The Mind Over Finger Podcast - 129 Megan Ihnen: Breathing Life Into Music

Starting point is 00:00:00 You're listening to the Mind Over Finger Podcast, episode number 129. Welcome to the Mind Over Finger Podcast, discussions on mindful music making, efficient practice, and building a purposeful career. And now, your host, violinist, teacher, and high performance coach for musicians, Dr. René-Paul Gaultier. hi everyone i hope you're doing incredibly well as you tune into this conversation if you're hearing this in may enrollment for the music mastery experience is open and there might still be some spots available so if you find yourself in the transition time with big dreams but some

Starting point is 00:00:54 uncertainty as to how to move forward. Maybe you want to win an audition. You want to perform optimally time after time. You want to grow your career or make more money or experience confidence and certainty like never before. Well, all of this is 100% possible and the Music Mastery experience will get you there. The Music Mastery Experience is the coaching program for musicians. It's a highly personalized group coaching program where I take you through a massive transformation. You're going to feel certainty in the practice room. You're going to experience joy and freedom in performance. Gain the confidence you've always wanted and you will know how to go about creating the career you dream of. If you're ready to crack the code to start performing at your best and to

Starting point is 00:01:53 experience fulfillment in your music career, this program was made for you. We cover everything from practice methods that work to performance preparation strategies that have you perform with confidence consistently and powerful life coaching and mind management techniques that will remove the obstacles and self-limiting beliefs that hold you back. If you're done with not seeing results for the endless amount of work of time and energy that you put in the practice room, go to mindoverfinger.com right now and book your free conversation with me. Let's change that today. No more indecision, no more band-aids, no more short-term solutions. The Music Mastery Experience is unlike any other program out there because we go beyond the strategies and methods. We get to

Starting point is 00:02:50 the root cause of issues. We unlock everything that's keeping you stuck and we equip you with all the tools you need to start experiencing amazing results, not only on stage, but at every level of your music making experience and your life. You're going to see results from our very first session and you're not going to believe what you're capable of accomplishing within a short amount of time. But the Music Mastery experience is radical because once you're in, you're in for life. You heard that right. Once you join, you're going to have constant support month after month to keep reaching new heights and realizing new bigger and bolder dreams for as long as I run the program. All of this is done in a small, inclusive, and private environment

Starting point is 00:03:45 where you're going to feel safe, supported, inspired, and motivated. But the spots are filling up, so don't hesitate. Don't wait. It's time for you to say yes to yourself and to give yourself all the tools you need to create the musical life you've always wanted. It's time to give yourself every advantage. It's not a luxury. Choosing the music mastery experience can make a significant change in your overall earning potential. Your competition has a coach. I think you should too. It's not just about the number of hours you're able to do in the practice room. It's about making sure you have a strategic advantage in the practice room, in the audition room, and on the stage.

Starting point is 00:04:37 Can you feel how ready you are? I think you are. I think you're ready for new thinking, new tools, and a community of peers creating big things. So book your free call now at mindoverfinger.com and let's make this happen for you. and talking about making things happen today, you're in for an amazing chat with someone who does just that. And you're going to get the permission slip you've been waiting for to go after what you really want. In this episode, I talk with the incredible mezzo-soprano coach

Starting point is 00:05:15 and entrepreneur, Megan Enon. Megan is a new music force of nature. Her performances thrive on elaborate sound worlds and fully developed dramatic interpretations. Passionate about contemporary chamber music and opera, Megan has worked with individuals and ensembles around the globe, including the International Contemporary Ensemble, Fifth House Ensemble, Great Noise Ensemble, Rhymes with Opera, and Synchromy. Megan is on a mission to change the world through the commissioning, performance, and proliferation of new music. She's deeply committed to the belief that new music should be performed and loved in communities of all size. And her advocacy for music and musicians extends beyond the performance stage. She also affects change as a non-profit

