Wendy Parr Wendy Parr

Intuition, India Part 1

I spent half the year for three years living in Mumbai, India. absolutely loved it. The culture, food, people, music, dancing everyday, exploring. It was so not like my life in the states, It was incredibly spiritual, but not in the om shanti om kind of way. I was doing yoga 6 days a week in NYC, not at all in India.

Spiritual more in the everything you believe will be challenged on a day to day basis, I came face to face with my perspectives, judgements, entitlements and had to reconcile yourself with who I am and the way life and culture exists here. If I deny, ignore or get stubborn, everything is hard, learn to go with the flow, surrender and I loved it.

People ask me, how did I get to India, what inspired it? Well, one day that voice in my head said - “Remember that film you saw 7 years ago? Watch it again”. So I did. I was swept away into a world of awe, enchantment and inspiration.

There are so many parts to this story - let me start by saying, listening to my inner voice led me on a life-changing journey.

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Wendy Parr Wendy Parr

One Plus One is Greater Than Two

I love bringing people together. In high school I had parties where my theater friends would meet my honors English friends, we all went to the same school but they’d never met one another. I loved mixing it up + new friendships were formed.

Knowing my love to connecting - I made it a point to bring it into my work -every workshop, presentation, gig I do is about sharing my experience and expertise and bringing the people in the room together for connection. So the artists gain insights and growth from me, and from one another. The foundation of friendships and creative collaborations start at a Parr Method event.

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Wendy Parr Wendy Parr

Writer’s Block

One thing I hear again and again is how getting into a writing session day after day with new people is both exhausting, hard, not usually fulfilling and feels like ground hog day. I did a session with an artist who said, I have nothing left to say. I’ve been in sessions everyday for over a year, feels like I’m on a wheel - same people, going in circles.

So what do you do when you’re stuck?

Flip it! Always writing  alone? Get yourself into a bunch of collaborations. Get energized by other people’s excitement, motivation and discover new ways of writing, approaching a song and getting into a creative flow. Always collaborating? Give yourself a discipline to spend time alone and see where your own heart takes you.

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Wendy Parr Wendy Parr

High Expectations

The hard on myself, high achieving talented person that I am sets high expectations for my performance. I anticipate picking up right where I left off, be it yesterday or last week, and I expect myself to out perform my last session.

My expectations are clearly, not serving me.

As a coach, I never expect this of someone I’m working with. I’ve helped singers back from injury, surgery, being sick - and we NEVER try to get back what you had - we move forward and get the best from here. (Which 99% of the time is better than before!)

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Wendy Parr Wendy Parr

It’s the Journey Not the Destination - Winning a GRAMMY

When somebody wins an award,  they cry, they’re ecstatic they bring their team up they thank everybody - starting with parents! they know the entire road and all the sweat and all the tears and all the everything it took to get to that moment. That moment is 15 seconds long. A song or an album or film that took a years to create,  promote, tour, sing hundreds of times… 

A project can be stalled or stopped in so many different ways it’s so many points along the road from idea to distribution. It’s every hurdle we overcome along the way every pivot, every adjustment, those are the real wins!

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Wendy Parr Wendy Parr

High and Light

Balance, strength and dynamics build from the middle out. We find our balance and our alignment and as we get stronger we can get both more intense and more gentle.

Singing a high note lightly requires just as much strength as singing a loud, forceful belt, thus stability is achieved by focusing energy in the center first. 

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Wendy Parr Wendy Parr

Relative Space Musical

You never know what your creative endeavors will become. Sometimes they go nowhere, sometimes they become what you aimed for, sometimes they create a life of their own. Many great successes were sleepers, totally a surprise to the creator and the public.

Sometimes the hit song isn’t as great once produced and the song you kind of liked becomes an absolute favorite, taking the lead + changing your entire career.

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Wendy Parr Wendy Parr

BE TRUE

We change as people, evolve, but we are also so influenced by the outside. Shut down parts of ourselves, hide, not to be noticed or scapegoated, in a desire to connect.

You just can’t run from yourself, so why bother? Instead, embrace yourself and go BIG! Go boldly in the direction of your loves, passions, and style!

The more I understand myself, the more I embrace and love who I am, and the more empowered I am to feel truly joyful in my own skin. Like myself, love myself, and show up being Wendy Parr!

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Wendy Parr Wendy Parr

Imagination to Reality

One artist I work with - I found an unusual tool for them. In fact, I’ve never used it as a solo tool before - I have a game I play that uses a blending of artists to help the artist break out of their idea of themselves, create expression they didn’t even know they could do. It’s super fun!

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Wendy Parr Wendy Parr

In My Mind

Trying to reconnect to the past puts you in your head. Your emotions are in your body and get expressed through your voice. I don’t believe you need to relive your pain every time you sing a song.

