| Learning proper singing technique is of course vital to | | | | with ourselves, before we even face other people. |
| your success as a performer. However, more | | | | How does condemnation help anyone? There's such |
| important than this is the sense of your core, and your | | | | finality in condemnation. |
| empathy with others -- in short, your humanity. Without | | | | How effective do you think you'll be as a performer if |
| these traits, a performer cannot hold an audience's | | | | you look out upon the audience and feel only anger or |
| interest, let alone captivate an audience. How do you | | | | an inclination to find fault? Will it make you any more |
| develop these traits? | | | | effective to turn this harsh perspective on yourself? |
| Be a social creature. Mix with people and nature, and | | | | No. Listening is the key to replacing such a condemning |
| realize that you are a member of both groups. When | | | | point of view. Listening helps us raise our |
| constantly engaged in a dialogue with your fellow | | | | consciousness, and that's just another way of saying, |
| humans, you will recognize the essence of a great | | | | "Learning what is objectively true." |
| singer; it is the same as the essence of a great human | | | | Listening involves, at least in part, listening to all things |
| being. | | | | happening inside you: in your heart, your mind, and your |
| To develop this recognition, simply meet and greet | | | | body. It's been proven that any anxiety, or any emotion |
| people with warmth every chance you get. Greeting | | | | you feel, manifests itself in some physical form in your |
| audience members before or after a performance is a | | | | body. When we listen for our body responses, and |
| good start. There are opportunities throughout your | | | | connect them to our emotions, we become better able |
| off-stage life for you to do this, also. Consider that | | | | to control those emotions. |
| even though you may be in a checkout line in a | | | | One way to listen to these body responses is possible |
| supermarket, or eating a meal in a Chinese restaurant, | | | | through a relatively new form of therapy called |
| you're still on stage and still performing. The personas | | | | biofeedback, where a device is attached to you to |
| we unconsciously don when we interact with the | | | | monitor certain of your bodily processes and |
| external world can help us connect with others, or | | | | excretions. Some devices can detect levels of |
| distance us from others. The choice is yours. Decide | | | | nervousness by measuring the amount of sweat on |
| to connect, and you'll discover resources that | | | | your skin. Other devices measure other emotions, |
| penetrate your persona. These resources can only | | | | albeit indirectly. People have found that they can |
| help your singing. | | | | consciously affect not only their states of mind, but |
| Recognize that you are your first audience, and critic. | | | | also precise parts of their anatomy, by listening to the |
| You may not be your best audience or critic, but you | | | | devices, and focusing their thoughts accordingly. This |
| can develop greater objectivity about how you sound. | | | | contradicts the conviction formerly held by many |
| First, identify what it is about your singing that you like. | | | | scientists, that such a high degree of control over the |
| Are there particular songs, or songs by a particular | | | | body and mind was not possible. Yoga is an |
| composer that make you value your singing more? | | | | alternative to biofeedback devices that achieves the |
| Conversely, are there songs you sing that make you | | | | same basic result: a much better ability to hear what's |
| cringe at the sound of your voice? Write these | | | | happening inside your body, so that you can change it. |
| distinctions down, and find patterns in them to help you | | | | Such body awareness is vital to a performer's |
| discover what exactly it is you like best about your | | | | success in captivating an audience. |
| voice. | | | | Is there any musician more acutely aware of the role |
| Take the time to record your singing, and listen to it. | | | | of the body in the shaping of his performance than a |
| Many singers can remember their surprise when they | | | | singer? Is there a professional singer anywhere who |
| first heard their own voice on a recording device. This | | | | does not have some wrinkle in his singing connected to |
| surprise comes from the change in perspective from | | | | a part of his body? Our bodies are our instruments. |
| singer to listener, and due to the physics involved in | | | | When we learn to listen properly to our bodies and |
| listening to yourself while singing. | | | | how our emotions directly impact our bodies, we |
| A metaphor to illustrate this can be found in the sun. | | | | become the masters of our instrument. |
| The sun is obviously the primary source of heat for all | | | | Listen, sometimes, to the thoughts of others with |
| people on the earth. Yet, different parts of the earth | | | | whom you normally wouldn't associate. If you've |
| experience different amounts of heat. Why? Because | | | | labeled yourself as a "liberal," listen to some Rush |
| the media that the sun's heat is "communicated" | | | | Limbaugh. Find a grain of truth or goodness in what he |
| through are different for those living near the Equator, | | | | says. If you're a fan of George Bush, read the |
| for example, and those closer to the North or South | | | | thoughts of Al Gore. Why should we do this? To |
| poles. Among other factors, the ground near the | | | | experience different points of view. When you |
| Equator is a more directed and thus effective reflector | | | | perform in a role as part of a play, and even when |
