The Tiny Soprano has moved URL! Please visit:

SingYourTruth.com

There you can see the #FearlessKaraoke video that you may have heard about on the interwebs lately.

Please don’t forget to amend your bookmarks and your RSS readers too.

The Tiny Soprano will stay live as it is – just as a reminder of how far things have come.

Love to you all.

x Nat

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A “Thank You” To All The Tiny Soprano Readers

I’d like to take a tiny moment to thank each and every one of you out there for reading The Tiny Soprano. While I only have just shy of 200 subscribers, it’s not quantity that counts, it’s the quality. With almost 300 comments, I’m so proud of the intelligent and inspiring people who contribute to the community I’m trying to build here.

So, thank you very much! I hope you’ll continue to support the site, because I have so much fabulousness coming.

Can I ask you a question?

Maybe you visit The Tiny Soprano for some inspiration. Or ideas for how to be more fearless. Perhaps you even like opera (it’s been known to happen.)  Or maybe you just like the way I write.

The point is, it doesn’t matter what an author thinks a blog is about.  Each of you will look at my blog in a way that is unique to you.

While I have my own grand, divatastic visions for the future, it’s far more important to me to learn how you see this blog.

So tell me, what is The Tiny Soprano about to you? What is the first topic that flies into your mind when you think of this site?

Please write your thoughts in the comments below…

Your suggestions will be invaluable in helping me to point The Tiny Soprano in the right direction going forward, and I completely appreciate you taking the time.

Thank you!

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A Tiny Soprano Site Revamp!

Ah, yes. My old friend Unprepared. Unprepared and I, we go back a looooong way.

You see, as a young singer who was very naturally talented, it was seductively easy for me to just show up and sing. Especially as I was powered by ambition and hunger for that hot, sweet spot somewhere smack bang in the middle of stage left and stage right.

But there’s a catch – as a singer, you have to do what is affectionately called “note-bashing”.

This is the act of forcible holing oneself up in an enclosed space with a keyboard-like instrument and pounding various black and white keys until the Notes. Stick. In. Your. Brain.

Note-bashing is an inescapable part of being a professional singer. Without notes to sing I am merely potential noise.

Ah, my other old friend, Potential. Potential and I, well we’ve known each other for yeaaaaaars.

So I would frequently flirt with Unprepared, safe in the cushy knowledge that Potential would always be there to bail me out.

I got addicted to the adrenaline rush that being with Unprepared would give me. The shot in the arm of “Shit I need to do some work!” actually energised me to a point. Until, inevitably, Potential got fed up with my antics, shouted “I’ve outgrown you!” and left me. Of course.

The day I got dumped by Potential was the day I realised that being prepared is actually the Most Important Thing, Ever.

Being Prepared means knowing your shit. It means reaching out to the right people to help them before you ask them for a leg up. It means when the blessings come knocking, you hear the door and go you answer it.

Being Prepared means that if it doesn’t go your way – and let’s face it, sometimes the universe has other ideas about the best way to get stuff done – then you can at least look yourself in the eye and say “Dammit, you did your BEST.”

Most people don’t do anything to get prepared. And as Orson Welles used to say (and I’m paraphrasing) “Opportunity only knocks a few times before its knuckles get sore – then it goes away.”

So if you are flirting with Unprepared, I would say stay the hell away. Do whatever it takes to distance yourself – tiny steps every day, will work. Learn a few notes. Read a few pages. Write 100o words. Buy a domain name.

And you know what? Magical things start to happen once you commit to a life of Being Prepared for Awesomeness.

Comments – Sing It Back To Me

Why is the fear of “being prepared and failing” seemingly bigger and more powerful than the fear of being “publicly unprepared and possibly even humiliated?” Have you ever indulged in shameless rubbing up to Self-Sabotage and lived to flirt again?

(Notice how this post was about actually Being Unprepared as opposed to Feeling Unprepared. Two very different things – more on this in another post.)

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Fear.

A horribly drunk and evil gatecrasher of the party that is your life.

It bitches in the kitchen behind your back about how dreadful the food is, how much your colleagues are bored by your work and how you’re boyfriend is flirting with that girl from marketing in the next room.

It steals the cash from your wallet and pinches the fat that peeks over the top of your jeans.

Fear is basically a bastard.

But it’s also kind of sexy.

Fear is kind of like those people you know you shouldn’t fancy because they screw everyone and make you feel awful, used, insecure and ugly. But somehow you just can’t help going back for more.

Because it’s addictive, this obsession with fear. And when all the vodka is drunk, the place is trashed and you wake up feeling like death, its pretty damn useful to have nasty old fear to pin the blame on.

