AS WE come to the end of our time together, I hope you’ll take a moment to think about how far you’ve come and what your next step will be. When we started our journey, we struggled through what probably seemed like an endless array of funny sounds, trusting that those sounds could ultimately create the voice you were meant to have. Whether or not you’ve fully uncovered that voice or are still working hard to develop it, you’ve most certainly started a course of action that can change your life for the better. You are infinitely more aware of the sounds you and others make. You have an understanding of how the vocal instrument actually works and how to make it work for instead of against you. You have seen, and experienced, the overlap between speaking and singing that enriches them both.
There’s always more to learn—the process never stops. You practice, you see how your audience responds—whether it’s one person or a thousand—and you learn the lesson of that experience, then take it into your next appearance. Along the way you keep returning to the basics. You always make sure that the chest voice is connected to the middle and then to the head voice. You daily reinforce your commitment to diaphragmatic breathing and drinking water every time you think of it. You stay sensitive to any physical straining or pressure and then relax your way out of trouble.
The road to mastery is lined with small setbacks. But each time you hit one, I hope you’ll see it for what it is: a simple detour that gives you a chance to bring the most important lessons fully into your body and voice. The voice is one of the most difficult instruments to use well, and a quest for perfection will absolutely end in failure. But a sense of adventure will take you more deeply into the authentic sounds that will express what you want to say and sing.
I don’t believe that being famous is the only way to measure success. The true goal of the work we’ve done is to make you feel gloriously comfortable in your own skin because you sound like who you really are. Of course, once the sounds you make match the person you are, no one is stopping you from seeking fame. If you have that calling—go for it. You’ve already learned more than most professional speakers and singers know about the voice, and that technical grounding will give you a tremendous head start. Remember, too, that you now have the tools to fix any vocal problems that arise along the way.
It’s said that a teacher learns a certain amount from his teachers and then learns what he really needs to know from his students. I’m grateful to the students who have taught me so much—they’re some of the most interesting people in the world and I’m blessed to know them. From now on, I count you among the growing family of students I hold dear. Thank you for your trust and your time.
I hope you’ll continue to speak like you sing, sing like you speak, and enrich the world with the free, powerful, joyous, passionate, and completely individual sounds you were born to make.