Voice Vibe Podcast March 12, 2024
Your host: Philippe Hall
Special guest: Jordan Mitchelle
Episode 02 When Quitting is the right choice for your voice.
00:00 Welcome to the Voice Vibe Podcast with Special Guest Jordan Mitchell
01:48 Jordan Mitchell's Musical Journey: From Childhood Singing Dreams to Rock Bands
04:01 The Evolution of a Singer: Practice, Lessons, and Vocal Development
08:56 Transitioning from Rock Star Dreams to a Career in Sales
10:40 Finding a New Path: From Sales to Vocal Coaching
17:16 The Power of Quitting: A Discussion on Perseverance and Change
19:11 The Power of Longevity and Mindset in Achieving Singing Goals
20:52 Embracing Mindfulness and Nature for Clarity
22:10 Navigating Fears, Anxieties, and Mindfulness as a singer
23:19 Reevaluating Your Singing Goals and the Importance of Consistency
25:19 Micro Goals: The Key to Overcoming Overwhelming Challenges
26:14 The Art of Mastering Songs and Expanding Repertoire
32:57 Combating Ageism and Embracing Longevity in Music as a Singer
37:26 Closing Thoughts: Perseverance, Mindset, and Community Engagement
Philippe Hall: [00:00:00]
Hello and welcome to the Voice Vibe Podcast. My name is Philip Hall. I'm excited to introduce my guest today to you. And his name is Jordan Mitchell.
Jordan and I met about a year ago and we started doing some collaborations together and it's been very enjoyable. And it's a great story that I think can inspire singers everywhere and has some, has gained some very powerful insights into singing, developing your voice, and also these same insights have empowered him to become quite successful as an entrepreneur.
I do believe that a lot of the discipline and the habits that we learn on our singing journey can absolutely be applied to our life's journey. So without further ado, please welcome Jordan Mitchell. Hi Jordan.
Jordan Mitchelle:
Howā€™s it going, buddy?
Philippe Hall:
Good. Thanks so much for joining the podcast today.
Jordan Mitchelle:
Yeah. Thanks for having me. I'm excited.
Philippe Hall:
All right. So we're going to switch views here so we can see each other. I'm trying out the headphones today, trying to improve this audio quality, but I hear you well, and I'm excited to introduce you to my audience.
So tell the audience a little, if you don't mind, about your story, because one of the things you said to me not so long ago was, Hey, if I can do it. Anybody can do it. So that's, that usually means this wasn't just a walk in the park from beginning to where you are now. So tell us, how did you get started?
And maybe share a little bit, you just posted a really great video of yourself as a little kid with a guitar rocking out. So this has been on your mind since you were very young, right?
Jordan Mitchelle:
Yeah, I started singing, um, like actively singing when I was 13. So yeah, about, yeah, about 13 years old.
So the full story I'll kind of give the Coles notes, but so when I was 10, I officially like met my father. He gifted me a guitar. It was his guitar from when he played in the band and I thought it was so cool. I didn't know how to play it though and there were no resources at the time unless you took lessons to learn so I there was kind of like a period where I didn't see my dad again for a few years But then I finally I saw him again around 12 And then I told him that I wanted to play so he started teaching me how to play some like acdc tnt some like rock and roll and stuff.
So I was like really eager to impress dad. So at that point now there was like guitar tabs online. So I started learning and I was like, I'm going to start a band. And so I started hunting around, looking for musicians around the high school and around my junior high. And we found out there was a battle of bands happening, like whip.
Put the band together and this is about three months fast forward. I was like, we should go in the battle of the bands. I'm like, but we need a singer. I'm like, well, I guess I'll sing, you know? So that's what happened. I just decided that I was going to sing a month later after practicing every day, like five days a week, we, uh, we went in the battle of the bands and we ended up getting second place, which was pretty cool.
I wish I had that recorded because, oh my gosh, I had no idea what it was doing. Looking back, like I could like sing decently in tune okay, but my tone was just absolutely awful. But yeah, so that's how it all started. And then I played in bands from about 13 to 19. I played in three different bands and we were constantly applying for like city battle, the bands, high school battle demands, different things like that.