Starting point is 00:06:08 arts coach and consultant. You've likely interacted with her work for Neve North, Live Music Project, New Music USA, and many individual artists throughout classical and new music. Megan's work at the intersection of performance, creative placemaking, audience development, and music entrepreneurship is a delight and relief to her clients and colleagues. We had so much fun talking and we covered great topics for you, including how her voice teacher handed her a permission slip that profoundly impacted her path, her mission to empower artists and composers and to grow the voice repertoire, her advice on how to learn music and even her practice plan,

Starting point is 00:06:52 which you can download, and so much more. I'm telling you, there's much inspiration ahead. Let's go to the show. Megan Enan, it's so great to have you on the show today. Oh, thank you, Renee. I'm so excited to be here. Megan, you're a person of many talents. You're involved in the musical world in a variety of ways. You perform, you support composers and musicians and organizations, and you describe yourself as a mezzo-soprano on a mission to change the world through the commissioning, performance, and proliferation of new music. that's so amazing to see all the incredible things you're doing so please tell us how all of this came about and how your artistic path has unfolded oh sure well i let's hear i'm from

Starting point is 00:07:55 the midwest originally grew up in iowa and in a musical and dramatic family so we definitely had you know music lessons i i played viola i took piano lessons i sang you know and all of that I love to tell this story that in high school, I was taking voice lessons, loved my voice teacher and was talking to her about what I was going to do in college. And, and I said, Oh, yeah, well, you know, my dream at the time was going to be a high school choir director, right? Because that's what I knew. And that's what I loved. And she, she said to me, Megan, have you ever thought about performing? and with all of the drama of like a high schooler you know hand against forehead I'm I'm like I don't know Renee do you think I could her name was also Renee and uh and she she kind of looks back and she's like I think you'd be okay like just so solemn about it and and that was it you know so I I always love to tell that story like off the bat because I think of I think of my voice teacher Renee as being one of my first big permission slips to do music you know to do music the way

Starting point is 00:09:06 that I wanted to do music and and along that along my path I I've just been so lucky and grateful to run into people who just kind of showed up with that next permission slip for me at the at the time when I really needed it and and so I went to went to undergrad in South Dakota and I did my master's at Peabody out in Baltimore. And really, there was when I started to get more and more involved with new music. And during my master's, I really still thought I was going to do this kind of traditional opera path. And I got, I was studying with Phyllis Brynjolfsson, who's an amazing, you know, vocalist is kind of a trailblazer in contemporary music for the voice. And we just aligned in so many of our passions and values. And, and I got just, I don't know,

Starting point is 00:09:58 more and more passionate about contemporary classical music for The Voice, wanted to work with more composers. Once I left my master's degree, I was really doing a lot of that working, gigging in Baltimore, D.C. And once I had moved away in about 2014, that was when people that called me for gigs were calling me for new music things. They said, oh, we should call Megan for this. And so while I still sing a lot of things, I sing traditional, I sing early music and things like that, but people know me for this particular area of music, which is singing contemporary classical music and working with composers and being in new music. And I, I love it. I love, I love bringing the music of living composers to life and being in that collaborative

Starting point is 00:10:49 process. So I just am very lucky that I kind of found that little corner of our musical universe. I love that. First of all, I should have known you were a violist because you are so cool. That makes sense. That explains everything. I'm all about that alto clef life, like mezzo soprano, violist, like everything was like, you get too high on the staff and I'm like, I'm out. I love it I love what you said too about this permission slip that you were given and I think that's so amazing because we so often see the opposite of people whose dreams are completely shut down by the gatekeepers and you know I kind of want to take this as an opportunity to tell

Starting point is 00:11:37 those people that you know gatekeepers don't really exist so we can all start giving ourselves permission slips, but I love this expression. Oh yeah. I use this part of my life as, you know, coaching and consulting. And I use this concept with my, with my clients all the time where I'm like, here's, here's the permission slip. Like you can do this and you might be the only one who's saying that you can't. So I try to check in with that myself whenever I'm feeling like I'm kind of up against something, or maybe I'm on the quote unquote outside of something that I really want to be in and I go is someone keeping me out of this or am I keeping myself out of this what does that look like to become more involved and do I need to just go talk to somebody or

