I never like to refer back to anything I've done when I'm working on a character, even if that character has the same occupation.
Know when to tune out, if you listen to too much advice you may wind up making other peoples mistakes.
You can alter movie singing so much because you go into the recording studio and, just technology for recording has gotten so good, you can hold out a note and they can combine a note from take 2 and a note from take 8.