Must say I found the discussion on voice production refreshing, I'll try something else that largely eminated from Ewan.
The idea that working on a song and thinking or talking about it too much spoils your enjoyment has been a current argument as long as I heve been on the scene.
It has been a feature of several long, heated discussions here recently - we spend "too much time discussing the songs and should really be listening to them"
Some time after the Criics Group folded, Pat and I approached Ewan and asked him would he agree to be interviewed
It was not our intention to record his own history - that had been done interminably - we felt that, as he had written so very little on the subject somebody should concentrate on his talking about his approach to singing
Those interviews spread over a year and proved to be incredibly rewarding - they have yet to be fully indexed and archived.
One of the points he made was, I believe worth repeating here as it touches on the need to work at what you are doing in order to understand it fully
"Now you might say that working and training to develop your voice to sing Nine Maidens A-milking Did Go or Lord Randall is calculated to destroy your original joy in singing, at least that’s the argument that’s put to me from time to time, or has been put to me from time to time by singers who should know better.
The better you can do a thing the more you enjoy it. Anybody who’s ever tried to sing and got up in front of an audience and made a bloody mess of it knows that you’re not enjoying it when you’re making a balls of it, but you are enjoying it when it’s working, when all the things you want to happen are happening. And that can happen without training, sure it can, but it’s hit or miss. If you’re training it can happen more, that’s the difference. It can’t happen every time, not with anybody, although your training can stand you in good stead, it’s something to fall back on, a technique, you know. It’s something that will at least make sure that you’re not absolutely diabolical
The objective, really for the singer is to create a situation where when he starts to sing he’s no longer worried about technique, he’s done all that, and he can give the whole of his or her attention to the song itself she can give her or he can give his whole attention to the sheer act of enjoying the song."Pat Mackenzie Jim Carroll