Starting point is 00:12:24 you know how how is it possible to get involved not they're keeping me out and to be to be clear you know we work in a in a field that has had a lot of gatekeeping issues in the past and And I try to see that more humanly now, where I try to see if someone is bringing that kind of energy to me, what are they afraid of losing? What do they think they're going to lose in this situation that they have to work so hard to protect or hold on to and help them realize that, you know, we have the same goals or we want those similar things? Yeah, I love this. This is really great. And I want to talk about your work as a coach coming up. But I want to go back to the work that you do to commission new works because you're very proactive. It's not just like these pieces fall in your email inbox. You are really energetically working towards having composers create. I love that. Please tell us about this a little bit more. sure sure I feel I feel very lucky I reached a milestone for myself recently which is I've had over a hundred pieces written for me as a as a performer and and that feels just so cool that that I've had to and a lot of these are you know composers that have written for me multiple times so it's not all different composers but it's a lot of people you know that I've gotten to

Starting point is 00:13:53 work with in this way which helps you really get into that process you know you really know what that looks like after a while and there are just so many composers that that are curious about writing for the voice and they want to write for the ensembles that I'm in and it's great to work together so sometimes that starts out as a relationship oftentimes that's already a relationship where we know each other or know each other's work and say, oh yeah, I really, I really vibe with whatever they're doing musically. And I want to, I want to explore that more together or vice versa. They come to me and they say, I really like what you do on stage. And I'd like to write for, for that. And I go, great, let's do that. And, and the commissioning process can feel

Starting point is 00:14:39 daunting sometimes to people who are, are new to it, but it doesn't have to be because it's really about, it's really about saying, okay, well, we both have goals for this process. Let's make sure that we get those on the table early. That can look like a contract, right? Where you say like, okay, well, I commit to doing this side and you commit to doing these things. And this is the timetable that we're going to use. And here are the resources involved. It's basically what you're saying with a contract. And then you move forward. And the more of those expectations that you get out on the table and talk about clearly early in the process the better your collaboration is going to be right so so I love that part and working with composers often allows me to say like

Starting point is 00:15:29 what are you influenced by what do you like to hear and then tell me about your sound what I always call your sound goals right what are your sound goals what's your sound world and then let's work together to achieve that and I'll tell you you know how my instrument likes to do that how my voice likes to do that and and we can kind of come up with like what's the best version of that for this for this idea I love that that's really the embodiment of collaboration yeah that's what I you know it's so great one of the things that I really love is as a singer I get to work with text and that's you know really important to me and working with composers who are alive is really wonderful in like this really nuanced little area where I can ask them to make me a voice recording

Starting point is 00:16:15 a voice memo of them just simply reading the text and I promise you nine times out of ten it opens all these doors to little uh subtle changes that I would go oh that don't quite make it into the score but I kind of wish that those record I think of those recordings as being part of the score It's like, it's a, it's a sound score rather than the printed score. And, you know, you have this kind of oral tradition idea where they, they are reading it to themselves and you can kind of hear where their cadence goes, where they, where their pacing goes. And, and so it tells you, especially if they feel like there's this slight stress on a word. And then when you can bring that out in how you perform the piece it's so magical and so those little bits of collaboration I think

Starting point is 00:17:08 are yeah what keep what definitely keeps me in it keeps me wanting to do more and more of it oh that's so extraordinary that brings me to something I'm really curious about because I'm someone who's extremely nerdy about wanting to know more about practicing and I'm curious how that process looks like for a singer because it's very different than the way a violinist might go about it yeah we don't have text first of all and that was such a great story by the way I love that you you get them to read the text to you that's awesome so what does that look like for you when you learn a piece and you take it from you know the first glance to the stage oh yeah I think having a background in both vocal and instrumental music is really helpful I think in

