I get it!

“You can only understand people if you feel them in yourself.” – John Steinbeck

 

As a singer, I studied music but in addition, I studied lyrics. I dove into the stories and words and characters in each song. If the words didn’t resonate with me, then I wouldn’t sing the song. I had to get it under my skin, or had to get under it’s skin, or I couldn’t bring it to life.

 

I believe that we have an obligation to feel the music we are playing. In jazz we have this incredible legacy of great, timeless songs, just out there for us to borrow, learn from and earn a living with even. We have a responsibility too, towards all the writers that poured their heart and soul into each piece. We owe it to them to study them, to get to know a little about them, to try to understand who they were and what they were feeling. What was going on in the world when the piece was written. It is part of the art of interpretation, with or without words. It is easy to spot instrumentalists who do this too. When you stand in front of an audience, it is what you feel that reaches them. Only what comes from the heart can reach the heart. The rest is superficial and illusive. When we feel and sing or play what we feel, we allow the audience to go there too. In this way, even something painful can become something beautiful. To feel that heartbreak allows us to release it from our broken heart’s grip, if but for a moment. That is how healing happens. It happens through an authentic human connection.

 

There is an art to life that I have discovered in my life as an artist. I have found a truth that allowed me to transfer this connection with people. The more I listen to others, the more I understand them and the more I understand myself.

 

Namaste!

Bianca

 

This personal blog was written by Bianca Pittoors. You may “share” it in its entirety. I respectfully request that you respect it as the intellectual property that it is. Thank you!

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