The Olympics started off with a horrific tragedy during a Luge practice run, which resulted in the loss of young Nodar Kumaritashvli from the country Georgia..

The Ceremony had already been a beautiful display of art and music, educating us about the history and bringing together the many aboriginal nations that inhabit Canada. And the ceremony became even more potent with the many reverences in honor of Nodar Kumaritashvli, such as when the audience stood up honoring the small delegation from Georgia as they entered the stadium.

While the word love was never mentioned, on display these coming  weeks are people who truly love what they do, and fearlessly do what they love.

I give John Furlong the first gold for his excellent performance.  Here is his speech:

With Jack Poole and Nodar Kumaritashvli in our hearts, and standing on the shoulders of every Canadian, I commit that the men and women of Vancouver 2010, our partners and our friends, are ready to deliver the performance of a lifetime.

It may seem like I have lost my mind since conventional wisdom says you should never mess with a winning formula. And it is true, people from all over the world – from Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, Europe (including Sweden, England, Finland, France, Israel and more) as well as people from all over the USA and Canada – have raved about the results they have gotten from the course. And this is in despite of the fact that the marketing for this course has been minimal. (Nothing beats word of mouth.)

So why on earth would I discontinue it?

For the last decades I have been pondering how to make these strategies to free the voice – strategies that have been unknown to most – available and useful for anybody. I know from my own experience how life-transforming it can be to experience a newfound sense of freedom to sing – whether you regularly sing in front of thousands of people or just want to feel good with friends. My task is to develop a system so beneficial that anyone can experience this sense of empowerment of being a great singer.

The short story is this: As happy as I am that the course has been so helpful for so many, something better, even greater is in the works. Frankly, what is soon to be launched is a voice training system so powerful, so revolutionary, that it is completely unmatched by anything you have ever seen. I know these are big words, but the words don’t come from me, they come from the results of other people – beginners to pros. Here are just a few of the many emails I’ve received recently:

"First of all, I would like to say a big thank you for your product. From lesson 1 alone I learnt so much about my voice. I come from having 3 singing teachers, multiple online products including…. (product name left out as courtesy to colleagues)… and honest to God I have never learnt as much as I have from those 50 minutes of instruction!"   Daniel Yuen – Canada

"I have been singing for the past 9 years and took voice lessons from 3 different teachers before. But nothing can compare to what Per’s 6 week on-line lessons have taught me. I always felt learning to sing is far to hard and complicated. But then, the truth now becomes that I have never felt learning to sing can be so effortless and simple. It’s truly God’s blessing to have Per. Awesome!!!   Mike Lee, Worship Leader – Malaysia

"I feel like I’ve been liberated to explore my own abilities. I’ve found that singing is very therapeutic. It releases stress and calms me down. This course was definitely a life-enhancer for me. Thanks for everything, Per"   Albert Huerta

Anyway, forgive me if you were planning to hop on the course only to find it unavailable. Shortly, I will give you all the details on what is about to come and how you can benefit from being the first to know about it.  

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However, there were two sequences that stuck out for me as great examples to learn from. I’m talking about one guy’s “mistake” – a mistake I’ve made many times – and one girl’s great success…  

First, we had the guy who had planned some “witty comebacks” in the event he would be hammered by Simon Cowell.  Unfortunately for him, his pre-planned witty comebacks failed miserably.

I learned from my first date that the plan of saying something witty in a nervous situation falls flatter than a soufflé from a rooftop. 

Have you ever walked into a situation planning what to say and then walk out beating yourself up over how idiotic it sounded, or over what you should have said instead? Maybe you also realized that you really weren’t present most of the time, because you were in your head, anticipating and trying to find the right moment to say it.

In this case it was even worse, because the guy had already programmed himself for failure, by expecting that he was going to be hammered. Not only could we sense the resistance from the get-go, but the resistance turned to hostility when his “wittiness” fell flat.

Rather than being self-conscious about finding the right moment to say what you have planned, you are better off being open and spontaneous. Maybe you’ll even come off as witty. 

