The Performing Life

Sharon Mabry

doi:10.5771/9780810884090

Summary

The Performing Life: A Singer’s Guide to Survival is the first-hand account of the 35-year career of singer, music professor, and recording artist Sharon Mabry, who draws on personal experience to explore how professional singers survive in the face of personal and professional pressures, exorbitant expectations, illness, and the demands of their public. She details the factors that can change the course of a particular performance or an entire career. Mabry offers sage advice for how singers can bolster themselves mentally, physically, and emotionally in order to maintain their powers of performance.

Divided into two parts The Performing Life focuses first on such basics as the need for extensive preparation, discovering your performance niche, acquiring mentors, determining your “maintenance level,” finding a strong support system, learning how and what to organize, and discovering how to groom body and mind. In the second half, Mabry draws on her wealth of personal stories to dig more deeply into such seemingly mundane but absolutely critical matters as personal health (illness, food allergies, insomnia), logistical challenges presented by venue location and performance dynamics, and the difficulties off-stage organized by the recording studio. In all instances, Mabry illustrates how perseverance, organization, attention to detail, excellent training, strong planning, a resilient support system, and a good sense of humor can lead to a successful and satisfying career during even the most difficult times.

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Bibliographic data

Copyright year: 2012
ISBN-Print: 978-0-8108-8408-3
ISBN-Online: 978-0-8108-8409-0
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham
Language: English
Pages: 167
Product type: Book Titles

1. Contents No access
2. Preface No access
3. Acknowledgments No access
1. 1. Learn Early to Persevere No access
  2. Collect Mentors No access
  3. Expand Your Horizons No access
  4. Reminders! No access
2. 1. Find Your Niche No access
  2. Declutter and Move On No access
  3. Know Your Maintenance Level No access
  4. Reminders! No access
3. 1. Eliminate the Negative No access
  2. Develop a Routine No access
  3. Don’t Spill the Beans No access
  4. Reminders! No access
4. 1. What Not to Perform No access
  2. What Not to Wear No access
  3. What Not to Say No access
  4. Reminders! No access
5. 1. Know Your Stuff No access
  2. Get Organized No access
  3. Speak Up No access
  4. Reminders! No access
6. 1. Be Collaborative No access
  2. Develop a Support System No access
  3. Toast Your Hosts No access
  4. Reminders! No access
7. 1. Plan for Success No access
  2. Develop a Workable Lifestyle No access
  3. Design a Balanced Life No access
  4. Reminders! No access
1. 1. Learn to Read Maps No access
  2. Beware of Alleys No access
  3. Check Equipment Twice No access
  4. Ignore the Dissonance No access
2. 1. Ask the Waiter Twice No access
  2. Have a Progressive Dinner No access
  3. Where’s the Beef? No access
3. 1. What Time Is It? No access
  2. Call for Help No access
4. 1. Choose Pets Carefully No access
  2. Know Your Blood Type No access
  3. Don’t Panic No access
5. 1. Friend a Piano Technician No access
  2. Record at Your Own Risk No access
Appendix: Fifty Practical Pointers for Performers No access Pages 163 - 164
Suggested Reading No access Pages 165 - 166
About the Author No access Pages 167 - 167