Jordan Mitchelle:
We recorded three. Well, when I was 16 to 19, I started an original rock band. We started writing our own music and, uh, That's when we started like recording EPs and putting out singles and like really Pursuing a music career being like we're gonna do this. We're practicing, you know, five days a week hour and a half every single day.
So so to go back to my beginning of my journey though when I first started I was like Really really shit in my opinion. I don't know some people were like giving me some pretty positive comments on that video I posted but i'm like, okay Like it was okay, I guess but anyways, so It took me about three years of putting in the reps before I finally started seeing like progress and results where I started sounding half decent.
So three, three to four years is like when I started sounding half decent. And then when I started really practicing a lot, like when I was like, I'm going to be a professional singer and be a rock star and all this stuff. That's when my voice started really making gains is when I was practicing for like an hour, hour and a half you know, five days a week, you know what I mean? I took, when I was 16, my parents put me in vocal lessons. Well, it was actually piano lessons. I told them I was going to learn piano theory, but I convinced the coach to also teach me singing. And when my parents found out, they took me out of lessons, which is kind of funny.
But, um, [00:05:00] yeah, anyways, the lessons were like, Didn't teach me anything quite frankly, like it was really boring. She wanted me to sing Disney music and like just boring Disney songs and stuff. And I was like, I sing this stuff. I sing rock and roll, which was quite hilarious. And then when I turned about, I think when I turned 18 is when I started training my voice.
Like I started doing exercises and warmups and things like that. I had a 23, 23 minute warmup routine that I got from this vocal coach in my city. Um, or in my province, sorry, named Brian. And that's when I started doing like the scales and all the different sounds and the twangs and all these sounds that I had no idea where they were, but I started actually doing them.
And that's when I started to like really notice my voice getting better. Like quickly is when I started like doing the things, the monotonous things that people try to avoid. Yeah.
Philippe Hall:
Thatā€™s really interesting. I think, in the beginning, the voice just loves to be used and doing scales in the beginning when you're learning scales or vocalizes, exercises.
You really have no idea what you're doing, right? No, totally You're just trying to do it and just that fact does build coordination And I think that is value valuable. It shouldn't be Underestimated and at what point do you think you need to move beyond that initially? I'm just doing the thing to getting into And I'm actually trying to do this in a meaningful way.
I understand I know how to do this. I'm applying that. At what point did that start happening for you? I mean, it's really interesting. You know, we just start off everybody starts off the same way. Go to the voice teacher. The voice coach says Brrrrrrrr. And you just do it. And you might be doing all kinds of things wrong but just a fact of doing something. Actually helps progress a little.
Jordan Mitchelle:
Yeah, its so like at what point to transition from like basically just singing songs to actually okay Now I'm gonna like try to actually build mechanisms and focus in on things. That's it. Is that what you mean Philippe?
Philippe Hall:
Yeah, it's well a little bit more specific you started you said you notice your voice was developing, right?
Because we're doing these exercises and scales And just in the beginning, I mean, I remember I just did what they said. I didn't really know what I was supposed to think about, what I was supposed to monitor, how to do this exercise the right way. I just kind of made sound. And that does help. Yeah. So what point do you recommend people getting a little bit more info on what they're actually doing rather than just sound making?
Jordan Mitchelle:
So I waited way too long. Like I, I mimicked that 23 minute vocal exercise routine from like age 19 to 23. Okay. That was like my go to I was just like it basically covered like everything that you know that vocal exercises will cover but I think for a singer like if you want to really If you have the mindset that you want to master the craft one day and you like you really really really want to like Get good at it.
I think that's when you need to invest. For example, When I started really investing like thousands and thousands of dollars into my singing growth It was in between me wanting to be like this famous rock star and me wanting to be a vocal coach It was literally just because I wanted to master the skill And I knew that there were more efficient ways of doing it because at that point I was doing a sales career And I knew the importance of training and coaching.
I just realized I'm like mentorship is good, you know So that's If you have that mindset of like, I really, really want to get good at this thing. I think that's when I would look into coaching. Obviously before that, at the time I was a teenager and my parents weren't willing to help me out and I didn't have the funds, but in my adult years, looking back, I would have started lessons sooner.
It would have really, it would have helped me out so much.
Philippe Hall:
So when do you, so let's go on from there. Let's go on from there. So you started Your own band, writing music, releasing things. How did that go?
