Interpretation is the Tip of the Iceberg - The Iceberg Practice Session

“No one covered the song — they gave their own interpretation.”That moment at our monthly jam revealed something simple and true: what an audience hears is the visible tip of an artist’s work. Behind every honest phrase lies a lifetime of choices, routines, and practice that make it feel inevitable. Interpretation is the tip of the iceberg; the performance that moves people is supported by attention, habit, and intention beneath the surface.

Warmups as Ritual

Warmups do more than loosen and balance vocal muscles. They are the ritual that brings attention to body, soul, and story — the place where we remind ourselves why a phrase matters. Even brief preparation—breathing with purpose, straw exercises, octave glides, tongue trills, humming, or the tiny “oooh”—primes both instrument and imagination. Those minutes are less about dramatic change than about readiness: they make expressive choices land with control rather than anxiety. In the studio I watch students shift from reaction to choice the moment they begin warming with intention. Reportedly, even Pavarotti would “oooh” a song until it was automatic before switching to the lyrics.

Technique as Scaffolding

Technique is the scaffolding, not the substance. Breath, resonance, and timing give you options; they don’t tell you how to interpret. When technique is reliable you can follow where the lyric wants to go: a softening that suggests a memory, a slight delay that lets a word breathe, a change of vowel color that reveals a hidden shade of feeling. These aren’t flashy moves — they’re practical tools that let honesty come through. Framing technical work this way helps singers treat it as service to meaning rather than as an end in itself.

Permission to Risk

Permission is essential. Interpretation asks for permission to be imperfect, curious, and occasionally wrong. Give yourself small, sanctioned risks in rehearsal: hold a note a beat longer; whisper a word; let the consonant push the vowel in an unexpected way. Most of these experiments will feel raw at first. A few will transform the phrase. The point is not to produce immediate mastery but to create a practice environment where trying is safe and new choices can be tested and folded into performance. Sometimes exaggerating a choice before scaling it back can be a useful practice.

Habits That Compound

Short, focused habits compound. You don’t need long sessions every day to change the underside of your iceberg. Five to ten minutes at a time—attending to breath, experimenting with a single word’s color, or asking a lyric-based question—adds up to 20–30 minutes of deliberate practice that builds steady momentum. Over weeks and months those small practices reshape instinct. The “how” of your sound becomes the invisible support for the “why.”

Practical Takeaways

• Start rehearsal by naming an intention for the phrase you’ll work on. That single guiding phrase keeps decisions aligned.

• Use technique to make choices repeatable; practice the physical means so the expressive end feels inevitable.

• Make only one small change at a time; incremental shifts are easier to evaluate and integrate.

• If time is tight, keep a short daily micro-practice that connects lyric to body and impulse.

Stories from the Studio

A singer who once mimicked a favorite recording began to bring lines to life after a week of asking a single question before each phrase: What does this phrase mean to me? Another student discovered a new vocal color for a pivotal word by experimenting with vowel placement — the “wrong” choice revealed a vulnerability that became the emotional center of the performance. These aren’t dramatic transformations overnight; they are the slow accretion of beneath-the-surface work that makes interpretation feel inevitable.

Interpretation as Depth

Interpretation will always be what the audience notices first. But that visible choice is meaningful only because of the unseen work that supports it. When we tend the foundations—curiosity, steady practice, and the courage to choose—the tip of the iceberg becomes a faithful sign of depth. We teach five or six approaches to interpretation and encourage students to master them all in order to have options depending on their vision. A good starting point is simply saying, “This song is about me.” You are not covering a song but interpreting and communicating it. The original artist interpreted the song; if you copy them you are not doing what they did. You are imitating. An artist doesn’t copy.

Closing Invitation

If you’re curious to explore this approach that combines voice training with the development of style and performance skills, I invite you to join our studio sessions. We’ll practice the beneath-the-surface work together so your performances feel spontaneous, truthful, and alive. Every song you master will show the depth of the work beneath the surface. The highest level is when technique and training disappear and time stops during an authentic performance.

Discover Your Voice… Live Your Dream

RiverSong Reflections

~Patrick Cunningham