When I was a kid, my Dad would sometimes join a group of Barbershoppers for Friday lunch at a hotel downtown Vancouver. After enjoying their food, they would go into the old, tiled bathroom and sing together where the sound would reverberate beautifully. They must have enjoyed it a lot, since they went back week after week.
This past Monday my quartet, Noise, sang at an Open House held by The Squares. We wanted to warm up together before singing for the guests, so the four of us slipped into the spacious bathroom and sang one of our favourites, Feelin’ Good. In order to really engage our listening and connect to each other, we even turned off the lights! The result was nothing short of magical: we were so connected to each other and the sound was so lovely, it was pure pleasure – and THAT allowed us to forget about anything technical, which was already in place anyway. It was an ideal ‘warmup’ before performing.
My main point is this: aiming for pleasure and connection allows technique to fall into place automatically… and the inverse is definitely not true. Aiming for perfect technique will not produce pleasure and connection, ever, so you might as well aim for pleasure!