Starting point is 00:17:55 this and approaching a piece. So I taught for, for quite a few years at the, you know, I taught high school level students and collegiate level courses and studio and stuff like that. And so really getting to work with students from the very beginning is important to me. And so I actually put together like a practice plan. I'm happy to share it if you want to share it with part of this episode, like, because it, it is something that I thought about put into practice. And I know that you and I vibe on this Renee, which is being very efficient with your time in the studio or in the practice room. So I put it down and I try to be very focused on my practice time because I have a lot of repertoire usually that I'm trying to get to the highest level possible

Starting point is 00:18:44 and moving through it with a plan of action and steps and being efficient is necessary. It's not just like a nice to have it's a it's a necessary element so so having this I usually start with things like with solfege I'm a big solfege person so any sort of any sort of system for pitches and intervals I think where because I don't have perfect pitch so I need to map that out in my in my brain in my ears and so any sort of system that you like if it's number of numbers letter names solfege whatever works for you works for me and I tend to do solfege for all my pieces I do a lot of clapping and counting I do like count singing I so I kind of move through all of these things then I do things you know vowels only just doing or like one vowel and then doing

Starting point is 00:19:42 just the vowels right because as singers and kind of like the bow right our bow it's like we're on the air we're on the vowel and if i keep these vowels connected and and really um smooth and clear then the consonants can also be very clear it's we think about diction a lot as singers and so when i'm thinking about this people think that diction is like this aggressive use of consonants but it's really about it's really about having the clearest vowels possible and then making sure that the consonants are like these little bows that you tie on to the length of the phrase and yeah and so I think about that a lot but also you'd feel the same way with like drawing the bow is if the bow is unclear it doesn't matter how fast you know the left hand's moving or whatever

Starting point is 00:20:39 fancy things it's doing if the bow is being all over the place then yeah not gonna happen right absolutely not so I do a lot of that thinking about you know kind of chunking down phrases building them up and then also that moves into the kind of who am I on stage even if it's something that doesn't have text or it's not it's not a theater piece necessarily but what is the story that I'm trying to tell. What space am I inviting a listener into? And what is that like? So I really love the act of performance and chamber music performance, solo performance, that kind of thing. Because I really think that you're inviting an audience or a listener into a space that you're creating. And the more that you think through what that experience is going to be like,

Starting point is 00:21:35 the more impactful and powerful it can be musical experience for the listener and and i just think that that's such a such a gift that we give to each other right to to be in that space together and that's what i you know thinking about that that's the stuff that i missed the most during the time where we didn't perform during pandemic as much is being in the room creating that environment to think through these thoughts feelings ideas kind of together communally you know we're all showing up for that yeah this is so fascinating i love it and i love that you're talking about mapping things out with the intervals and uh that because you don't have the absolute pitch you figure it out ways to solidify all of these intervals because so many

Starting point is 00:22:29 people would use not having perfect pitch as an excuse to stay away from this repertoire but it really looks like you have spent a great deal of time figuring out processes you're using a lot of problem solving methods and you have this framework that you use to get that piece from start to finish and that is just so wonderful because it shows how anyone who figures out how to use all the practice tools in the way that works for themselves could potentially tackle any repertoire that they want. Absolutely. I think, may I tell one, one quick story? You can tell a long story. So, so my voice teacher for my master is Phyllis, who I'd mentioned before. I'd love to tell this story because she, this is a permission slip story is there was one day and she had these

Starting point is 00:23:23 big cabinets full of repertoire you know full of like scores and she'd open up this cabinet she'd grab something pull it out and she'd go okay let's just sight read this also phyllis definitely had perfect pitch and and was like oh you can do it's totally fine and i so she'd pull out this score and i remember her pulling out an r murray shaffer score once that was that was all a graphic notation and it opens it up and she she goes yeah let's just get into it you know i was like and i go Phyllis I don't even know how to read this and she goes oh it's fine we'll just figure it out you know and she had you know this she was also from North Dakota so we had this very midwestern quality and she goes oh it's fine we just figure it out and I I remember that every time I approach