Jordan Mitchelle:
Oh it went good. So this was 13 years ago. Yeah. About 12, 13 years ago. So YouTube was a thing. There was no streaming platforms yet, but you know, you release it on like Apple iTunes and You just like throw your music up on my space.
That was still a thing at the time. Do you remember my space? Yes, yes, yes. Nobody watching is going to have any idea.
Philippe Hall:
Well, I remember feeling bad that I didn't have a MySpace account and page because a lot of my colleagues did a lot of my friends in the business. I'm like, ah, I should do that, but I never did.
And then it went away. Yeah. Kind of.
Jordan Mitchelle:
It went well. We released three different EPs. We put them up on all the platforms that were available. And we went and did a lot of shows. So I think we probably did roughly like 25 shows in our career. And it went really well. We saw, we sold a lot of physical CDs.
We got really good feedback. People liked our music. We had a pretty solid fan base. We were, like,
we [00:10:00] were making decent money for kids, like going out doing shows and selling merch and everything like that. It went really well. It was so much fun. I remember thinking, Looking back on some of those shows we played like we did some shows for 500 people, 300 people.
We did, the biggest show we did was for 7, 500 people. We opened up for a band called Cutlass. I don't know if you've heard of Cutlass, they're a Christian band. They were, no, the Billy Graham Association threw it on at our local stadium. So we won second place in the city battle of the bands. And then they invited us to come open up for this band.
So that was really cool. I just remembered like the adrenaline rush you'd get from performing. It was just some of the best memories of my life. When I think back, just top five best memories is performing live.
Philippe Hall:
So you stopped doing that. So what happened to the, that made you change gears or you just stopped for a while with singing, like I'm done with singing.
Jordan Mitchelle:
Well, I never quit singing. I always continue to sing, but I quit pursuing a music career. And so what happened was when I was 19, I joined a sales job and I went away for the summer to go earn money. Cause we were going to go to Vancouver. We were going to work with like. I think it was name was like Mike Dawson.
He used to do like some of the famous Canadian bands and so I'm like, we're going to work with like famous people in Canada that work with a lot of the Juno winning artists and stuff. And we needed a lot of money for it. And while I was away in the summer, I was starting to gain momentum as a sales guy.
I was doing door to door sales and I started making some decent money. And I was like, Oh, maybe if I extend it for an extra month, I'll make so much more money. Not realizing I would burn out and just sit on a curb and not work the entire month anyway, so I went behind my band's back as a kid and and uh, I rescheduled our entire sessions like a month later without telling anyone So stupid to think back on but Um, yeah, so the band fell out found out through the grapevine and when they found out they were so angry and they quit Which is kind of kind of expected Cause they took like a month off of work and like their girlfriends took off work and it was just a big thing.
It was a big deal. So anyways, that was my silly mistake as a kid. So after that, I came back from that summer and the band was like, yeah, we're done. So it was all good. And then I tried doing my own solo thing and I went in and applied for like Canada's Got Talent and I went and did like an acoustic thing.
And I, it was, Yeah, and then that I didn't get a call back. I didn't get chosen for that. And then I was, you know, I was pretty discouraged. I was like, well, maybe this isn't for me. There's one thing that I know about myself is I don't like doing things alone. Like I love community. And I love collaboration and I love having a team.
Like ever since I've built my team with mindful singers. Now I have a five person team. Like I love my job so much more because now I can like, when I'm like overthinking and I'm being an artist and I'm like, Oh, what should I do? I can go talk to my team. And then they like, calm me down. And I'm like, Oh, good, good.
I really liked that. So when I tried doing my independent thing, my solo thing, I was just like, I hated it. I'm like, I don't like doing this alone. This is horrible. I want to have songwriters and buddies and stuff. So that ended up falling apart. I recorded a single, I put it out, same thing, on like streaming platforms and whatnot, what, now that these were available.