But it still ruins your party. You spend weeks trying to get the stains out of the fabric of your life.

So how do you deal with fear crashing your party?

You could try not inviting the bastard to come at all. In which case you’ll probably spend all night anxiously waiting for the doorbell, being fearful of fear not showing up because you’re not cool enough. Or hot enough.

You can try feeling the fear. Which is probably a really bad idea in this scenario, as we have already agreed that fear is rather sexy and addictive, and any unrestrained cavorting with fear will only make you feel worse when you are caught in a compromising position amongst a pile of coats.

Perhaps ignoring the fear could work. Especially that kind of “I’m ignoring you but really I fancy the hell out of you so I’ll ignore you but occasionally catch your eye and then suddenly look away but then straight back again” kind of ignoring. Which we all know is a big fat lie. The bastard is in the room and you are clocking every move.

So how to get the fear out of your party – or at least out of the center of the room – for good? Here are three ways that might work for you;

• Try humanising it. For example, we would all probably concur that Robert Pattinson is hot. And that Beyonce is a bit of alright, too. But verily, they doth burp. And probably pick their noses. This is your opportunity to notice what is unattractively human about the fear. Is there a pimple somewhere you can zone in on, an overly flourishing nose hair maybe? Or a just a really unattractive voice? (David Beckham springs to mind.) Strip away the celebrity perfection of the fear and you may feel the shakes disappear.

• Allow the fear. This isn’t the same as feeling the fear. This is where you just let it get on with making a mess everywhere else, while you focus on enjoying yourself in another part of the room. You’re not running into another room, you’re not talking about it with anyone, and you’re not hovering nearby it to make sure it doesn’t throw up all over the carpet. Eventually even the most hardened life-crashing fear will bore of being starved of attention and will slink away in search of a more attentive audience. Fear lives off resistence. So humour it.  When you stop resisting, it zaps away the power of the fear leaving it all floppy and impotent. And in this case, that really is a good thing.

• Make it a dress up party. If you can’t change the fear, change the theme of the party instead. Make it wear a stupid clown costume, a bunny suit, nothing but a pair of fluffy pink handcuffs (whatever floats your boat.) I used to do that old trick of trying to imagine the panel of an opera audition all naked in their chairs as I stood shaking before them. (Which is far, far more frightening than the fear of singing a wrong note.) So get your fear and dress it up in something that is non-threatening and welcoming.

I get loads of crappy fear gatecrashers at my party all the time. In fact, I have a really slippy bastard of a visitor hanging around this very moment. This is a fear that is not just a gatecrasher but a stalker.

But… I’m working on stripping away the mask. Turning on the lights and shooing all the ugly out through the front door.

Comments – Sing It Back To Me

You don’t want fear at your party. You want a jaunty, funky little soiree where the music just gets better, the punch bowl overflows and everybody fancies you.

What other ways can you think of to get over your crush on fear? What have you done to boot fear out the front door in your life?

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Welcome to the redesigned site – just in time for Christmas!

As you can see I have finally emerged from behind my “little cartoon me”…

I used yesterday to upgrade to Thesis 1.6 so I could take advantage of Chris’ new drop down function on the navigation bar. I believe it’s a testament to the power of this incredible theme that I was not only able to upgrade quickly and easily but I could then tweak and customise the changes to get it the way I wanted in only an hour or so. (I couldn’t have done this without spending a long time in the support forum – it is such an invaluable resource and given my tiny amount of experience with CSS and PHP, I would have made such a mess without their help!)

But most importantly I hope this redesign has made the site a little more me - and now I’m really keen to hear what you think.

Do you like the new design?

Do you find the site easy to navigate?

What do you think is missing?

I would value your comments and feedback greatly, especially as with baby almost here I will have loads of time to tinker with the site as I lounge in bed

So go ahead and let me know what you think below!

x Natalie

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A “Thank You” To All The Tiny Soprano Readers

Have you ever had the kind of day where everything just fell into place? Where you felt great, nothing seemed to phase you and everyone around you was on your side? The day flies by, stuff just gets done, and before you know it you’re falling into bed with a smile on your face, a little amazed at how easy it all was?

Or is it more like a struggle? Squeezing yourself into a space on the train that turns up late, resisting every call you have to make, staring at a blank computer screen or shouting at your kids? Another week of feeling too tired, too stressed, depressed and anxious.

Which “you” sounds more like you?