Starting point is 00:24:12 something there are scores that I get every day that have new things in them that that composers are saying, hey, can we try out this idea? Maybe it's different notation. Maybe it's a different sound. Maybe it's a mixture of things that they heard and they want to hear again. And every day I'm looking at a score and I go, I don't even know if I know how to do this. And I hear Phyllis's voice in my head go, well, we just figure it out. And so whenever I'm talking about preparing new music pieces or really anything is I just want people to hear that same permission slip, which is as a musician, you're never required to already know. You're required to say, I can figure it out and approach that in the studio so that you don't get kind of demoralized

Starting point is 00:25:05 by new things. You get excited by new things and you go, well, I don't know about this yet. I'm about to figure it out and like seeing something and that always means that you can ask somebody you can reach out you could reach out to somebody and say I've never counted this rhythm before can you can you give me some insight into this or I've never looked at this notation before have you seen something like this and give me some pointers there's always like somebody you could reach out to or maybe there's a recording or if the composer's living there's not a recording But you can ask the composer, you can say, I'm thinking about doing something like this. Do you like that direction? And there's a freedom there that I don't know if people always feel when they think about new music or they are attempting to study new music scores in their studio or with their teacher, with their students, and they feel like it needs to be very rigid. And there are some scores that really want that incredible precision. And that's great. Like, see if you can figure that out. Can I figure out this incredible precision? There are other scores that are the exact opposite that are just, here's a couple of lines of text, and you're going to make a 20 minute piece out of this.

Starting point is 00:26:25 And then you go, okay. And it requires that commitment to, you know, everything is figureoutable, rather than, oh, this is scary and unfamiliar and new, and I should leave this for somebody else. Somebody else already knows how to do this, so I shouldn't try. That's so powerful, what you just shared. And I know that someone listening to this needed to hear that. And, you know, I'll say if that was you, reach out to me and Megan and let us know. And like how you gave yourself permission today to just figure it out. You should have like a hotline where people can call like 1-800 and all you say is just figure it out. Yeah. i'll be like here's your permission slip figure it out thanks so much for sharing this i think it

Starting point is 00:27:30 was you know it's the essence of everything so many creative minds out there are still kind of i mean it sounds a little bit dramatic but wearing the shackles of trying to do things a specific way or believing the labels that were put on them by other people and just this idea of I can go in any direction that I want and I can figure it out. I think one of the ideas that you you just helped me kind of find was one of the real other permission slips that Phyllis gave me was that I don't have to spend the rest of my career trying to appease or get two gold stars from my from my teacher because the thing that she wants me to do the most is go figure it out right go go figure out who you're going to be as an artist go figure out what music you're going to make

Starting point is 00:28:25 and and even if you work in in the most traditional of classical music styles that you don't need to keep trying to win the affection of your teachers they want you to go figure it out and that doesn't mean that you have to go work solely in new music or anything like that. It means find who you are in this music, find who you are in this orchestra, in this ensemble, whatever it is. Yeah, absolutely. I think that's a good segue into something else I wanted to discuss with you is the fact that you're multi-passionate, multi-gifted, I might say. And as I said at the beginning, you work in several capacities, supporting organizations, supporting artists. I'd love to hear a little bit more about that because you have so many awesome things out there.

Starting point is 00:29:18 You have the Sybaritic Singer, you have your Fri-A series, which is so great. You lead organizations. Tell us more about this work that you do. You also mentioned working with clients. Yeah. Well, and so I tend to think of my professional life in kind of three spheres or three pieces of pie in the pie chart. Right. And so performing is one of those pieces. Coaching and consulting is one of them. And then the third one is that I am the executive director of the Live Music Project, which is an organization that it's an advocacy organization for kind of the field of classical music. One of our main programs is that we have this concert calendar that you can use to filter concerts by your interest. So you can look by composer, you can look by instrument, you can look by all sorts of things, which recently went national. So I'm very excited about the growth of this organization.