And I, I still did some shows, I did karaoke's, I opened up for some bands in my city, and I, not karaoke's, sorry, that's not a show. Open mics, I did open mics, and then I would still play You know, like parties and I'd pull out the guitar and sing, on the weekend for some friends and I would sing during the week to myself, I'd always have my acoustic guitar with me but that was it. Like after about 20 years old, it just became really casual from 20 to 23 where I would do my vocal warmup thing that I told you about for 20 minutes a day. And then, Like three four days a week That's why my voice was growing because I was very mindful when I did it And I was very playful when I did it, too Like I would walk around the room and move my body and make funny sounds and I would just like laugh at myself And just I enjoyed the process so it wasn't like boring to me.
I actually enjoyed it but yeah, that's pretty much it and then it was pretty slow for about three years. I became a full time salesman from 19 to 27 I did door to door sales and I would just like You train teams and hire people and manage and all that fun, fun stuff. And my music was just kind of on the back burner until 23.
And then I started working with my like dream vocal coach. His name is Brian. I won't say his last name. Cause I don't want him to get mad or anything, but he lives in Calgary in the city that I live in now. And he's like a famous vocal coach in Canada. He's taught a lot of the idols and that was the thing.
And he's taught a lot. Jan Arden, I don't know if you know, Jan Arden, famous, Canadian singer and so I worked with him finally I had the opportunity and that was amazing because he's just such a great Bundle of joy human being and I had a really great time learning from him and that kind of like really re sparked my love for music was having that opportunity to work with him and That's when I realized I wanted to be a vocal coach.
Philippe Hall:
Yeah, that's quite the journey. So you're 23 years [00:15:00] old, you start taking voice lessons again, but you kind of decided, I don't want to become a rock star like I thought I wanted to, when I was younger, I want to help other people. That's going from the egotistical rescheduling the band and all their lives and making a dumb mistake like we all do in our, in our youth to, to moving beyond that into the mission of helping other people, did you have a core motivation for doing that?
Jordan Mitchelle: Yeah, that's a good question, Philippe. When I was wanting to be like a famous rock star, it came from a place of wanting to be seen.
For not the right reasons and it's funny in my 20s I had a lot of guilt for not pursuing, for cutting off that dream when I was like 20 years old or so and not pursuing it A lot of guilt came with that. There was a lot of like, oh, maybe you've missed your opportunity Why would you do that?
You're gonna look back in your 40s and regret this, like there was a lot of like subconscious guilt But now that i'm 32 well 32 this month I realized it was all just ego and it wasn't ego like the devil or anything like that but it just wasn't coming from the right place. It wasn't that I wanted to be like chased by paparazzi and filling stadiums and all this kind of stuff I just wanted to be seen I wanted to be recognized and I think I was trying to fill something inside of me that was like missing from like my childhood and there was just certain things that I hadn't addressed quite yet until I was in my late 20s that I think was really causing me to feel that way.
So When I realized I wanted to be a vocal coach and shifted the focus I knew from being a salesman like when I would have to mentor people I knew how much like how rewarding it was to see somebody go from zero to crushing it and like just having so much success and helping them change their mindset and their skill set and their and just their way of being and living and people come back to me even years later and be like dude like you have no idea how much you changed my life by like the things you said so then You Realizing oh wow, I can have this impact on people.
I have this, like, there's something about me that people like, you know, are drawn to and they feel like they can trust me and they don't have to be fake and lie and stuff like that. Really, I guess I kind of tied that into wanting to be a vocal coach.I haven't even really thought about this until this moment, but yeah, I think that's what it was.
Philippe Hall:
Yeah. Just me, curious me. No, I think the story is really inspiring. We talked about the title of the podcast today is, " When quitting is the smart thing for your voice", right?
That sounds so negative on the surface. But I wanted to introduce you and hear your story. I know, there's a lot of years or a lot more details we're not going to get through today, but we just look at that. That's such a long journey. It didn't happen in a year or two years.
We're talking about 23 to 32 coming to coach and then the phase before then, and then growing up. So this is important because a lot of people. Want to learn to sing they want to improve their singing. They might be just starting out They might already be at a professional level, but people are wanting to progress So, how did you learn perseverance along the way?
Why did you stick to it? Right? We talked about Perseverance. So how do we get help? What can you share with singers and other artists and people listening in? You About the value of persevering and also knowing when to quit the wrong things. How do we recognize? When to quit the wrong things and how do we stay motivated like you said, you know You had a phase where you just didn't want to do anything.
