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Twenty years ago, the first edition of “AriaReady: The Business of Singing” was written by Carol Kirkpatrick. It was created as a workbook, resource, and guide for aspiring singers. It was an instant success. Ten years later, she expanded upon her work, and the second edition also became a best-seller.

Carol's original goal for the AriaReady books and courses we created to support them was twofold: First, she wanted to create a 'Living Company,' an ongoing resource for young singers. She wanted to give emerging singers the 'helping hand' she didn't have when her career began. This was the driving force behind everything Aria Ready!

Unfortunately, Carol passed away from a pulmonary condition called IPF. As her husband and her business partner for nearly four decades, I was devastated. Even so, a few hours before she passed, I promised her I would do my best to finish what she had started by updating and repositioning AriaReady to be passed down to the next generation of singers. With the encouragement of a few of Carol’s successful former students and the support of many more, we are ready to take the first tangible step toward keeping that promise.

So, today, I’m proud to share our vision for AriaReady's future. But, this time… as AriaReady 2.0. AR2.0 will be from an entirely different Point Of View. From a brand new perspective. This time, we will share the AriaReady process from her students' perspective: Today’s successful singers who worked directly, one-on-one with Carol!

We are going to release AriaReady 2.0 in three acts. Act One will be the launch of our new website—which is happening today, on what would have been Carol's birthday, January 6th, 2024. We will continue to offer all three forms of Carol’s book and share testimonials from working singers who have used the AriaReady process. Remember, Carol created everything directly related to the voice or the specifics of singing. But we built all the career & life tools and skills together. So, I know this work and the process it represents intimately. Carol and I taught these workshops and bootcamps for over a decade when we lived in NYC.

Act Two will follow shortly, and it’s still a bit of a surprise to be announced later. A work in process, if you will. But I can tell you this… “You’ll be delighted to hear it!”

Act Three will be the updated rework of all the workshops and Bootcamps. And this time, they’ll be available for you online! If you are or intend to be, a working opera singer, you will not want to miss the opportunity to access the most significant announcement in the history of AriaReady. To be sure you don't miss it, I would highly recommend subscribing to the AriaReady Newsletter, where we will be announcing it first to the AriaReady Community:

Our life-changing approach to the “business of singing” has a 20-year proven track record, as you will soon hear from many of today's singers who worked one-on-one with Carol and have incorporated the AriaReady tools and skills into their careers and lives.

After our first year of business as AriaReady 2.0, and every year after that, we will evaluate how the company is doing. If it has paid for itself, we will create grants for singers to ensure you have the skills, tools, and funding to fulfill your dreams. Thus completing Carol’s second goal for AriaReady.

I would like to reiterate what Carol says in the introduction to the 2nd edition of her book…

“I hope my book and our courses help inspire you to begin the process of knowing the person inside the singer so that you will be ready to confidently continue your journey. First, you are the apprentice, then the mentor. The insights and experiences gained from actively performing and pursuing a singing career are not readily available in any virtual world, book, or class.”

“My philosophy is that each of us is responsible for passing on to the next generation of singers the accumulated information, skills, and tools that we have learned from our own experiences, as well as from those who came before us.”

Carol Kirkpatrick, ARIAREADY: The Business of Singing, 2nd Ed.

We hope that you continue this tradition of passing on the knowledge that you have had the privilege of gaining from those who came before you, along with the lessons you have learned from personal experience to those coming after you.

And so, the journey begins anew…

As Carol was so fond of saying… ”Avanti!”

All of us have had nightmares about forgetting text or musical phrases as we get close to performing new arias or a new role. It’s not uncommon! Often, we feel it is a benchmark for ourselves and others to know if we have truly done the work and are now ready to perform with a company or orchestra.

Sure, the words and music have to be memorized and you definitely need to know what each word means if it is in a foreign language, but there is another element that is often overlooked that helps us connect it all together: It’s crucial that you take the time to really feel the visceral impact from singing one line, while understanding and feeling the emotional support from the accompaniment. Not just when you are singing, but what leads you musically from one phrase to another.