Starting point is 00:30:14 So anybody listening to this podcast, I really, really hope that they'll put their concerts Or, you know, tell the marketing director of your orchestra or whatever to put your concerts on the calendar, because it's such a great tool for one of the things that I am passionate about, which is audience development, which is connecting live music experiences with listeners who want to hear them. You know, people want to hear what you're making and making it easy by using the gifts of technology, making it easy for them to find it, to go, to buy tickets, all of that stuff, to engage with it is deeply important to me. So, so my work with Live Music Project is one of those facets where I go, okay, well, I really care about this field. I care about connecting hardworking musicians with eager listeners. Where can I make the most impact? And right now that's with Live Music Project, getting to do this work. we have um our eighth birthday party is coming up in in may so if you know so i hope people will just kind of keep an eye out for live music project in general and sign up for our email lists and stuff like that so that part's really important to me and then the my coaching and consulting side is an outgrowth i started a blog called the sybaritic singer and you know started

Starting point is 00:31:33 a blog in in 20 oh 2009 something like that 2010 something around there and kept it going and I really just wanted to write about do reviews of things that I was seeing and also writing about my experience and I started a really popular series called 29 days to diva which you can imagine was a leap year it started in February like you know so every year I would write this series which is like a kind of a micro action every day of that month that just kind of helped you feel like oh this is something really manageable that I can do right now that's going to help me feel like I'm moving my career forward and and that turned into you know lots of things and a lot of my so coaching happened because you know people would reach out to me

Starting point is 00:32:25 and say like hey I have a question about this and and then once that happens enough times you start going like, well, here are my coaching packages. I'm going to, you know, I will make this a professional service. Now I will make this an offer. And, and that's been really great. I love working with my clients and I work, you know, with, with performers, composers, you know, educators, kind of creative types in general, because a lot of what I do happens to be on the business entrepreneurship side of of coaching and consulting kind of helping people figure out their particular businesses we're all living this kind of super freelance life and when people feel like i don't really know how to you know turn this into a business that's when we talk you know we

Starting point is 00:33:18 Like come, come on over. We'll chat about it. And, and so that's, that is part of where, you know, I have a podcast and I also have this Fri-Yay series that you mentioned, these little like weekly videos that I do as Facebook lives, but you can see them on, you know, Instagram and YouTube and stuff where I just kind of do the same thing. We just talk about these little bite-sized things it's easy to to digest it hopefully has to do with like both the mindset side of what we do and the kind of nuts and bolts side of like running your actual professionally creative life yeah this is so great and those people reaching out for help it really shows your brilliance and for those people who don't know you I can attest to your brilliant I see it

Starting point is 00:34:07 in action all the time. And I really love how an expression I like to use is you follow the breadcrumbs. Yes. Yes. I love that. That's exactly it. You go with things that are calling to you and you just, you know, walk in that direction and that takes you somewhere wonderful for our benefit. Yeah. I think we've talked about this phrase before, which is, you know, be tenacious about the goals but be flexible about the methods I think is is that kind of so I I really love having big goals and writing them out and kind of breaking them down but but following the bread crumbs is the thing that's always gotten me closer to those goals rather than being rigid about what I think the path should look like and I so following the breadcrumbs is is absolutely

Starting point is 00:35:03 a core value of mine. Yeah. And I really hope that the listeners will consult all of these resources that I've mentioned, uh, and your podcast, um, it's called the masterclass series, is it? Yeah. It's called studio class. Exactly. Yes. It's so great. I love, I just love everything you do. And, um, the Friday sessions are so helpful and inspiring. And it's exactly because of what you said, because it's just these totally applicable tidbits of advice that are so relevant to what we do. It's really great. I'm going to put links in the show notes. Megan, I could speak with you all day, but how about a round of rapid fire question before I let you go? Oh, I'm so ready. So ready for this rapid fire. What's a habit that you have that you think contributed

