"Hammer" Your "Instrument" then Fix it and then What...? Continue "Hammering" it? Or... Learn How to "Play" on it... PROPERLY!

Let's imagine that a so called piano player, instead of playing properly the given instrument, is constantly hammering on it, instead of playing on it with both hands and using the right intensity, as expected.

Please take a wild guess to what could happen next...?

It is inevitable that their instrument (piano in this case) will fall to pieces. Then what?

Then, the best piano technician will be employed to put together that wonderful instrument and sometimes even make it better sounding and performing than the original had ever been.

And why not?

Now the aforementioned piano has new strings, new PIANO hammers, and all together, new "bells and whistles". The only thing that would be needed is a good piano player who would make it sound even better and will not break that instrument in a short order again.

But instead...?

The player still has a "hammer" in his hand, which, unfortunately,  has never gotten to be removed in first place!

And what do you think he would do now?

Nevertheless, he will be hammering with the new acquired strength and harder than before, as he would want to prove to himself and to the world that everything is fine now and nothing like that will ever happen again...?

But to his and his peer's surprise, now coming... THE PAYOUT TIME.

By the law of averages and any remote logic, that wonderful, perhaps "Steinway" instrument will end up broken to pieces... ONE MORE TIME AGAIN!

How sad, you may exclaim!

It is indeed! But what did you expect?

The manner of playing has never been changed, the "hammer" was never removed from the players hand, and in the case of the singer, the "knife" was never taken from his hand, which, metaphorically speaking, he was continuously trying to put into his throat.

The musicians worldwide employ a very well known saying - "No gig lasts forever".

And it is right.

IT EVIDENTLY DOESN'T!

At least so far, nobody proved it otherwise that it will.

Look at John Mayer now. He had a second occurrence of the growth on his vocal anatomy.

Why is that, you may ask?

That is because NOTHING HAS BEEN CHANGED, except his "instrument" was fixed, before he started "hammering" (however softly in his case) on it again. And as a result, now he is going on an indefinite hiatus for his vocal rest and perhaps another operation.

Will the second operation help? Yes, it might.

But it might also produce the scar tissue and thus, the "instrument" will not be as sound as before, not to mention that the "player", has not changed anything just yet with respect of his vocal care and vocal technique. I hope, though, that he will in the near future, as otherwise, now on both counts, the next "VOCAL CRASH" will be inevitable.

Adele, while interviewed by Anderson Cooper before the Grammy Awards, was asked outright, if she thought that she could have another occurrence of a loss of voice, and she responded without any doubt in her mind or any hesitation, "Yes, of course".

She mentioned a future tour where she would have to perform in over 200 venues and thus, she naturally had a predicament, that the similar problem with her voice she just experienced several months ago, would no doubts occur again.

Being very smart and now quite experienced, she too knows that nothing in particular has really changed in her own vocal performance/application of her voice. What changed, is that she acquired a much better, so to speak "instrument" to "play on". But she also knows that it's only a matter of time before that "instrument" also begins to "break", unless something would have drastically changed with the perhaps newly adapted vocal technique.

If her next tour will indeed consist of at least 200 concerts, the wear and tear on her vocal anatomy (and on anybody else's for that matter) will be enormous, especially when, in a real sense, the singer(s) do not know what they are doing vocally (technically speaking), except, so to speak, "playing it by ear".

And in the case where you really don't know, and you are "shooting" your sound blindly, while also keeping your fingers crossed, hoping to get through the gig, your chances are very high that you might not be able to deliver your performance without the occurrence of the vocal trauma.

Adele admitted that she had anxiety attacks before the performances and when she was asked why by the interviewer, she said in her own words, "Because I'm afraid not to deliver my performance".

And rightfully so.

You don't fly the plane without a license, you don't drive a train without the license and you don't practice law without a license either.

Why would you "play by ear", instead of "playing" upon design, and why would you want to put a huge pressure on your anatomy and physiology while doing it?

This question, at the moment, remains to be unanswered.

So once again, could any gig last forever, or at least for a prolonged period of time?

I personally do believe that there are ways to elongate that gig to the desirable time span, i.e. to take a proper maintenance of the instrument, to remove harmful tools such as "hammers and knives" from the hand of the performer, so to speak, and equip the performer with the right tools, i.e. with the right technique and application of that technique, where the use of the vocal anatomy is minimized and practically eliminated, where with the minimum effort, the maximum result will be accomplished, where the performer, instead of dying 10 000 deaths before and during the performance, will use their voice upon design and will know preliminarily what kind of sound will come out of their mouth and how and where it will be safely and successfully delivered.

The question is, what price tag could you put on that?

The answer is... IT IS PRICELESS! (Just ask any vocal performer).

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