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Last Saturday I took my very first vocal lesson. And with fool’s bravado I’d decided to challenge my singing skills in a style that was way beyond anything I had ever tried to mimic. Viva cante flamenco! Olé!

If I may say so myself, I think I’ve got a decent grasp of singing in pop, rock, r&b, and maybe a tincture of jazz. And as I was continuing to expand my repertoire it was in my selection of Ojos De Brujo songs for my next music video that I turned toward myself and said two things: “Man! I can’t do that!” and “I need control.”

You might be asking what I mean by “control.” Since I’m looking for a greater array of abilities, for examples to slow and deepen my Joan Baez-like vibrato and to add thickness to my voice, I realized that to have choice also means to have a practical level of technical mastery (something violinist Itzhak Perman had also affirmed) in replicating that choice. Otherwise I’d just be dreaming and stuck in the remnants of old habits.

Listening to the extremely talented Marina Abad (lead vocalist of Ojos De Brujo) duck, weave, and hit vocal beats and melodies almost make other sung genres sound boring by comparison with their elongated notes and minimal use of embellishments. Though she sings in fusion the Ojos De Brujo catalog clearly has their roots written in flamenco.

As I rev up my chops to begin my own songwriting on a more regular basis, I felt I needed refinement. I needed to solidify what was going to be a mainstay of my voice that would last me for some time yet could provide a strong enough base should I elect to branch out stylistically. My own music videos document the originating songs I had covered come from a variety of genres which, in effect prompted me to question could [+] fusion make for a solid foundation [+]? It’s great to be able cover all these songs since I feel a connection with them. But doing so also made me realize the songs are still bending me toward their sound leading me to believe I haven’t stirred the pot thoroughly enough to have made them my own. And if you’ve noticed I haven’t been posting up music videos lately that’s because I needed a break. I needed to take a break from recording to reflect upon my progress, to develop my singing voice, a little less importantly to design this blog site, and to get in touch with the writing process.

The latter, for instance, has at times come to me as a flooded rush, a nagging clamor, a perforated string of thoughts, among others. However for the most part it is an elusive battle when I try to make it into a logical list of chores or a prescribed habitual function. When I reach down for my roots though I could gain a sense in piecemeal how inspiration and passion flows in—best described as a meta-consciousness or somewhat like a meditative trance. Elizabeth Gilbert, author of “Eat, Pray, Love” gives historical insights at a TEDTalks conference how we can be reminded of that process:

With resounding similarities, I could also mention a couple other references to how creativity is generated.

In a traditional Balinese seance, dancers would gather around to rhythms and tones of repeatedly-struck patterns. At some point one or some of the dancers would be so entranced by the intention to invoke the gods that their movements would become jutted and convoluted, acting out the form of what the spirit may be. Movements became so uncontrollable that it would require the strength of at least ten men to hold him down and snap him out of the trance. Nonetheless the manifestation of the desired calling works.

In another interview with singer-songwriter Peter Himmelman I was equally encouraged by his process of songwriting. For him to create a song is “to get yourself in like a dream state” followed by a process of musical experimentation that bring goosebumps whenever something seemingly meaningful came in. To him this was music with purpose despite the uncertainty of it ever being exploited for commercial use.

The second half of Gilbert’s speaking engagement sheds further light on this process. And if you’ve still been wondering what the word “Olé” has anything to do with the title of this post, watch on towards the final part of the following video to find the uncanny reference to my recent flamenco activity:

Olé oh Lord. Olé to us all. Olé.

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