As a professional singer, I learnt to do some really fun things with my voice (stick with me here). I once discovered at college that I could make the metal light fittings above my head “buzz” whenever I sang a specific note. It wasn’t an ear-shattering, glass breaking diva note, just a high-ish note that just happened to be the exact frequency for the metal in the light fitting to join in. It was kind of fun to make it buzz along with me. I imagined it was gleefully having its own “I am what I am” kind of moment…:)

When I have the kind of day that feels “perfect” – when conversations flow and ideas just come to me and the kids are like angels and I manage to avoid eating anything fattening – these are days when I know I am buzzing in harmony with what I want.

When you get into a groove, you know that your frequency is matching. You are in tune with the same exciting vibe that brings the train on time, that has that perfect person show up right when you need them, that means you somehow still lose weight despite blowing it all on an Indian takeaway the night before.

How would you like to have more of these “perfect” days?

1. Learn how to tune your strings. Anyone who has learnt to play a guitar or a violin will tell you that learning to “tune up” means knowing when you hear the right frequency. You tweak and turn your strings for a while before you get the frequency totally right, and the more you practise, the easier it gets. Pretty soon you can confidently tune your instrument fast and accurately. Your emotions, my friend, are just like these strings.  You need to keep tweaking and testing how you feel during the day to start getting the hang of “tuning you”. When do you feel at your best? What makes you “buzz”? Do the people you hang out with energise you or drag you down?
2. Actively search for situations that keep up the buzz. Now you know what zips your strings, keep alive to these moments, and start to enjoy them even more. The more you vibrate at this level, the more the world will want to buzz along with you.
3. Stay away from the vibe crushers. Have you ever seen a guitar player suddenly bring their hand down on the strings at the end of a song, killing the vibration? Boom. Silence.  Do you want to be in situations where a person or problem shuts off your vibe? No thanks. Spend as much time as you can away from “dampeners”, people who like to sit on your strings and bring you down, and look for people who amplify your buzz instead.
4. Stuff changes, so don’t forget to constantly tweak. As a professional singer and musician, my training allows me to hear differences in frequency that only musically trained people can detect. For me, a note only has to be out by the tiniest fraction for it to sound “flat” or “sharp”. So you must be prepared to tweak it, and tweak it constantly. Remember that you are a changing and evolving creature who lives and breathes in a world that changes too. What buzzes you NOW may not create the same vibe a few months down the line. When your circumstances change, make sure you adjust your tuning to keep your buzz in a “sweet spot”.

So be like a guitar and start making some music!

I would love to hear your thoughts on ways to get buzzy – don’t forget to share them with other Tiny Tribesters below!

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Welcome to the home of The Tiny Soprano. As many of you will already know, I am only 5 feet tall. But the operatic stage can often be very generous to those of us who are not  vertically-blessed, and very often people would say “My, you don’t look quite this little from the audience.” That is, of course, unless you are singing next to a 6′5″ baritone, in which case there is simply no escaping the fact that you are, indeed, really, really short.

Now being tiny as a light lyric soprano has many advantages. There is never the embarrassment of being taller than your leading man. One can be cute, petite, charming, and rather yummy in a kind of sexy-but-only-in-an-opera kind of way.

There is however a downside. Being taken seriously as a “diva” is never really possible.

As the renowned music exec and the great Pav’s old manager Herbert Breslin once declared, “Big, big, big things don’t happen to little Despina!"

He was referring at the time to Cecilia Bartoli, another tiny soprano, who has forged a massive international career on singing what most consider “small-voiced” roles. And yet she strides across the operatic stage, breasts heaving, sweeping away everything in her path as she takes over the world.

The Tiny Soprano is with you, my operatic amici, to help us all to do exactly that.

Yes, even those burly baritones among you will be free to heave and swing a breast or two in the name of changing the world (as we all know there are many man-boobs hidden away under those flattering costumes).

For far too long, opera singers have slaved away in the pubs, bars and green rooms of the world, as pint follows pint follows pint, safe in the knowledge that the only thing to fear of the new morning would be a hangover, or the possibility of a cancelled show, or having to explain to one’s dresser why those trousers will not fit anymore.

The Tiny Soprano is here to issue a challenge:

How much can a world-wide group of seemingly opera singers and opera lovers come together to change the world for the better?

My mission is to think of new and crazy ways to help all of you wonderful singers make a huge difference to the causes that matter.

I would like to announce the creation of OperaAid.

OperaAid will be a unique movement and will ultimately depend on all of you getting involved. The aim is to mobilise everyday opera singers to come together to create extraordinary change in the lives of others.

There will be more news on the official launch event very soon, and I will also reveal the names of the remarkable global-based team of singers who will all be helping to make this happen.

In the meantime, I need you to do something for me, because you, yes you, will have a leading role in this tiny show of mine. Please post as many ideas and suggestions as you can on this site.

Subscribe to the feed, join me on Twitter and let’s start doing something!

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