How did you manage to keep this motivation this perseverance this? So those two things, maybe you want to tie those together a little bit.
Jordan Mitchelle:
Sure. Sure. Okay. So the first thing I want to say is that when I started, the thing that motivated me is a lot different than what it is today. When I first started it was, I just want to impress daddy.
You know what I mean? Like, I just want to impress dad. I want to show him that I can be great at this music thing that he once wanted to do and that he stopped at 30 and look at me, I can do this. So that's kind of where it started. But it's shifted now. It's. It's a lot bigger than that.
It's more about the impact that I can have on the world, the impact that I can have on other people, the, the lives that I can, help and change. So as far as the perseverance for me, the, one of the biggest mindset shifts that has really, really helped me and you hit the nail on the head is longevity.
So I'd always have these mindsets and it's just from being ambitious. I think it's a side effect of being an ambitious person where you just want everything now, or you want it yesterday, or you just want. All the results immediately and I still get like this with my business with mindful singers where i'm like I just get so overwhelmed.
I'm like I want it all now and then I have to remind myself, I'm like, well no, because these three things are going to take two months and then these five things are going to take another three [00:20:00] months and You know and like reminding myself that everything happens in steps and stages and it doesn't just happen immediately so the longevity timeline in my mindset now is like I, and I still have to remind myself.
I'm not perfect. Even in this last week, I've had to remind myself, I'm like, remember Jordan, you're doing this for the next 20, 30 years until AI replaces you, like you're going to be doing this for a very long time. Are we still good? Can you hear me? Yes. Yeah. We're good. Cool. So when I have fallen into those boundaries, Paths to my life.
I took some notes. I'm gonna actually look at my notes just so that I have a habit of rambling a little bit. So I just want to make sure I do say what is it that I do when i'm in these situations? so when i'm feeling like overwhelmed or lost or i'm going through a season where I feel like i'm ready to give up or I just Don't want to continue doing the thing that I'm doing.
I will, I used to take a full day to myself where I would go in nature. I would throw on some Ludovico and Ion Inari. I don't know how to say his name, but he's a beautiful composer and his music's just so calming. And I listened to this album called Una Matina. And if you look at my Spotify, you're, it's like the most thing I listened to is him.
Do you know who he is? Have you heard of him?
Philippe Hall:
I have heard of him.
Jordan Mitchelle:
Beautiful composer. So I listened to his instrumental music and I'll just go for a walk in nature and I do my very best to just stop the thinking for a little bit for like 15 minutes. I just try to be very mindful of the thoughts coming into my mind just to kind of calm things down and just to be present for a little bit.
This is almost like walking meditation. And then before I had a kid, I would take a full day. Now I can only take about two hours to do this, or else I feel like I'm neglecting my child.
Philippe Hall:
So it's true becoming a dad is like a different world right? I have three kids, so You can't just disappear like when you're single. It's a little easier to get in the groove when you are single. But i'm glad you said that and being mindful obviously that influenced you to be yeah to create your business name mindful singers
Jordan Mitchelle:
Yeah, yeah, totally.
So and I mean don't get me wrong. I'm not perfect I still deal with fears and anxieties and all that kind of stuff mindfulness just means to " observe What's happening in the moment without negative judgment." That's truly what mindfulness is So i'll take that time to be mindful and then i'll start to notice As i'm calmer Usually more constructive thoughts will start coming through my mind and i'll start to consider i'll start to ask myself You know Why am I like why am I even doing this?
Like for example, like why am I still why am I doing mindful singers? Like i've been doing it for almost four years now, why is this important to me? And what has changed since when I first started doing it to now? And are my motivations still the same? Are the things that are going to push me forward five years from now, still the same? Am I going to be happy if I keep doing things the way that I'm doing them and to relate this to singing.
Like for example, I meet singers that like they're either ride or die It's like either i'm going to practice an hour and a half a day Or i'm not going to practice at all. I remind myself i'm going to go through seasons, you know what I mean? Like last week my son was in the hospital until 7 a. m. I had to pull an all nighter. I was really exhausted I could not work at my normal capacity And I just have to remind myself that there's like these mini seasons that we go through in life that are out of our control. You just have to keep moving forward So the next thing I do, once I've asked myself, like, why am I doing this?