And then we had the girl who sang “How can I live without you” just days after her dad had passed away: Wow. That she could pull it off in the first place was quite remarkable. But what made her performance so powerful? Did you notice that she was not trying to express pain? She was going for the opposite. She was singing to celebrate, to honor. It’s not that she was holding back the pain. It’s not that she didn’t feel the pain. It was there all right. Bit what she did was to focus on the opposite, and by doing so, her emotions became even more powerful. It became even more emotional for us – the audience.

This is what we need to learn as actors, singers, presenters and performers: If you feel it, you don’t need to act it.

The classic example for actors is in regard to playing drunk: When a beginners actor tries to play drunk, he will stumble and try to speak in a slurry manner. The real drunk does the exact opposite. The real drunk does everything he can to walk straight and speak clearly.

Singers easily fall into the trap of trying to “emote”. They try to produce the emotion they think is appropriate for the song. The tendency then is that they come across as fake and self-indulgent – and distance themselves from the audience. There is a difference between producing emotions and allowing emotions to happen.

This girl didn’t try to act/produce sadness, pain and loss. She felt it for real and sang the song going for the opposite instead – to honor and celebrate. That is mighty powerful.

This is why I believe in training the singer, speaker, and actor to release their instrument (physical and “inner” voice) to feel free, confident and spontaneous. Then you don’t need to produce or “act” emotion, but become a really interesting, truthful and unique performer.

2007 is coming to an end and we are about to set things in motion to make 2008 our best year ever. Right? You bet 2008 is going to be your best year ever. But in order to make that happen we need to reflect – reflect on the year that has been. Rather than listing things you have accomplished and or acquired, let’s look inwards and reflect on what you discovered this last year? What have you experienced? What have you learned? Many times we forget to reflect, or rather we don’t want to. The reason for that is simple…

Ask any person who you consider successful or who you admire for some reason, and you will hear that the success could never have been experiences without the many challenges, the many “failures” during the journey. The so-called “failures” are phenomenal as long as we embrace them. 

Resilience is perhaps the most important trait we can foster as human beings. Resilience is the ability to recover and bounce back – physically, mentally, spiritually. The better and faster we are able to bounce back… or let’s put it this way: The better and faster we are able to learn – the greater the likelihood of success.

So as you reflect, the tendency might be to list things that have not gone as great as they “could”.  Then realize that the mere recognition of the challenges that you have faced, the discovery of how you handled them, is invaluable information. Every learning experience and every discovery is a successful experience if you embrace them as such.

I hereby challenge you to follow through on an exercise; and that is to reflect on your successes – especially in relation to your voice (singing or speaking), performance and communication, but also life in general. In a couple of days I will challenge you to envision 2008 – your best year ever. However, you cannot do so effectively without first having reflected. 

I challenge you to formulate your experiences in writing and post them as a comment below. What have you discovered about your voice, your passion for singing, your desire to learn, your love for life?. Have you perhaps discovered, experienced, and learned something on our journey together – whether you’ve been a private student, participated in the online singing course, or been a newsletter subscriber? Is there something you know about your voice and/or about yourself that you didn’t know a year ago? What can you do, what do you know today that you didn’t know a year ago? Etc.. 

I just saw “Stomp Out Loud” in Las Vegas. What a show! All of the cast members are master percussionist using both hands and feet, creating the most amazing rhythms together. Talk about team work. And what is so fascinating is how they master the art of non-verbal communication. Not a word is spoken throughout the entire show, and we don’t miss words one bit. In fact, adding words would have been completely superfluous. And in addition to their masterful communication via sound and rhythm, the show is funny – really funny. In fact, my kids, nine and six years-old, were howling in laughter. 

Obviously, in a show of this caliber, there was none of the old school theatrical gesturing to make a point – just honest, truthful communication. A gesture here, a wink here, a sigh here was all that was needed.

