Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Nora Chrissi . We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Nora, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

I’ve been surrounded by music my whole life. I sang, played piano, and wrote all the time as a kid. I grew up around a family of musicians. My mom taught piano and flute. I was always a strong singer and started learning guitar and piano from a young age and began performing at a young age. I felt most at home singing. I began cultivating my craft through lots of practice and dedication. I’d dedicate hours to learning progressions and techniques on the piano. And I spent hours working through vocal techniques on my own. I found myself practicing whistle tones and belting at a young age. When I started writing as a kid, I began to feel like I’d need more than one lifetime to get out all of my songs. During high school and college, I isolated myself a lot and spent a lot of my off time at the piano writing songs and composing classical piano pieces too. I think during this time I really developed a lot musically. To answer your question about obstacles in the way of learning more, I think sometimes I stood in my own way because I was stubborn and did not like to learn everything by the book, which is not always a con, it actually gave my sound originality.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’m a singer songwriter, jazz pianist and producer. I’m also a vocal coach/piano instructor. I make Rnb and Pop music and perform at shows and venues in the metro Detroit area. Some of my music draws on jazz and soul influences. I graduated from Wayne State University where I studied jazz piano. I use a lot of elements from jazz and soul, that being the music I mostly grew up hearing. I think what sets my music apart from others is my voice and my writing is distinct and unique. I’m most proud of my dedication to the art and the vision I have. I currently spend most of my time writing and recording new music.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

I feel like as a people, we are always looking for answers and advice from others on what to do and where to go. A big lesson I had to learn is only I know where I’m going and what I need to do to get there. At the end of the day, you have to be your biggest advocator. Whether that be in negotiating the right pay or setting boundaries for people, I’ve learned in life no one is going to come save you or help you out sometimes, you have to help yourself.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

There was a point in time where someone I worked with refused to give me my music I had recorded and worked on for months. My trust was broken after. I started learning production and producing more on my own afterward and relying on myself and my vision to get to where I needed to be. I found out that the product started to become better on my own as well because I knew exactly the sound I wanted.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nora.chrissi/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=nora+chrissi

Image Credits

Hisoptics

Riovisuals