{"id":2860,"date":"2013-10-20T14:04:30","date_gmt":"2013-10-20T18:04:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rockwellblake.com\/blog\/?p=2860"},"modified":"2014-11-27T18:37:32","modified_gmt":"2014-11-27T22:37:32","slug":"professional","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rockwellblake.com\/blog\/2013\/10\/20\/professional\/","title":{"rendered":"Professional"},"content":{"rendered":"

Life is too complicated for this tenor to keep things straight. I have been meandering through many muddy mental matters trying to work out how to clarify them all, and I am only becoming aware of the futility of my quest as the number of ideas competing for my attention becomes impossibly large. Even this tenor can now see that too much is just too much. I\u2019ve got to put these thoughts in some sort of order, but even ordering them is beyond my ability\u2026.. So let\u2019s forget order and try random access to my mind\u2019s thought pool and put a few on the blog.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Wikipedia<\/a> is one of my favorite catalysts, and I will blame it for today\u2019s bit of clarity. I went there to get an idea of what the \u201cHigh Minded\u201d thought the words \u201cProfessional and Professionalism<\/a>\u201d mean.<\/strong><\/p>\n

What a fabulous monster I found. I have spent a lifetime using a word that now means the opposite of my understanding.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In my development as a singer, I was always aware of the bits of artistic genius that passed in front of me from my very advantageous position on the stage with some really wonderful singers. The artists from whom I stole the largest number of tools of the singing trade set a high bar for me to jump. I thought of the word \u201cProfessionalism\u201d as being printed in large letters right in the middle of that bar. I did my best to organize what Renata Booth<\/a> taught me and everything I lifted from the best of the professionals around me to bring my work on the stage as close to that (Professionalism) bar as I could, even if I might have failed, in my own eyes, to attain-to it. Click here<\/a> to see the lowest point I can think of for setting that bar.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Wikipedia has dug a trench for that bar.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cqualified professionals are less creative and diverse in their opinions and habits than non-professionals,\u201d<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"ProHobo\"<\/a>

Modern Professional Creativity<\/p><\/div>\n

I did a little criticism of this attitude of \u201cmediocre is like so happening\u201d in \u201cSoup and Sandwich<\/a>\u201d and wish I were able to leave it alone with that single blog, but the cloud of witnesses against my point of view is too dense to let me walk away from the subject. As I kept my eye on Ann Midget<\/a> after my blog \u201cSo Why Should Anyone Belt?<\/a>\u201d, I ran across her husband, Greg Sandow<\/a>. I guess he could be labeled a professional consultant, even within the limits of the definition of \u201cProfessional\u201d that the professional thinkers and writers at Wikipedia are keen on selling. I subscribed to Greg\u2019s blog, and he recently kicked the hornet nest of thoughts that trouble my tenor brain with the gem:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cBetter to aim low, I might think, and plan small, practical steps, and then be surprised when things take off. Better that than to start off expecting big things, and then fall on your face when they don’t happen quickly.\u201d<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/sandow\/2013\/10\/from-liza-figueroa-kravinsky-you-scratch-my-back.html<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Perhaps we could call Greg a professional \u201cinhibition consultant\u201d.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I could live with the above advice if we were talking about a bicycle I may buy for nearly nothing at a garage sale, or walking out my front door intending to burn up a few calories jogging during an ice storm that \u201cClimate Change\u201d is supposed to eliminate for us Rock Eaters of the far North. It is a long way from the philosophy I followed when I first thought to become a \u201cprofessional singer\u201d, and I believe I shared that \u201cReach for the stars\u201d attitude with my colleagues who became successful professionals. Just because a few inevitably disappointed individuals shared this \u201cDevil may care\u201d manner of pursuing the profession does not make INHIBITION a better policy for all aspirants to professional status. Especially when the majority of the disappointed from among my generation were actually following Mr. Sandow\u2019s advice and had all the inhibition he might think they needed.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Wikipedia serves well to bring into focus the thinking of the chattering class<\/a>, and Mr. Sandow\u2019s profession would seem to make him a chattering charter member. His advice for professionals to go \u201clow ball\u201d in their expectations would seem to fit right in with Wikipedia\u2019s \u201clow ball\u201d estimation of the creativity a \u201cProfessional\u201d can be expected to possess. Both these opinions fit together very well with Karen Sell\u2019s attitude that interpretation\/\u201cartistry\u201d is by nature innate and un-teachable. (See \u201cSoup and Sandwich<\/a>\u201d). Since professionals are supposed to lose the ability to be creative through the very education process Wikipedia asserts as necessary for attaining to \u201cProfessionalism\u201d, and Karen Sell believes creativity is ultimately un-teachable it would seem logical that Mr. Sandow would advise low expectations for any effort a \u201cProfessional Artist\u201d may make in \u201ccreating\u201d a career. What is education for, anyway?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"the-professional<\/a>My last bash at this subject will be to reiterate my opinions contained in my blog \u201cBarcelona and Friends<\/a>\u201d. The people with whom I collaborated in Barcelona, mostly from Mr. Sandow\u2019s chattering class, seemed to agree with Mr. Sandow\u2019s opinion that a \u201clow aim\u201d is better than a big disappointment. As we gathered to see and hear young people show their desire to be, preparation for and accomplishment of \u201cProfessional\u201d, the largest vocal gifts, the biggest and riskiest bets, were eliminated early. The less gifted and more \u201cProfessional\u201d, according to Wikipedia and effectively the least impressive, were promoted to the final. Those \u201cWikipedia Professional\u201d artistic organizers voted their agreement with Mr. Sandow, and guaranteed my ultimate boredom in that magnificent theatre: Li\u00e7eu. Those Vi\u00f1as participants who have the greatest likelihood to attain to my definition of \u201cProfessional Singer\u201d were just too \u201ciffy\u201d in the eyes and ears of the supporters of the status quo. I wish those Wikipedia favored youngsters well, but I believe they are part of the problem that troubles even Mr. Sandow. Click here<\/a> to see the first blog that I was happy to receive from him after I subscribed. There are no coincidences.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Crisis is what it\u2019s about.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What do you think of when you hear the word “Professional” used in conversation? What image comes to mind when you hear someone paste \u201cProfessional\u201d to the word \u201cSinger\u201d?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2867,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,4,55,85,51,50],"tags":[279,281,282,280,37,278,65,277],"class_list":["post-2860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-featured","category-living","category-opera","category-singing","category-teaching","tag-ann-midget","tag-chattering-class","tag-crisis","tag-greg-sandow","tag-professional","tag-professionalism","tag-renata-booth","tag-wikipedia"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rockwellblake.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/the-professional-upload-text-lower.jpg?fit=891%2C594&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2kj1l-K8","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rockwellblake.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rockwellblake.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rockwellblake.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rockwellblake.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rockwellblake.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2860"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/rockwellblake.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2860\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3562,"href":"https:\/\/rockwellblake.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2860\/revisions\/3562"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rockwellblake.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rockwellblake.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rockwellblake.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rockwellblake.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}