The parable of the Chinese Farmer strikes me as one of the missing components in many pedagogical discussions.

We are so keen to assert:

The larynx must always do this.

Maybe. 

The tongue must always do that.

Maybe. 

The formant has to be tuned THIS way.

Maybe.

Old School wisdom is worthless.

Maybe.

Voice science is the solution to all our problems.

Maybe.

THIS exercise, method, or approach is a guaranteed success.

Maybe.

If you learn to sing classical, you can sing anything!

Maybe.

MAYBE could go a very long way to remaining open – trying things out that we might dismiss as being out of fashion or too novel.

Put this sign above your piano:

MAYBE

 

The whole process of nature is an integrated process of immense complexity and it is really impossible to tell whether anything that happens in it is good or bad – because you never know what will be the consequences or the misfortune, or you never know what will be the consequences of good fortune.

Alan Watts