Often when people teach or speak of the art of non-verbal communication they often speak of posture, gestures, how to stand, how to look people in the eye, etc. Physicality is no doubt important in communication. However, many who follow this kind of advice end up coming across as artificial. They haven’t learned or developed the inner process of non-verbal communication. 

While actors these days are all into achieving a completely truthful emotional state in the given circumstances – a state of “being” rather than “acting” – many speakers still take on a “speaker stance” and act their speech rather than be and communicate truthfully. 

In “Stomp Out Loud”, every little emotional response to their fellow actors or to the audience came across beautifully because the behavior was true. As a result, the show was fascinating, engaging and extremely funny.

Maybe you saw the video clip in the last blog post of Mister Rogers testifying in the US Senate? I thought I’d follow up that clip with yet another fascinating speech by Fred Rogers. And I think you’ll agree that this applies just as much to the rock singer, lawyer or salesperson as it does to the speaker.

Growing up in Sweden, I never saw "Mister Rogers Neighborhood."  I’ve seen some programs here and there, since I moved to the U.S., but I never grew up following his programs. Too bad perhaps. After seeing the video of his 1969 speech in the Senate, which I addressed in the last blog post, my admiration for him has grown even more.  Not only for what he has done for childrens education, but also for his communication skills. If you haven’t read that post and watched the video of Mister Rogers speak to the senate, do so first.

So to follow up on that blog post, let’s address what is going on here, why he is so effective, and what we can learn from it – like I said, whether we are rock singers, negotiators, speakers, or any kind of communicator…

A comment from the last blog regarding him testifying in the Senate reflected on his voice.  (Great comment by the way.. thanks.. keep them coming).  My response is that is not about how someone sounds, it is about why someone sounds they way they sound. Is his voice restricted? Not really. Is it forced? Not really. Is it free? I would say so. Is he a great singer? Some would say not. I would say he is absolutely great for what he does. He speaks and sings just the way he does, with freedom.

As you watch Fred Rogers’ Lifetime Acheivement Award speech, notice what he does.  While many would speak of "I… I… I", he turns it into "you… you… you".  Everything he says is in regard to how it applies to others. Is it a trick? No, he is genuinly interested in other people – this was his life.  Watch how he relates to the child in the song, how his presence is all about communicating. His goal is not to "sing the song well", to hit pretty notes or show off his voice, His goal is to communicate with the child. And he succeeds fantastically well. Therefore, he is in my mind a great singer – perhaps one of the greatest in his genre. 

Even in his speech to the senate, he turns it into "you" and other people (the children in this case). He is undoubtedly deeply passionate about the subject matter. He is genuine and authentic and we get a sense of his knowledge and strength in children’s education. Yet, most of all what makes him so effective is that he relates to the Senator. He speaks to him – no, he speaks with him. 

In the first couple of sentences he relates to the senator  with "I trust you" in a completely non-threatening way. He doesn’t become distracted by the Senator’s questions, he welcomes them, takes them in and he feeds off them. He relates to the Senator’s goosebumps. He turns the Senator into his ally – his friendly neighbor if you will.

Next time you sing a song, recite a poem, deliver a speech or presentation, ask yourself:  "How does this relate to my listener?" -  "How does this relate to you – the audience?"

Here is Fred Rogers in his Lifetime Achievement Award speech

I wrote about what he said in the interview (see the interview here) which gave us a glimpse into the reason for this sense of freedom and release that comes through in his singing.  He said: "My voice has always been my best friend.  If I was having problems with bullies at school, I always had my voice to fall back on."

Now for you who are working on your voice, I have a question, which I would love your comment on…

If we look at our voice as our best friend, then:

• Does our best friend have to be perfect? 
• Is it okay if our best friend slips and stumbles once in a while? 
• Do we force our best friend to do what we want to do? 
• Might our best friend improve if we work together as a team? 
• Would we mind spending time with our best friend - perhaps a lot of time?  
• Do we do the same thing with our best friend over and over, or might it be fun to go on some adventures and experience new things in order to develop?

What is your voice to you?  How do you treat it?