Why is this important to me? Can I do this for the next five years? I'm just pondering this stuff as in a calm state at this point. Then I will either write it down on my phone. By the way, while this is all happening, I'm not checking, I don't have notifications turned on on my phone. I'm not checking Facebook. I'm not checking Instagram. I'm not distracting myself. I'm. And then I might write this stuff down in a journal, or in my notes on my phone. What answers are coming to me. And then I ask myself, what do I need to do, like each day, to get the kind of results that I'm looking for. It's like, I want to work on my vibrato, I want to be able to sing, All of Me by John Legend and like, and feel confident singing that song, you know, in the next two months or whatever, whatever the goal is that I'm working on, I'll write down those goals.
And then I'll break them down into the little things that I need to do. Like, what do I need to do to make sure that I'm consistent? Well, you know, warm up for five minutes or 10 minutes before I sing. What do I need to do to make sure that I'm You know, hitting that high note in the bridge at the end, do I need to make sure that I work on my belt and I'll break down the things that I need to do, like the micro goals that I need to do to accomplish the bigger goal.
And then I just ask myself, what am I able to do each day? And some days it might be like 10 minutes of singing in the shower. And some days it might be like a really focused, you know, 30 to 45 minute practice session in my studio, in a space that I feel comfortable, but it's not going to be the perfect scenario every single day, if that makes sense.
Philippe Hall:
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Totally makes sense. So you're mindful. You take time to be mindful. You take [00:25:00] time to calm your mind. You continually reevaluate your perspective and goals and your journey. You clearly write down or identify what your main goals are to get there. And then you go down to the next level and say, what are the micro steps that will allow me to reach those goals? Yeah. I don't know, there's a, I was watching something, I think another Canadian, Jordan Peterson said, he just said, a lot of these patients just, it's too big for them. They, if they're trying to make a change, it's so painful to make that change. He recommends to them just to Take the smallest easiest step first and that's like the micro goal, right?
If I want to gain 20 pounds of muscle and get a six pack and I want it now like you Everybody would like to do that take a pill. Boom. Here I am Right, but that's painful to go through that process if you look at the whole process very painful So if you just take the first step Get up get dressed Yeah. And go. Yep. That's not so painful.
Jordan Mitchelle:
Totally. And you'll blow your mind, like you'll blow your mind if you just do something long enough and you're doing it mindfully with for example, like what not to do. Let's say you're working on a song and it's like a pretty easy song. Let's say I'm like, I'm going to say like all the small things by Green Day.
Or by Blink 182, sorry. Very easy song to sing. One of the first songs I ever learned. It's probably not a good idea to choose that song and then only work on that song for a year. I've met singers who literally have a three song repertoire, and they've been singing for two years. And they only sing those three songs.
And then when they sing them, they crush it. They would go get a wowing round of applause at any karaoke night. You know what I mean? But they like they're scared to work on anything else because like probably because they put in so much effort into those three songs that they're like they're terrified to move on to something else.
But right there. That's when you're kind of like almost reverse practicing. You're not actually practicing, you're just massaging your voice. If that makes sense. It's like doing a really gentle lip trill for five minutes and then being like, all right, I warmed up my voice today, you know, and I'm good to go.
Like you didn't actually like work on like the 18 other things your voice needs to actually sing an entire song. If that makes sense?
Philippe Hall:
Yeah. Can we just jump in on this? Cause I think this will be very valuable for anybody listening. So there's value in both, right? There is so much value in working on a song over time and making those micro.
Steps and micro improvements and getting that song to where you can crush it You can wake up at 3 in the morning and crush it. You know, you can just always crush it but we also need to take everything that we're learning in that long process and apply it to other new songs that we're building at the same time.
Why is that so important for you? Why would you tell singers to do that?
Philippe Hall:
To like transition and like move on to something, to do both, to keep working on that just like there's your hyper focus now, but put it over on the side of I'm going to keep working on this But yeah, I want to be able to sing more than three songs in my life
Jordan Mitchelle:
Totally So, okay to go on the first thing so like really dialing in on song If there's one thing that I know about being a vocal coach That one of the biggest things of becoming a vocal coach is like the layers of frequencies that your brain just kind of like Gets you start to hear sounds that you didn't even realize were there the more you fine tune your ear So the more you work on a song and you like learn you learn all the little nuances and all the little microcosms of that song You are adding that to like You're downloading that to your own voice.
