a week, um, to to start learning music theory and guitar performance, and that made me very, very happy.
Because I I really didn't like being in high school, but I loved going to the college campus, and people treated me well there.
I respected my teachers.
They respected me.
It was a mutual again, that mutual respect and admiration, um, that's what we need when we're developing, um, our musicianship and and learning.
And, you know, I I especially loved my one on one lesson in a private lesson every week.
Honestly, I'm again, weekly lessons, if you're able, no matter what you're learning, it that's honestly that's that's where I make the most progress.
It's like you gotta show up every week.
If you didn't practice, you still you gotta show up? Great teachers change lives.
Does that sound like too good to be true? But actually think about it in anything you're learning, a great teacher will change your life.
They will save you years of heartbreak and disappointment.
They will guide you If you try to do all this stuff alone, you can't.
Okay.
So moving on, um, lessons as therapy.
Of course, this is no substitute for actual therapy, but, um, I cannot tell you how many times I got to my my lesson, my weekly lesson, and, uh, just burst into tears before I ever sang a note, you know, just, like, full of doubt, self loathing anxiety.
Um, just feeling like I wasn't going to sing well or just I I just all this angst, like, because my practice sessions had not gone well, I couldn't do the things I wanted to do.
I spent all week practicing by myself and and just in a state of like I said, trying to will something to happen, that honestly you cannot will.
You have to allow, and you you don't know that yet, but I mean, I didn't know that yet.
So these things do take time to learn And, you know, luckily, I had supportive and loving coaches and teachers that just got me through some really, really rough times.
Um, I went to weekly lessons for years and, you know, loved it and knew I had to and needed to do it and showing up every week face to face with my teachers singing, allowing myself to feel vulnerable.
And getting feedback and advice, encouragement, I would leave my lesson just on a different mental state just like more on a like a cloud nine situation than when I went in.
I would just be happy and ready to face the week and start practicing again and and to believe that I could reach my goals.
And this is a difficult place to get to alone.
And that's why I'm a believer in great teachers and private lessons, and they encourage us to once again see our potential, which left to our own devices, we, uh, is sometimes just destroyed.
As artists, we are not, we are not exactly known for being kind to ourselves.
And We're just really, really, very critical of ourselves, and we need we need outside reassurance.
Honestly, we we just do because we can't see outside of ourselves.
So we need someone with a knowledge that we lacked because we don't know what we don't know.
Like I said earlier, we we have to become much more body aware whether singing or playing.
And this is something we learn in private lessons and getting helpful feedback.
If you're learning alone again, you could just be internalizing bad habits and unhealthy habits and not even know it, which can ultimately lead to frustration and not knowing why you feel stuck, you feel stuck because you are stuck, and sometimes we we need that outside help.
So what is the takeaway here? The takeaway is being lucky enough to have a great teacher and showing up week after week, even when you don't feel like it.
That's where progress is made.
And and having that teacher in real life, whether on Zoom or in in somebody's studio, it just it gives you that accountability showing you're showing up for them and you're showing up for yourself.
So another incredible aspect of learning online is that you can study with anyone anywhere in the world.
Like, you don't have to be in the same city or even the same state or continent.
I mean, you know, honestly, it's the possibilities are endless, but you have to start and start where you are.
Try to find a teacher where you are.
Try to find the best teacher for you online.
And if and if you try a teacher, you try out a teacher that you don't really gel with, try again because, you know, it's kinda like you you you'll find the right one.
You'll find the right one.
You'll know it too.
You'll know it when you do.
So we're all in different places, but, you know, teachers meet us where we are, and they help us to move forward.
So I do have a gift for you for spending some time with me today.
I have an exclusive video for the singers, Three secrets and exercises an introduction to finding more freedom and less tension in your singing.
To access that video, just go to amyhailstone.
com/ three secrets, the number three and the word secrets.
For the guitar players, I have a gift for you as well.
This is especially great for new and intermediate guitar players, five things every new guitar player needs to know.
To access that video, just go to amyhailstone.
com/5things.
Again, the number five and the word things.
So amyhailstone.
com/5things.
I would love for you to take advantage of that.
Visit me at amyhailstone.
com.
Go to the services tab.
If you'd like to book a lesson with me, and check out my website in the blog, and thank you so much for joining me today on Groove Singh and all the things.
We'll see you next time