Hello, and welcome to Groove Singh and All The Things.
I'm your host Amy Halstone.
Today on the podcast, I wanna talk about the secret element that is needed when learning to singer play.
Tenacity is the secret sauce.
That's what I wanna talk to you about today on the podcast.
And again, I'm Amy from Amy Halstone Studios.
I'm a vocal and performance coach, a guitar teacher and a recording artist.
I've been teaching guitar for over thirty years, and I've been a vocal and performance coach for nearly a decade.
I love to teach my students how to play and sing with less tension and more freedom.
So let's jump into the episode today.
Maybe your three weeks into learning to sing or play or maybe you're three years in, but inevitably you'll face some frustration.
That's just par for the course.
So what do you do when you hit a wall or you run into some frustration? You decide to keep going.
You keep showing up.
I know I talk about this a lot, but it is it's the key.
It's the key to your success.
So when you're frustrated and you're feeling like you're the only one who doesn't get it, you keep working towards your goal.
It's not easy, but it is simple.
So is there a magic formula? Yeah.
Kind of.
The title of this podcast states, it's tenacity.
It's the secret sauce.
It's what separates the ones who do learn to play and sing when I say play and sing, I mean, play or sing, if you wanna do both, of course, both.
From the ones who wanted to, but never did.
Always kind of, you know, in the back of their mind, yes, someday, I'm I'm gonna play guitar.
Was wanting to learn to sing.
Well, you have to decide.
Tenacity might be the secret sauce to life too.
I I kinda think it is because nothing we pursue is ever easy.
That's just part of that's just part of life, but we keep our goal in mind, and it helps to prioritize your daily life.
Like, where does music fit in in your daily life? I had a student yesterday.
He's a very busy guy, he's a very successful guy.
He's like, my goal is to have fit ten minutes of guitar practice a day.
And that consistency will add up for him.
Consistency is another big thing.
Tenacity, consistency, are they the same they're not really the same, but they're very similar.
Right? Staying consistent takes tenacity.
Um, it's not easy to show up every day when you feel like you're failing.
When you feel like I'm not gonna get this, my hand hurts, my voice is tired.
It feels like you're in a a state of just overwhelm and failure, but don't stay there.
Action really creates a lot of energy.
And you start to feel those those little little baby steps of of success.
So what can you do? One thing you can do is to visualize what you wanna be able to do.
I know, like, you can go to Tony Robbins for this, but I'm just like saying visualization works in whatever you're trying to manifest.
If you can see what you wanna do in your mind's eye and you feel like what would it feel like if I really could do that? You're setting yourself up to succeed at at what you're visualizing.
And and honestly, this does it's not just for music.
It's whatever you wanna manifest.
So now I sound like Oprah, but it's These are kind of universal laws, universal truths.
Right? So if you feel it in your bones, like, what would that feel like if I actually could do it? Your subconscious mind will start to make it happen.
But yeah, you have to show up like we talked about.
You have to you have to stick with it, but you've already decided to do that.
So it's gonna happen.
So visualization sounds simple, but it is profound.
And like I said already, if you can visualize yourself playing or singing, the way you want to, it's much more likely that you will get there.
Now, someone tells me to get out a notebook and start setting goals and planning every second of my time and Yeah.
I'm gonna tune out.
That's not that's not the thing.
That's not for me.
But if I can sit down and visualize what I want, what would that feel like if I could play that song I really wanna play? Or if I could play those bar chords, if I could play that guitar solo, or if I could sing that celine Dion song, or whatever my goal is.
What would that feel like? You can you can do it.
Um, just a side note, a little story, uh, when I was a teenager, I did this, like, instinctively.
And when I would be, you know, falling asleep at night, all I wanted to do was to be a guitar player at that point and a singer, but I was particularly fixated on guitar.
Wanted to play in a band, and I wanted to do both.
I would think about it constantly, whether I was at school or at home and falling asleep and everything.
But but what before I would fall asleep, I would I would picture myself, like, on stage and playing and you know, in in in a big venue or whatever.
Well, I've never played stadiums or anything like that.
Within just a couple months of graduating, I was in a band traveling and playing in playing lead guitar and singing.
So I really I'm a believe that sort of set me up to be a believer in, um, visualization and how it can really help you reach your goals.
Thanks for sticking with me, um, in the podcast so far.
So I do have a gift for you for spending some time with me today.
For the singers, I have an exclusive video, it's called three sequencing exercises, an introduction to finding more freedom and less tension in your singing.
I would love for you to access that video.
Just go to amyhailstone.
com/3things, and and you'll be able to get that video, and for the Tar players.
I also have a video for you.
It's called five things.
Every new guitar player needs to know.
Just gonna help set you up for success on your playing journey.
And again, just go to amyhailstone.
com/5things.
And you'll get access to that video, and I hope that you really take advantage of that.
I know real life is a bit different than online, and when we're learning to sing or play, it's very time consuming, and that is real life.
And it's easy to forget when we're just like rolling videos of of people doing their thing, you know, they're playing, they're singing, they're sounding great.
And how are we gonna get there? We already discussed we're going to be tenacious in pursuing our goals, and we're gonna be consistent.
So the other thing we're gonna do, we're gonna visualize, and in that visualization, we're gonna decide that we will reach our goal.
So decision is one of the most powerful things on the planet on in the world.
I don't know.
Decision's powerful.
When you decide that you're gonna make it, whatever that goal is, you you know, whether you decide I'm gonna be a singer, or I'm gonna be an even better singer, or I'm gonna learn to play guitar, I'm gonna learn to solo in, you know, across the changes in a jazz trio or or whatever it is when you just decide what you will do, there's not much that can stop you.
Again, decision is powerful.
When you decide you will be a singer or even better, you are a singer, that becomes your truth.
No longer identify with, like, I want to or someday, I'll be a singer.
Someday, I'll play guitar.
Wanna learn some chords on that guitar that's in the closet down the hall.
No.
I'm a guitar player.
I'm gonna guitar.
I'm gonna you now identify with I am and I will, and I'm obviously no psychologist or spiritual guru.
I just know what I believe and what has worked for me.
So that's all I can teach you is is what has worked for me.
I'm no expert.
I obviously have many more goals in life than I that I'd like to manifest, and I'll be working towards them.
One of these goals is to help singers and guitar players on their musical journeys.
That's what I'm doing today here.
I hope that this helps you in some small way to know that you are powerful and you can create your goals, musical, or otherwise, but know that you can become a the singer or the player that you desire.
Picture what it would actually feel like every day.
Show up at your practice sessions whether you feel like it or not.
Learn those bar chords, learn to sing that Celine Dion song, or that Whitney song, whatever intimidates you, learn to take those baby steps towards it, know you can do it.
And remember, tenacity is the secret sauce.
Thanks so much for joining me today.
I hope you have, uh, much success in your musical goals this week.
If you're watching on YouTube today and you got some value out of the episode, I would love it if you give us a like and subscribe.
That would be amazing if you're listening on Apple Podcast or whatever podcast provider you listen to if you would follow this show on give us a love review.
That would be so appreciated.
Thanks so much for your time and attention.
I'll see you next time on Grew, sing, and all the things