Starting point is 00:35:56 to your success? Definitely goal setting. I think the, the, I'm sorry, this is not the rapid fire part. I have this thing that I call the 20 year goal exercise that really helped me out of like a darker period of burnout. And I, I don't think I would have come back to music. I don't think I would have been able to like stay in it without something like that. So, so I know the ups and downs of this as well. And something like having that, what I call the 20-year goal exercise, you're thinking like way out in the future, what is it that I want to do? Let's break those goals down, was really helpful. So that's a tool that's really helped me. Oh, I love that. Yes. And we can actually call this a slow burning fire question. It's like the embers. Exactly. I'd love to know

Starting point is 00:36:52 if there's a performance that has stayed with you throughout the years and why I know that you've premiered so many works so it must be incredibly difficult to to choose among any of performances that you've done or maybe performances that you've been to but I'd be really curious oh yeah you're right there's it's so hard for us to choose but I think that we all have those moments and I think I'll stick with my theme of these permission slips, maybe. And I did a performance. This is maybe 2012, where I was a fellow at the Bang on a Can Festival. And I got to sing Ancient Voices of Children, the George Crumb work. And I remember performing it and almost having this kind of like moment where I drifted like away from myself, you know, it's like you're almost seeing yourself

Starting point is 00:37:44 performing and I had this moment of thinking about getting to that place and what it meant and that that that was and I kind of felt like oh this is what it's always like is that you're always working towards this and that's the overall feeling and I'm not explaining it very well but I just had this this moment of being like oh I can do this and this is what my life is like this is my life and and being able to say like this is what it'll be going forward and having such a deep connection to George Crumb's music in particular just feeling like really strongly about that and I had a a member of the audience come up to me afterwards that said that he was part of the original George Crumb like ensemble and he said you did very fine work young lady

Starting point is 00:38:35 I said and I was like oh thank you you know like I'm getting misty-eyed and I was like thank you so much so those so yes it's an it's that internal external thing when you when you're having your own internal moment of saying oh it's like I figured something out and then also someone else says like you're doing it you're actually doing it you know those moments when they go hand in hand you're like that's a very powerful time yeah powerful is the word for sure do you have a favorite tool in the practice room oh a metronome hands down i think i use i use two two apps like i use a tuner app i think it's called clear tune clear tune and i use my my metronomics app constantly so especially for things like doing nested rhythms and stuff like

Starting point is 00:39:33 that having a having a metronome that can also help you understand the smaller subdivisions of something i was like that's that's the ticket and i'm smiling a little bit because during the joyful practice challenge ralph schiano's tip was about using technology and one of the apps that he recommended was the super metronome which was super fun i don't know if you've heard about it but if you ever want to you know jam some beethoven to a latin rhythm this yeah would be the app for you. Absolutely. Absolutely. So I love the permission slip idea. I think I'm gonna have a post-it nearby, put it in my little mirror here and look at it all the time. Is there any other piece of advice that was given to you that you'd like to pass on to the listeners?

Starting point is 00:40:24 I think my my favorite piece of advice early on was show up move chairs and and I have to say that that has actually been one of the superpowers over my career is the number of times that I showed up and stayed and moved chairs turned into more gigs than I can tell you about like so it's and so it yes it's but it is it's a yes it's about helping but it's also about saying we value the same things and i know how hard you're working and i'm here to help right and you chat about things during those moments too where you say like oh i trust this person a little bit more you know and then they say oh well let me they remember that and they go maybe megan's available for this gig. Let me just reach out and see. And maybe Megan would like to, you know, be on our

Starting point is 00:41:20 board or something like that. Move chairs, you're definitely getting a board invitation. So, but I do really mean that is like, the moving chairs can be metaphorical, is show up and, and show that you're willing to help because you're recognizing how much work people are putting into something that obviously, if you're in a space where you can't move chairs, because of union rules or something, you can pick another way to quote unquote move chairs. Oh, what a great advice. I love it. That's another post-it from my mirror right there. Finally, how about a quick actionable tip that the listeners could implement today in their musical lives, in addition to listen to every single one of your Fri-Yay sessions?