Often in opera, we might be saying one thing and the accompaniment is letting the audience know internally that we are saying something quite different. It might be expressing an even deeper emotion of impatience, happiness, sadness, anger, fear, etc. Practiced this way, with putting together the music, text, and emotions of each line creates a very intimate, in-depth, and detailed understanding required to tell the story through the sound of your voice. You don’t need to do more than that!

So, once your technique is something you don’t have to think about and can trust, it is a simple act of thinking a very small thought in your head as to where you want to lead your character so that the audience can easily feel the emotional impact of the music and text, which will then come through the sound of your voice and be expanded by what the piano, chamber group, or orchestra is saying. This all adds to the emotional and intimate storytelling that sweeps through an audience.

This kind of Intimacy happens only when you commit to relating to every sound and each word on the page deeply and directly, to hearing things you didn’t notice were there before, to constantly discovering new things in a piece of music you thought you already knew. It happens because you love the music so much that you're willing to be stretched by it, to keep listening for more in it, and to keep growing as an artist. We do ourselves an injustice when we don’t take the time to enjoy these intimate opportunities to continue to grow these new skills and tools in our practicing and performing. And the best news is, it’s a lifelong journey.

Avanti!! ​

You are responsible for what happens in your life.

You can’t blame anyone or anything else for your results. If you are tired and frustrated by all the information out there that just doesn’t work for you, take a beat and then think about this:

We are all internally wired differently, use different inner languages (visual, auditory, feeling), exhibit different motivational systems, traits, and behaviors, and thus make different choices. So, I hope you can understand that no one plan works for everyone.

Think of how different it would be to find your goals and a process that gets you excited about doing “it” your way, on your own timetable. Know that creating a plan of action is a very unique and personal quest. Using a structure to either hang it on or not is your choice. What works best for you? This whole process is, simply put, a way for you to know where you are right now, where you want to go, and your estimated time of arrival. It’s not more complicated than that.

Try this: Write down one small goal, something you could perhaps accomplish in a week. It doesn’t have to be about your career. Now, write down all the good things, the perks that you will gain, because you accomplished this goal, including how you will feel. Next, list all the perceived problems, sacrifices, and events that reaching this goal might cost you. And last but not least, ask yourself truthfully: “Is it worth it”? That is one way to start this process and clearly help you decide what it is you DO want.

And lastly, remember that this is not just a means to an end, it is a lifelong journey. So, expect failure, mistakes, and maybe even falling off the horse occasionally. Believe it or not, this is how we learn just about everything. Knowing how you choose to deal with these blips, this feedback, gives you insight into how you, specifically, find the pony in the pile of manure.

Quitting is not a solution. These blips will make you wiser and stronger in your own conviction to make adjustments, corrections, and progress as you move forward. And you will come to realize that you can now measure your own success by looking at the results and outcome of what you have just accomplished.

Bravo, well done!!​

How often do you spend your time and energy on discovering your very own sound, color, dynamics, and the true connection to your own voice? That takes courage, commitment, and fighting your inhibitions. It’s about learning how to bring your own experiences of the emotional content to the words you sing, even if it isn’t a story told in our current time frame.

Sure, in the beginning, one must focus a lot on learning one skill at a time to secure a solid vocal technique. That’s the given. But there comes a time when it all comes together in one extraordinary experience of feeling the deep emotions inside the music and words and unlocking them for the listener.

For singers, we have the joy of portraying a character, living in his/her skin through the emotional intention of the words that then comes through the sound of the voice. What a thrill it is to take your audience on a journey they didn’t expect and which catches them off guard as they become totally caught up in the emotions and story you are building through that character!

You are now able to trust your technique, as you integrate your particular experiences in such a way that you are able to reveal the beauty, the horror, the fear, the craziness of your character that your audience has probably never heard before, because it is you, from deep in your soul, believing in the journey your character is taking.

So, when you are ready technically, release the music through the words that are inside you and allow it to inspire others to demand more of that. And at this stage, continually give yourself permission to create that balance of technique, words, sound, and story. Allow your character to continue to grow and mature as you move forward.

That will make you an original.

Avanti!! And Happy New Year!

Carol​

Whether you read books online and have a virtual library, or create a hard copy book library, it truly can be your “go-to” for inspiration, solving problems, getting info, etc.

I know it can often seem overwhelming as to whose information you should trust and help you make decisions. For me, it is about finding new ways to look at and address old problems and situations.