You're making that a part of who you are as a singer. And I promise you, you're not going to sound like the other vocalist, especially if you're singing in a healthy way where your voice isn't squeezing and you're not like forcing things to happen. It's going to sound like you because you have your own Sonic.Fingerprint, so there's been songs that I've worked on for years. I have like my karaoke jams and I go sing karaoke and get my round of applause as well Like I have those songs obsessed over
Philippe Hall:
I love the sonic fingerprint. I'm gonna definitely use that Sonic fingerprint.
That is such, such a cool term. Yeah.
Jordan Mitchelle:
I can't remember where I heard that. Yeah. I think it was Tamara Beatty. Yeah. She's, she was one of my mentors early on. Yeah. She's awesome. Okay. So, um, yeah, anyways, so you're just going to keep downloading more information, especially if you're learning from singers like Ed Sheeran, Jason Mraz, um, like Sam Smith, I'm just naming male vocalists at the moment, like Adele, like if you focus on one of those people's songs for two years, you're going to keep picking up new things.
Like they, there's so much depth to their voices. It's crazy, but you also have to [00:30:00] move on to something else because there are other things to learn from other people as well, that you can adapt and grow from and develop and add to your own sound. Yeah, that's what I think. What do you think, Philippe?
Philippe Hall:
Absolutely. Well, I've experienced, you know, I've performed well over 4, 000 performances that I was paid for. So I've been doing the business for a long time and I worked, you know, sometimes I'll work on a song for a very long time. If I've got advanced notice, like I had this role coming up, it was, it was a year out and I literally worked on the, the main song for this role for 10 months and just working on all those layers. But I had another three shows to prepare in that meantime. I remember I was young. I'd never worked that long on one song before and when I got there and got to the performance, I just had so much calm about me it just, Helps so much with the nerves and I learned so much in that process of just really developing one song over a very very long period of time, but I think we need to everything like you said, we're going to discover new layers We're going to develop new skills and we should be applying those to fresh repertoire.
It's like sure, just lining them up. You know, here's this song, keep working on it. The next song, the next song the next song. So not just waiting until one song is perfect. And even if you're just working on one song with your coach for maybe two, three months. There's no shame in that but you can be on your own starting to work on other material and taking what you've learned to apply it there as well.
So What can the singers do today to feel good? about their journey to feel good about Perseverance staying in the game because a lot of singers, you know, you're a coach as well People will come and say oh i've got a i've got a show in three weeks And I've got to perform. So I want to take like 10 lessons with you.
They have this expectation that they're going to be able to take lessons and immediately in a very short period of time. Make this huge leap of progress and granted they're going to be better off if doing that than without the help but yeah, how do we keep how do we can keep committed to our journey as singers and what has being committed for so many years taught you?
Jordan Mitchelle:
Okay I'm gonna i'm probably gonna have to get you to repeat some parts of that question can you can you summarize that question for me again? There was like three points.
Philippe Hall:
It's not always easy To maintain your motivation to stay committed for the long game because we want results now So yeah, okay.
What kind of a tip, mindset tip or a personal experience? Can you share that can help singers just realize? "Hey its time in the game I just need to be calm with this.
Jordan Mitchelle:
Yeah. Okay. I would say there's so many different ways to answer that question, but one thing that comes to mind is depending on your goal as a vocalist, like whether you want to be a really good, karaoke star kind of thing, or you want to make a living from your music, or if you just want to do it casually, you know, for fun, for yourself, like depending on your motivation, the thing that's going to drive you is going to be a little bit different. So what I would say is have the longevity mindset where don't just think Oh, I have to reach this goal in two months, three months, six months.
Cause it's, it's not going to happen with singing. Like I said, it took me four years to have like decent tone, good pitch and there was still a lot of missing parts. You know what I mean? So having a longer mindset and also, If you do want to make a living from music, you have to get out of the ageism mindset of being a musician.
So in the music industry, there's a lot of ageism because the music industry has been controlled by a very small group of males for like a very long time. And it's typically people from 18 to 25 who are like absolutely dominating in the music industry. So like getting out of that ageism mindset where it's like, no, there's the internet now.