Starting point is 00:42:12 That's very nice of you. let's see here. Okay. My actionable tip is, is plan ahead for the hard feelings, plan ahead for the moments that, what will you do when you feel professional jealousy? What will you do when you're feeling worried about money? What will you feel when you're, what will you do when you're feeling burnt out on you know auditioning or performing or whatever think ahead right now if you're feeling really great about what you're doing if you're feeling really great about money if you're feeling really great about auditions if you're feeling really great about whatever then take that moment and say like what would I do what would I tell somebody who was struggling

Starting point is 00:42:59 with this right now and honest to god like write it out put it in a google doc I don't care like put it in your like in case of emergency vault like and then and maybe that's just collecting nice things that people have said about you so that when you're feeling like should I keep doing this you go back and you go oh yeah look at all these people that sent me a nice a nice email once you know or I got this great review whatever it is but But plan ahead because everybody has those moments and we don't necessarily broadcast them as much as, as some of the other things, you know, there's no thrilled to announce I'm going through, going through like burnout at the moment. Um, but it's okay to think through that and say like, okay, well, what would I tell somebody that was going through that when I'm not, and then give that to yourself for those moments

Starting point is 00:43:57 that it will inevitably show up in your life. And, and it's okay. It doesn't mean that you're doing it wrong. It just means that this is how we navigate those waters. This is great. My mic's on the stand. Otherwise I would drop it. you were so funny no but this is this is very powerful i don't think that the listeners could

Starting point is 00:44:23 see it but i was closing my eyes as you started talking because i was taking it all in really really powerful thank you so much renee megan where can everyone find all of the goodness about I love this. Well, so my website is MeganEnan.com. It's I-H-N-E-N. And there you can kind of find everything and find me on all the socials at, at MezzoEnan, M-E-Z-Z-O-I-H-N-E-N. That's fantastic. I'm going to put links in the show notes. And also please tell us about any fun projects that are upcoming that we should check for. Yeah, let's see here. I have two albums coming out this summer. So I hope that people will kind of keep an eye out for those. One of them is with Parma label. And it's a cool, cool project where they do a call for scores. So I got to work with a lot of new composers for this one, and worked with some of my favorite collaborators. And, and so that's very cool. And then I also have the second in a three-album project of wordless lullabies for The Voice, and that'll be coming out in August.

Starting point is 00:45:33 So Parma in July and Sleep Songs, number two, in August. So I'm excited about those. Oh, this is great. And please make sure that I know about it so I can share about it when it comes out. Yes, I will. Thank you. megan as the listeners probably feel now you are such an incredible person you have this amazing energy about you and you're just so wonderful on every level your story is going to have many of us inspired to give ourselves that permission slip i'm sure i know it in fact

Starting point is 00:46:09 so thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me today oh such a pleasure you know i always We could talk about all this stuff for days. Thank you for having me. Thank you guys so much for listening. I hope you enjoyed this conversation with mezzo-soprano coach and entrepreneur Megan Enan. don't forget to share today's episode with everyone you think might benefit from Megan's insight share a post on Instagram or Facebook and tag us so we can say hi and keep the conversation

Starting point is 00:46:51 going I'm mind over finger everywhere and she's mezzo enan or Megan enan of course I'll have those links and all the links where you can check out Megan's work in the show notes and you can find those in your podcast app or at mindoverfinger.com. While there, don't forget to check out the Music Mastery Experience and book your free call today so we can start planning extraordinary things for you. So that's what I have today. Be well, my friend. Once again, thank you so much for listening and à bientôt. Thanks for watching!

The Mind Over Finger Podcast - 129 Megan Ihnen: Breathing Life Into Music

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