As audition season approaches, here are some great books that might prove helpful. They are some of my personal, “go-to” books for everything from acting techniques to helping with motivation, figuring myself out, understanding others, and finding that Zen State of being.

Avanti!!

How much time, effort, and sometimes even money have you already spent on trying to figure out how to build a user-friendly, functional, and easily-reachable set of goals? One’s interest, motivation, and all enthusiasm start to wane after a few weeks or months of unsuccessful trying.

Or how about this: You just finished a great summer program and perhaps you were given a goal chart with specific instructions on how to achieve your goals within a particular time frame, which makes no sense to you. How is that working?

Because each of us is internally wired differently and use different inner languages, exhibit different motivational systems, traits, and behaviors, and make different choices, I hope you can understand that no one plan works for everyone. So, decide what you want, why you want it, and how you plan to achieve it, and lastly, be able to measure your success. (Did you reach your goal?). Are the benefits, intentions, and purpose of accomplishing your goal REAL or just some naive fantasy? Logically how long do you believe it will take to accomplish this goal? There is no right or wrong, better or worse, to any of this.

Try this: Write down all the good things, the perks that you will gain because you accomplished this goal, including how you will feel. Next, list all the perceived problems, sacrifices, and events that reaching this goal might cost you. Finally, ask yourself truthfully, "Is it worth it?"

That is one way to start this process and clearly help you decide what it is you do want.

Another roadblock that might pop up is that you haven’t yet found a way that is helpful or relevant in measuring the results of your endeavor. However, once in play, having your own goals set within your own timetable is, in reality, just a way for you to check in from time to time (usually daily) to see if you are moving in the direction you want to be going within your own time frame. Then you can easily measure your success by looking at the results and outcome of what you have just done, adjust if necessary, and move on.

Creating a goal, then a plan of action to reach that goal, simply lets you know where you are right now, where you want to go, and your estimated time of arrival, nothing more complicated than that. This then becomes what is called a Feedback Loop. Nice, right?

How we learn:

  1. Unconscious Incompetence (Didn’t know you didn’t know)
  2. Conscious Incompetence (Realizing you don’t know)
  3. Conscious Competence (You can do whatever it is, but must be and stay focused on what you are doing and how you are doing it)
  4. Unconscious Competence (Now it’s a habit and you just do it without having to think about it.)

Avanti, and ciao until next time.

Whatever one wants to call it — meet and greet, mingling, networking, exchanging ideas, schmoozing, chitchatting, making conversation, etc. — it often becomes a road block because you feel awkward about joining in a conversation or taking the initiative in starting a conversation with just about anyone you don’t know. Until I learned to use some cool skills and tools it was hard for me too. Not anymore. I want to share them with you. They are important because in our industry, you are constantly meeting new folks that might become a resource, or conduit to moving closer to the person who can help you move up the professional ladder. So, let’s talk….

Here are the 3 key ideas:

  1. You must get to know yourself, warts and all. It’s important that you spend some time defining who you are, what it is you want out of life beyond a singing career and what you have to offer as a colleague, friend, or acquaintance. Start by figuring out your deep values, purpose, strengths, and your passion. What is your intention in getting noticed, know and connected? Why is it important to you? What do you hope to gain? What are you offering and what needs will you be fulfilling for yourself and others?
  2. Develop a great opening phrase that let’s others know who you are and what you are about. (When I was young, it was called an elevator speech.) It only takes a few minutes and creates an opening for a real and easy dialogue with others. It might start with who you are, what you do, and why you are doing it. Even if you are shy or feel awkward, when it is complete, it will feel comfortable to say and will ignite your passion. It will open up your “personal” space to include and even go beyond the other person, so conversation flows naturally, and easily. Good communication is not only about you talking, and asking questions, but more about your ability to truly listen, without looking for the perfect retort or cute comeback in your head as they are talking. Work on improving your listening skills. Stay present. (This is a great skill for on stage as well.)
  3. Challenge yourself to get out there and meet new folks. Practice your listening skills. Practice getting good at asking thoughtful questions. And make time to strengthen existing relationships using these new skills and tools, that might be advantageous in getting you to the next step of your career as you continue to practice your communication skills.