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Wendy Parr Wendy Parr

Evolution of Self

I’ve always allowed myself to flow with the feeling of expression that I have at the moment. But I also spent years finding and allowing myself my most authentic expression when the world told me yuck, ugh not that, don’t be that!

When I jumped off a 30-foot cliff into a pool of water in a national park, I came up from the water and said I’m cutting my hair putting in a red streak! That 1930s Cotton Club men’s GQ haircut I have always loved, well I finally got it!

It’s so fun as a human, and definitely as an artist, to express so many sides of ourselves. I’m so grateful for all the paths I’ve taken, and most happy to be dedicated to my evolution of self. You do you, boo!

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Wendy Parr Wendy Parr

Show Up As You!

Knowing who you are is the key to success, yet managers tell me all the time that artists don’t really know who they are. What happens to artists when they don’t really know who they are? Somebody else starts to tell them who they are, which leads to feeling like an imposter.

Artists need to speak the language of each element. Use AUDIO to point to the sound you want, IMAGES for the look. I remember working with a major artist in Electric Lady Studios and they communicated the emotional feeling of their art through 3 huge storyboards in the green room. It was amazing!

Your style and expression is going to change throughout your life and career. You just need to be able to communicate the changes as you go!

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Wendy Parr Wendy Parr

It’s All in the Mix

I always listen to the in-ear mix when I work with an artist. One artist, after 3 years of touring, was not having fun anymore, not feeling inspired. No wonder he wasn’t inspired, he wasn’t hearing music anymore, he was hearing a computer click.

By putting his voice in his own spotlight, he was criticizing and checking himself all show long - not having fun or being expressive. He wasn’t inspired because he wasn’t hearing music and he wasn’t doing what he always loved.

Your focus changes everything.

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Wendy Parr Wendy Parr

RAW + REAL

I was working with an artist on tour. They're seasoned and have toured many times. They were so tired and said, "I want to quit."

I told them - I want you to start tonight's concert expressing how tired you are and how you don't want to be there!

Of course, they replied with "I can't do that." I asked her to trust me and simply start the concert expressing the genuine feeling she was having at that moment and then see where it takes you.

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Wendy Parr Wendy Parr

Out of Your Comfort Zone

“Think outside of the box”, “Get out of you comfort zone” these are such common phrases that can lead you to take risks, level up and have breakthroughs you’ve been dreaming about.

I truly believe we only succeed when we are in over our head.

So what is the box and how are we in it?

“the box” - limitations, stopping ourselves, not taking chances is created by worrying about what other people think.

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Wendy Parr Wendy Parr

Life is a Team Sport

The most important voice to listen to is your own. Creating a life and career you love is about discovering what you love to do, what makes you feel amazing, where your talents lie an your purpose - how you want to affect people in this world.

The Just do it! + “Anything is possible” culture and the pressure to be self reliant is like the weight of the world on your small shoulders.

So what’s the solution?

Community.

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Wendy Parr Wendy Parr

The Power of Expectations

If an athlete has a knee injury, they would be wise not to expect themselves to work out and play the way they did before the injury. You change your work out to rehabilitate and come back stronger. Well it’s obvious if one has a physical injury that adjustments need to be accommodated, It’s more subtle when it’s your emotional state, your nervous system, your spirit. We need to work in the subtleties.

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Wendy Parr Wendy Parr

Emotions-Fleeting or Forever

Watching my kids and they basically have two main expressions - Crying for anything that is emotionally uncomfortable, including frustration, pain and hunger and smiling and laughing for everything that is on the joyful side of their experience.

What I do notice is the ability to switch from crying to laughter / smiles to crying in seconds. Show Téo a stuffed animal or toy and his mood shifts. (When I can’t help him to shift out of his pain it’s parental agony). And yet humans hold grudges. Countries hold grudges. We hang onto emotions for days, weeks, centuries.

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Wendy Parr Wendy Parr

What’s My Signage?

Your work, art, heart + the various talents you have is your signage. Social media is your store front. Let people know what’s inside + they’ll come back again and again to do business for what you EMOTIONALLY PROVIDE.

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Wendy Parr Wendy Parr

Me + Miss Patti LaBelle, Part I

Have I told you about the time I sang with Patti LaBelle?

Or, should I say: the several times I sang with Patti Labelle?!… I was a teenager that first time-- the second time I went to see her, I took flowers. I was about 20 years old, she asked me if I could rap. I said:

“No, Patti, but I can sing.”

She gently waved me off and turned around. But then, she turned back to me, asking “Do you sing? Do you really sing?!” And I said

“Yes Patti, I can really sing!”…

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