Often times when I meet a new friend it goes like this:

What do you do?
I sing.
Oh – that’s awesome! What kind of stuff do you sing?
Jazz! I love the American songbook and jazz standards and I’m just learning to compose myself.
Wow – thats neat. What else do you do? 

The first 50 times I heard this question, I have to admit, I was more than disappointed. Why would I do anything else? …jazz is what I love.

Throughout my musical journey – I’ve pursued thorough musicianship. My husband and I use this term to describe musicians of incredible integrity and completeness. Generally, we can spot this rare musician miles away [Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Jon Hendricks]. Often though, jazz musicians and enthusiasts so admire these artists that they don’t want to analyze how they got that way. Vocalists, in particular have been criticized for slacking in this area – but I’ll get to that another time. I believe that thorough musicianship is attainable. Please understand, at the writing of this post, I do not consider myself a thorough musician yet. However, this is one of the most important goals in my life and I’ve started this blog to help motivate myself and others to pursue the highest level of artistry possible.

I plan to post  music, videos, transcriptions, interviews and excerpts from articles and books. I intend to discuss

learning styles | practice techniques | mediation for performers | vocal technique | diction | transcription methods |  lyric interpretation | pragmatic theory | vocalese | harmonic comprehension for vocalists | composition | melodic language  | set lists | instrumental and vocal comparisons | arranging

and much more!

If you’re interested in the process of becoming a thorough musician I hope you’ll follow my blog and find it a place for creative conversations and encouraging, helpful information.

Again, thanks for checking out my first post, and I hope my blog will help singing musicians (including myself) in their songful journey!