Getting Over Stage Fright
February 17, 2010
Someone recently emailed me, asking how to get past stage fright. I answered, but while I was writing it I though it was so relivant that I decided to ask if they minded if I share it with everyone. They agreed, so here it is! Enjoy!
The question went a little something like this…
Anonymous
Improve Your Singing Voice Through Feeling
June 4, 2009
I started this blog speaking mostly on vocal technique, which I do think is paramount in creating a great singing voice. However, the BIGGEST, most important factor of improving your singing voice has nothing to do with vocal technique at all. It has to do with connecting with your audience. So, how do we do that? First, we have to understand the following phrase:
“Music is Emotion You Can Hear”
Each song you sing has a dominate emotion, and some songs touch on several emotions. It’s these emotions that make the piece the wonderful work that it is. Without that emotion tied to it, the song quickly becomes boring and fades out of our minds. This is why certain songs really touch you, even though you may not know why. This is why certain singers, though they may lack real talent (or even the ability to hit all their notes accurately) can still get a great response from the audience. People can feel what they’re singing, and that’s what counts most!
All that being said, right now you’re probably thinking, “So Ken, how can I make this happen?!?”
To Improve Your Singing Voice, You Must Connect with the Song, then Connect with Your Audience.
Many singers focus their practice time on learning the right words, accurately singing the melody, and making sure that they can nail that high note. These are all important things, but the reality is that doing this is only the first, most basic step of preparing a song.
To really have a kick butt performance, you’ve got to be able to sing with genuine emotion, sharing with others just how you feel, causing them to feel it too.
Have you ever noticed the person with the most dominate emotion in a room can bring everyone up or down with them? This is true of singers too, and let me tell you, that mic in your hand automatically makes you the dominate person in the room.
So think about it… what emotion are you contagiously sharing with others? Is it fear and discomfort? Is is excitement? Sadness? Passion? Joy? All you have to do is check in with your own feelings at the time and odds are this is how you’re making others feel. If you don’t believe me, do some study in psychology. You’ll find this can be scientifically backed up.
So what can we do to help this? First off, you have to get personally involved in the message of your song. Each song tells a story, and that story makes people feel a certain way. You may not be able to relate with the exact story of the song, but odds are you can connect with the emotion through some other experience in your life, so use it! Genuinely feeling the emotion of a piece will automatically help you express it better, helping you keep your audience focused on you.
Now, to take that even one step further, if the main emotion of your piece is sadness but you’ve got a smile on your face, your shoulders are confidently back and you’re bouncing around like Tigger, this is probably not going to be overly convincing to your audience because lets face it, in their eyes, you’re living a lie. The opposite is true as well (ie – the song is happy, but you look scared out of your mind).
So the way you present yourself has a tremendous effect on how others view your performance. This part is really hard for people at first because singing in front of a crowd can be really nerve racking, but I promise if you keep at it, refusing to give up, you’ll master it!
Long story short, in order to best improve your singing voice, you’ve got to make the emotions of your song come to life! This emotion should be made obvious through the words you say, how you say them and your body language. Master this art and every audience you get in front of will be putty in your hands.
I’m Ken Taylor, and I hope this singing tip helps you take your voice and performance to the next level!
Happy Singing!
Rid Yourself of the 2 Most Common Forms of Vocal Tension
October 1, 2008
Learn to Sing Freely – Singing Tips Blog presents:
Rid Yourself of the 2 Most Common Forms of Vocal Tension
If most singers were honest, they’d readily admit that they try to mimic the sound of the artists who did the song before them. While this can be an effective method of exploring your voice, it usually ends in us trying to manipulate things around to create a sound that isn’t our own. Being a good singer isn’t about creating a cool sound by whatever means necessary, it’s about relaxing enough that you can produce a great sound as effortlessly as possible. Put simply, if you feel tension in the voice when you’re singing, be it in the throat, neck, tongue, or anywhere else, you’re getting in the way of producing your best possible sound. Put even more simply, singing be as relaxed as speaking.
There are two main causes of tension in the voice. One of the causes of tension in the singing voice stems from allowing the larynx to move upward or downward while singing. This throws off the whole vocal mechanism and results in the closing off of your sound passage, resulting in a thin, pushed tone. The second major cause of tension in the voice is the tongue. Many people don’t realize it, but the higher they sing the more they press their tongue, be it downward or backward. This only gets in the way of good vocal production as it closes off air passages and creates tension that ends up spreading throughout the whole vocal system. Let’s look at these a little bit more closely.
Learn to Sing Freely with a Stable Larynx
What can we do to prevent unneeded movement in the larynx? Basically, I find that most larynx tension stems from pressure in the voice pushing the voice higher or pressing it lower. Most often than not, these unwanted movements are performed by what I like to call swallowing muscles. These of course are muscles utilized for swallowing and should not be used at all for singing. Singing should be as easy as speech. So, if you’re having problems with the larynx moving, try speaking the words first normally, then on pitch. They should feel identical. You can also make yourself aware of any unwanted movements by lightly placing your hand on your larynx while singing. If you feel a switch in the larynx placement, tell yourself to relax and speak the sound. You’d be surprised how effective this can be.
Learn to Sing Freely with a Relaxed Tongue
As I’ve mentioned before, I believe the tongue accounts for between 65% and 85% of all vocal tensions. Whether your tongue is pulling back while singing or it’s pressing downward, the result is an uncomfortable singing voice with a drastically limited range that tires easily. The easy solution to most tongue problems is relaxing the tongue to the front of the mouth. And don’t just allow the front of the tongue to go there, but feel the back of the tongue moving forward as well as this will give you more space in the back of the mouth and throat for relaxation and resonance. I usually try and keep my tongue resting on the bottom of my front lip (especially when singing really high).
As always, if you have any questions or are interested in voice lessons and are living in or visiting the Memphis area, feel free to click here for information on Singing Lessons Memphis.
Thanks for reading and Happy Singing!