As they say, “Practice makes permanent.” Ciao until next time. Carol

P.S. If you have a subject you would like me to write about, let me hear from you.​

With the advent of social media and its continual sprawling growth, we race into the future, and are forgetting how to be human; what being successful means not just in business, but in our personal lives as well. Every time you are exposed to the “media mirror” of some kind of standard out there, you often get confused, frustrated and want to quit because it seems insane and obscures you own value system. There is a way to be successful that you can breach. It starts with taking a step back out of the fray, all that chatter you hear in your head and leaving it “over there”. Once that is done, take a good look at it and see it for what it truly is. Then notice if there is anything worth saving from the pile that is left. If there is, allow it back in and walk away. Ask yourself, “How do I feel?” I bet you will feel lighter, less angry, frustrated and confused. And if the first time doesn’t work, do it again and again until you get it. Common sense still reigns supreme if you allow it. So, start noticing when you are obscuring, and overlaying myths of others value systems of what success means, because that generally leads to self-gratification and eventually to disappointment and emptiness. Instead, have the courage to create your own path, and goals. Any old road can take you to nowhere, so start being honest about your potential, so you can be specific about how best to reach your goals. Ask for help when you need it and know failure and making mistakes are only that, if you don’t learn anything from them.

So start and end each day with this practice of taking that step back out of the fray, leaving it all “over there”, picking through it from the sidelines to see if there is anything you want or need to keep with you as you move on. That is being successful!!

Avanti. Carol​

Often, when one is getting ready to become part of a new or even already familiar Summer Program, it’s easy to let the anxiety and fear of failure run rampant. It’s also easy to forget that being successful almost always requires putting yourself into these new situations that will give you the opportunity to work with interesting and new colleagues that might help further you career and boost your confidence. We tend to do less than our best because we aren’t confident or comfortable enough to approach unfamiliar people and instead, we hope they will come to us. We tend to forget names quickly and are shy saying so. You might be reluctant to ask others for information you need or have questions about things they might expect you to already know. I can tell you from experience that we all feel that way at some point. People can feel awkward and uncomfortable when introducing themselves or asking questions. Throughout childhood, we’re told to avoid strangers and ask questions only after raising a hand. We’re given little formal guidance on how to approach colleagues, or contacts, make introductions, and remember names. And yet, by the time we’re adults, it’s assumed that we’re experts at these basic skills.

So, what’s the best way to move beyond this?

Your job, from my perspective, is to always present and represent your Personal Brand. That means you get to be human and make mistakes and fail. But the good news is, that is how we learn best. Who knew? When you forget someone’s name just fess up and ask again the next time you see them, giving them your name, because they have probably forgotten your name as well. If you need to know something, go to the person with the answer or who can steer you to the person with the answer. Making yourself do this task just once will give you confidence to do it again. And it helps in creating and maintaining relationships that might make for those possible future advancements. It’s about you, being comfortable with representing your Personal Brand when it comes time to implement your plan of action. Not only will you likely get what you want, but this will also allow those in charge to notice what your contribution will be, because you will be representing their Brand as well. Win – win situation!

So, get started getting comfortable with mastering these critical getting-to-know you skills: Introducing yourself, remembering people’s names, and asking questions? How? By having the courage to fail and make mistakes. And remember, practice makes permanent. Avanti!!

As many of you head off to your summer programs or start working on the ones you have created for yourselves, I want you to remember how important it is to stay present, focused, and committed to where you are positioned within your current vocal technique. It takes belief, concentration and confidence in that understanding that helps give you the courage to fight for it as you do your work. This is how you will continue to grow and build this amazing platform to work from as you tell your characters story. Only then, will the story come through the sound of your voice and the words you sing, as your body follows. It is so much easier to do this when you fight for sticking to your present position on the vocal technique platform you have worked so hard, smart, and long to establish. This kind of commitment can be a bit scary. But the best part is at the end of your work you will notice how much stronger, authentic, and habitual your vocal technique has become. As Syrio Forel, Arya’s fencing “water dancer”, said to her, “See what is there. Opening your eyes is all that is needing.” So, stay in your senses and out of your emotions to keep your bearings straight. Avanti and ciao for now. Would love to hear how your work is going this summer, so keep me posted please. ​

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