The Daily Song Quote for Today

"When I started to sing like myself - as opposed to imitating Nat Cole, which I had done for a while - when I started singing like Ray Charles, it had this spiritual and churchy, this religious or gospel sound. It had this holiness and preachy tone to it. It was very controversial. I got a lot of criticism for it."

-Ray Charles

It is a wonderful experience and adventure discovering something about yourself, and just discovering things in general about life, that you weren’t expecting. I see it as a beautiful surprise. For me, it’s OK to copy someone else when you are first starting out. You are in the process of truly finding your own voice, and in order to get your chops up, if you will, mimicking or replicating what someone else does or is doing is a great way to do so. However, after awhile, it not only starts to become mundane for you and anyone listening, but then hard to veer away from that since you’ve spent so much time singing or doing things just like this other person. Like we’ve spoken about in this past, the world has enough copycats, enough impersonators. Let’s be original! And, this is exactly what Ray did when he started to break away from imitating Nat Cole. Was this a risk? Of course, because people were accustomed to him singing a particular way, and seemingly all of a sudden, that changed. Change is hard. Most people really don't like change. Why? Because it's out of the ordinary, maybe out of our comfort zones, and it takes some time getting used to, which requires more mental energy than usual. To branch out on your own is both a risky and exciting endeavor. Risky in the sense that you might fall flat on your face and be the recipient of harsh criticism. Exciting in the sense that you might create something amazing in the process that never excited before had you not stepped out on a limb in the first place. I’ve been saying this a lot lately—‘You never know until you try.’ Try something new. It’s never too late to discover beauty and knowledge as well as find a new passion and dream. Thank you for daring to be yourself, Mr. Charles.