If I'm really skilled and I'm really putting on a mesmerizing, beautiful performance and people can connect with me, I can do this at any age because of the internet. You know what I mean? Like I'm seeing lots of artists on Tik that are in their thirties and forties. And they're, just absolutely killing it out there because of the internet, you know what I mean?
So I, the reason I say that Philippe is because after working with over 300 singers one on one, like there is an ageism mindset for the people who want to do the music career. Like they're like, I'm almost 19 years old. I just don't know if I'm going to be able to make it. It's like, because of this like mindset.
So kind of erasing that mindset of like, Oh, I have to be, I have to Crush this by 23 or I'll never make it because the mindset is usually I want to get signed by a record label, which is also not necessary. You know what I mean? Like it's, it's just not necessary in 2024 to, to make it [00:35:00] big.So that would be, that's what I would, that's what I would say.
Philippe Hall:
I love that. I love that. I was in the musical business for decades. A lot of the older female colleagues would just say, there's no more roles left. So if your career basically reduces by more than half of the potential roles you can play in the business after 28.
So there is some reality to that and just being in the business a long time and You know, you see all these young artists 18 to 25 just come in pop up and disappear Come in pop up and disappear. I think there's you know, we can get have a whole podcast on how the industry Basically uses people and burns them out because they don't really care.
All they need to do is make money off them for a few years. And then next there's always a thousand, 10,000 talented people in the background. So if you don't have that, getting rid of that ageism mindset, like you said, if you don't have the mindset that I am going to be doing this all my life, because I love it, this is my journey.
You might get burned out in that phase and disappear. And especially as an artist, but I have a lot of colleagues who are female colleagues who stayed very very Relevant in the business well beyond that age and look, you know, look at Beyonce and Taylor Swift I mean, they're killing it, right?
They're way above 28 now, but they had that Longevity mindset. Yeah, so totally.
Jordan Mitchelle:
Go ahead. I mean, Aerosmith too, like all the old rock bands still fill stadiums too, right? Rolling Stones and, I wanted to say something about the, trying new songs. So to go back a little bit. So when you have put in a really long time into learning a song and you've like really mastered it because You've worked on every little nuance, every little detail.
When you move on to new songs, like you will be blown away by how quickly you'll learn those new songs. Yeah. So my students are always so surprised when they watch me like learning a song with them because they're like, Holy shit. How are you like picking up on this so quick? And it's like, Oh, it's because I've done this 10, 000 times, like when I got my Spotify, like a year in like my year summer, he was like, I did 1500 songs, you know what I mean? I listened to 1500 songs and I didn't know any of those artists on that list. It was just from students recommending. So, when you just do it over and over and over, it's, it becomes really easy. Just naturally becomes very easy.
Philippe Hall:
Yes. Awesome. Awesome. Okay. We're going to, we're going to wrap up this podcast today, but we're going to keep talking. This conversation is super valuable. And what we do after the live stream and the podcast is we shift into a private call where anybody that's watching this now and our community can get on and ask questions, interact with us.
We're going to continue to evolve this conversation. And it's really fun because you get to work with us. People ask questions and then we say, okay, we'll sing a little bit and then they get some personal guidance and feedback.
And that's probably one of the things that I get asked most on a direct messages right from people: " Hey, how can I do this? How can I sing this note? I'm struggling with this. Could you tell me what's wrong with my voice?" Well, this is your chance, right? The link's in the description.
Just click on the link. And come and join us every Tuesday for a live Q and A call with myself and my ho and my co hosts. All right, Jordan, thank you so much for being with us. I'm going to say goodbye to Jordan and we'll see you in about seven minutes in our private zoom call.
Jordan Mitchelle: Sounds good. Awesome.
Thanks everyone for being here.
Philippe Hall:
Take care. Thank you everybody for tuning in. This has been really a great conversation and I hope it's allowed you to get to know Jordan a little bit better and inspired you to take action and plan for longevity. You should be enjoying singing your whole life, right?
You don't have to become Superman tomorrow, alright? You will reach your goals. With time in the game, perseverance and the right mindset.
Join me and join Jordan. Join us both on our private zoom call. Click the link in the description and we'll see you very soon. We'll see you next week.
