My Blog

Left, right and centre

Mon, 14 May 2012 12:54:41 +0100

Can we really be categorised as left or right brained to the extent that we’ve been led to believe? I propose that this point of view is primarily a symptom of a society that feels safer if people are neatly placed in boxes.

Is not everybody able to be creative and logical to an extent? Perhaps to varying degrees, but how much of those proportions are a product of nurture rather than truly of nature? And how many people struggle to either see themselves as both creative and logical or struggle with conflicts between those two parts of their nature, split between two ways of looking at the world and their part in it?

Whilst many mostly logical left-brain dominant people may fail to regard themselves as creative, right-brain dominant people may fail to regard themselves as logical. There are others that struggle to bring balance to their apparent contradictions and internal conflicts.

One of the most prevalent attributes that creatives are likely to struggle with is perfectionism. Whilst it can drive them to throw themselves fully into their art it can also propel them away from it. The fear of not being able to live up to what they hope to achieve can be completely stifling. In addition, for many, it can feel like a personality trap that they feel isolated by.

Such a person may feel like they are their own worst enemy and unable to understand their own contradictory thoughts and behaviour. They may feel degrees of self-loathing as a result of their actions being inconsistent with their aspirations and desires.

I stumbled upon a left/right brain dominance test on the net. www.rightbrainintelligence.com/braindominanttest.htm The difference with this test is that it is carried out on the basis of realising that a lot of people have a lot of cross over and potential conflict between their two brain hemispheres and their related traits.

The test showed me that I have a lot of cross over and made me realise why I experience so many apparent contradictions and conflicts. 50% of the time I am able to follow my right brain or left brain, but potentially the other 50% of the time I can be undecided. And I am unlikely to be alone in my frustrations of this manner.

Perhaps the education system would benefit significantly by investing in helping people to harmonise their left and right brain attributes, and show them how to resolve internal cognitive conflicts. A lot of gifted people would reach their potential sooner if that was seen as fundamentally important in their more formative years.

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Even the rocks...

Mon, 17 May 2010 12:21:21 +0100

Why do certain activities get treated so differently to others. For example, the arts are treated as things that only gifted people or those under therapy through it should enter into.

Eg Someone wanting to feel and sound better when they sing - if people deem them as not having talent, then pursuit of improvement would be thought a delusion of grandier, where as, if someone wanted to improve their maths or English, it would be regarded as wrong to deny them that. No one assumes a mathematician wants fame but everyone assumes that a singer does!!! Am I the only one that finds those presumptions strange?

My gripe is with a society that perpetuates the myth that success is about fame and/or fortune and that therefore talent equals those things and that, in turn, there is a cut off point for any participation if someone shows less than an acceptable amount of talent. It is 'beyond their reach', 'what right do they have to think that they...' etc.

Singing is a wonderful, enjoyable, natural thing. It should feel comfortable, freeing and left to it's own devises it can draw people to God. Enjoying singing and desiring to improve is perfectly natural and shouldn't come attached to assumptions and judgement from others.

Who has the problem, the person who just loves to sing and wants to improve and really does need to, or the person that automatically categorises such a person as a crack-pot who should recognise their place in life?

Even if the person thinks it's about becoming famous - isn't that just a society wide miss-understanding of the purpose of singing, who can blame the individual. If they genuinely love to sing then that should be honoured (as that is a God-given desire to worship Him, that is simply just not understood as such as yet).

Helping someone to see the real purpose of singing is about mindset, personality and character. But the beautiful opportunity of building character and correcting wrong-thinking is not spotted by those whom equally attribute fame/fortune to success.

The difference between the two: the one who still wants to pursue, well, they still have hope - be it wrongly placed. The other doesn't. Killing hope doesn't produce understanding or character. It is a quick fix by those whom don't see the possibilities beyond their own insular idea of what singing is really for. Who should be entertained by our singing? Ultimately God, right!

Correct vocal technique is good for a persons health, well being and self-esteem and incorrect vocal technique is bad for those things. Singing is deeply personal and changes/improvements can have a profound effect on people that otherwise may not occur.

God never created people to be worshipped, he created them to worship him. Even the rocks... Right? So why not the one who loves to sing but doesn't yet know why?

I long for the day when singing will be treated in a like manner to any other activities, viewed no more fame-seeking than doing the washing up. God doesn't deem singing 'out of someones reach', He designed us all with strings and pipes and He longs to hear His children sing praises :-) Even the rocks....

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If you would like to comment on this blog please email me at
singingtraining@mandysinging.com
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Thank you

It’s not over till the little lady sings!

Mon, 18 May 2009 22:52:14 +0100

Well, another month has flown by, another year in my life gained, another valuable lesson learnt. The voice is such an amazing thing, and one that I feel is only over shadowed by the God who created it. See last weekend I experienced a real down vocally, hadn’t been singing, so singing was definately not the cause. Had a throat ache that came about through a neck ache, brought on by creating a bad habit of how I slept on my neck. I’m still working on getting rid of the habit, but have started to.

But through a concentrated effort to relax and warm up beyond the norm and the intervention of a God that never fails, my voice went beyond capacity and peaked by the end of the week. See, it ain’t over till the little lady sings. Cos when I know ‘I can’t’ I definately know that ‘He can’ and that he will when I know for sure that I’m just a vessel for him to sing through. And it is indeed my joy and pleasure to be just that.

I know for sure, that there are times when I swear my mouth opens after the sound comes out. No one can ever convince me that I am the sole-producer of the voice that comes out, I know it is above and beyond my capability, I’m well aware that it’s too good to be the result of my effort. A perfect picture right there of Gods grace, ‘which he has lavished upon us’. Totally mind-boggling and awesome! :-)

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If you would like to comment on this blog please email me at
singingtraining@mandysinging.com
along with the name you would like to appear on your comment.
Thank you