Did you know it takes 10,000 repetitions of something before you become an expert at it? Seriously. There are three stages of motor learning.
- The first phase, the cognitive stage, requires attention and effort. Your body is attempting to understand something new. You’re either undoing old behaviors or acquiring new ones, so there will be lots of trial and error throughout this. Think about when you first learned how to do a vocal raspberry or lip trill. It was a hot mess. Your tongue barely vibrated against your lips, you were in shock that I refer to it as “glorified mouth farting”, and you spit everywhere.
- The second phase, the associative stage, is dedicated to refining the behavior. Now that you know what to do, you can focus on how you’re doing it. Going back to the trills/raspberries, at this stage, you’re probably able to do it without any extra tools. Now, maybe you’re working on being able to sustain it for longer phrases or more evenly throughout your entire range.
- The third and final phase is the autonomous phase, the phase that you desperately want to get to when you’re feeling like a fool in the first phase. This is the one where everything is second nature. You don’t even need to think about it to be able to do it. Back to the raspberry- it’s at this phase where you’re probably trying to teach someone else how to do it because you’ve mastered it.
So, readers, no matter if it’s perfecting the vocal raspberry or mastering a clear, legit High C or even remembering to exhale before you slate, remember that it takes 10,000 tries to get it to feel automatic. And the repetition is what matters. It’s not about how good the workout was, necessarily, it’s about the fact that you showed up to the gym. Again. And again. And again.
How many reps are you willing to put toward your success today?
Jenna Pastuszek is a bicoastal actor, singer, voiceover artist, educator, and voice teacher. Theatre credits include the North American premiere of Elvis: A Musical Revolution (U.S. National Tour), Diner and Because of Winn Dixie (pre-Broadway runs), 44: The Unofficial Obama Musical (Center Theatre Group, Los Angeles), and It’s All Your Fault, Tyler Price (The Hudson Theatre, Los Angeles). Off and Off-Off-Broadway credits include various roles in New York City venues. She has sung the National Anthem at major events across the U.S., including for Major League Baseball.
Jenna is the creator, producer, and star of the solo shows GET HAPPY! An Evening Celebrating the World’s Greatest Entertainer, Judy Garland and ME, MYSELF & BARBRA, which have been performed at venues including Paper Mill Playhouse (Millburn, NJ), Bucks County Playhouse (New Hope, PA), Westport Country Playhouse (Westport, CT), The Overture Center (Madison, WI), and The Yale Club (New York, NY).
As a voiceover artist, she is a member of the Pandora Radio roster and has voiced national campaigns for brands including Starbucks, Pepsi, Amazon Alexa, KIND Bar, Target, IKEA, and Crest.
Jenna is Co-Founder of Innovative Voice Studio, where she trains performers appearing in &Juliet, Hamilton, The Phantom of the Opera, Chicago, Hadestown, Wicked, Ain’t Too Proud, SIX, Fiddler on the Roof, Hello, Dolly!, West Side Story, and more. She has held teaching positions at USC, NYU, The American Academy of Dramatic Arts, UArts, and Oakland University.
