Dear singers,

I am writing these words to you from my very own brain and fingers, without the help of Chat GPT or any of its fellow bots.

I admit that I have already grown weary of both the promotion of AI and the pearl-clutching reaction against it, and I know we're only at the beginning.

And I suspect that most of my discomfort surely comes from the Calvinist bootstrapping demon on my shoulder who is always telling me, "Do it yourself, loser!"

If I'm going to get the gold star (from, ahem, me), I had better be doing the work without shortcuts or assistance - peeling that garlic clove myself, blow drying my own hair and for heavens sake, writing my own emails.

And of course, I can see how ridiculous and arbitrary this is - I do use a computerized library catalog and a food processor and a car.

But when it comes to expressing myself, I'm still a firm believer in DIY.

I don't like it when Outlook suggests what I might want to say to a colleague (with apologies to my colleagues who have received my reactionary idiosyncratic/ornery emails!).

I don't even like it when my iPhone offers to supply the remainder of the word Mississippi at the push of a button - I can provide my own S's, thank you very much.

But what about singing?

While I know that there are lots of fake songs making their way to listeners, it's hard for me to see how live choral music could be replaced by AI, so at least in my professional life, I don't think about it much.

But this week, as I was editing my latest video about audiation (hearing notes or music in your head), I realized it behaves in a very ChatGPT-ish way in music-making.

I think every singer can probably relate to the feeling of overwhelm that can come from trying to give yourself too much technical direction.

Sure, it's great to learn how to lift your palate, breathe with the intercostal muscles, release your lip and align your body, but trying to do all those things at once can really make you feel crazy.

And trying to do them all at once usually results in not doing any of those things particularly well. Grrrrrr.

My Calvinist shoulder demon doesn't seem to be getting me a lot of technical results, and what is coming out of my mouth is definitely not expressive or musical.

Worse yet, I heard over and over from teachers and mentors that technical work belongs in the practice room, but in performance, you should "just sing"??

HOW? WITH THIS SHOULDER DEMON MICROMANAGING EVERY PART OF ME?

Here's where audiation comes in: once I built the skill of silently hearing music in my head, I was eventually able to actually listen to an ideal version of the music I was trying to create while singing out loud.

I didn't have to imagine the ideal phrasing and tone and dynamics and then direct each individual body part to create it.

I could just imagine it while singing, and my body made it happen.

It was like I put my ideal sound into that blinking ChatGPT box and an actual facsimile of it came out of my mouth.

And like ChatGPT, the stronger and more detailed the sound in my head was, the better and more faithful my body's creation sounded.

Also, creating that clear, strong mental ideal took so much concentration that I didn't have room for shoulder demon chatter.

Once in a while, I would need to do a little technical fix on a detail, and at that time, it was great to have my big toolbox of technical ideas, but in general, it was SO FREEING to put the toolbox down and just sing.

And I could switch into that mode by just audiating.

Not only have I enjoyed using this tool in practice, it has been the single most effective counter to performance anxiety that I've ever found.

So what do you think? Is Auditory Imagination the real AI of singing?

If you want to skip the beginning and just watch the part of the video where I talk about this (along with ways to do it), this link should take you to the 14 minute mark where I get into audiating while singing out loud:

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Let me know (and tell me in your own words without using ChatGPT!).

Humanly yours,

Laura

p.s. if expressive singing is something you're curious about or would like some practical tools to improve on, I would love for you to join us for tomorrow's workshop (Saturday at 11ET), Speak.

This workshop is especially close to my heart, as we'll be doing many of my favorite exercises to help you sing more expressively while boosting your technique.

If you've ever felt like diction, expression, and technique were locked in a cage fight in your brain and mouth, this is definitely the workshop for you.

It's going to be a good one!

​https://theweeklywarmup.kit.com/products/workshop-5-speak​

(Video recording available if you can't make it in person and conductors, this one will be especially helpful to you!)