| of this heat than the ground near the Poles. For both | | | | you sing a song, you take on a persona that's not you. |
| the voice and the sun's heat, the source is the same, | | | | You adopt the personality of another. You gain skill in |
| but the perception of it differs, based on the means of | | | | doing this when you read the thoughts of those with |
| communication. | | | | whom you would normally disagree. I guarantee that |
| The key point to gather from this is the following: the | | | | doing this will enhance your playing from the |
| perception others have of your singing is an invaluable | | | | broadened view of life it creates in you. |
| source of feedback you can apply to improve your | | | | Give it to God. When you receive applause for your |
| singing. | | | | performances, you know how such a response can |
| Love all creatures and savor nature. Everyone has | | | | go to your head. Our egos are stroked by such |
| their own distinctive key to their inner humanity. The | | | | responses. There's a little voice inside saying, "It's all for |
| path to discovering what interests and even | | | | me, it's all through me, it's all because of me!" You've |
| captivates another is different for each person. That | | | | become the center of the universe, as far as your |
| said, there are some things that make everyone | | | | ego is concerned. You then come to believe that this is |
| respond with warmth. This warmth radiates through us | | | | the way it should always feel. |
| when we perform. | | | | Learn to channel these instances of positive feedback |
| Pets, for example, can bring out everyone's friendliness | | | | back to the audience, and to a higher power. Learn to |
| and warmth. A pet -- whether a dog, cat, hamster or | | | | associate yourself with that higher power and the |
| goldfish -- can stir feelings of compassion and devotion | | | | audience. You are the focal point for the praise, yet |
| in you. When we feel these things, they manifest in our | | | | you are not the repository or destination of the praise. |
| body, gestures and expressions. How could such | | | | You are the lens that captures applause and praise, |
| feelings not draw an audience's interest when you | | | | and directs them with gratitude and love to God, to the |
| manifest them in a performance? | | | | audience, and whatever sources you give credit for |
| During the Second World War, when a young man, I | | | | building your skill and dedication to singing and to |
| had a dog named Jerry. He was my constant | | | | performing. |
| companion since I was about six years old. I cherished | | | | Don't block feelings; let them flow through you. When |
| him as a playmate. I knew he loved me innately, yet I | | | | you hold onto negative or positive feelings without |
| took his love for granted. A short while after being | | | | expressing them, you become greedy with your |
| inducted into the Air Force, I received a letter from my | | | | feelings. You become an emotional miser. Such a |
| family. Jerry had stopped eating after I left home, and | | | | creature is unfit for performing, and unfit for |
| had died from hunger, pining for me. To this day, every | | | | transmitting and interpreting works by great |
| performance I give has a bit of that pain I feel from | | | | composers for any kind of audience. |
| Jerry's death. Never underestimate the power and | | | | If you are such a miser, all hope is not lost. Condition |
| resonance of love, and how it can affect your | | | | your mind to see yourself as a kind of way station for |
| performance, no matter the source of that love. | | | | thoughts, ideas and emotions. As stated before, you |
| The effects that other elements of Mother Nature | | | | are not the destination, you are the messenger. |
| have on us can also help us engage our audience's | | | | This doesn't apply just to performing, but to living. As |
| interest. For one thing, it's said that being near water is | | | | you experience any emotion in your non-performing |
| a boon to solving many problems. I can't explain this, | | | | life, do so with relish, letting the feeling wash through |
| but can testify to it a bit. Remember the last time you | | | | you. Taste its sweetness. This doesn't mean you give |
| were at the beach? (When your enjoyment of it | | | | in to destructive feelings such as hate or jealousy. You |
| wasn't hindered by a horde of people.) Do you | | | | can experience these emotions, and yet still maintain |
| remember the feelings of calm and release that you | | | | an objective part of you that corrals the feeling in one |
| felt then? This is nature's great gift. Remember that | | | | door of your mind, and out another, so to speak. |
| our bodies are composed mostly of water. It's as if | | | | Talk of expressing and conveying emotions to an |
| bodies of water, when experienced in natural, open | | | | audience often brings up the topic of crying. The |
| and peaceful settings, somehow transmit their | | | | following questions arise: Is it proper for a performer to |
| life-sustaining qualities to us. | | | | cry onstage before an audience? Does this help or |
| Rather than judge, listen. There's a saying that goes, | | | | hinder the performance? Most important, does crying |
| "Happiness is that condition felt upon seeing the | | | | engage an audience? To this, a famous actress once |
| misfortune of a friend." That's pretty gloomy, yet it | | | | offered, "If you cry, the audience won't." This may be |
| holds true when we judge instead of listening. Is it | | | | true. Remember, there is a subtle distinction between |
| possible to listen when we want to judge? Isn't it just | | | | being a "carrier" or a "transmitter" of emotions, and |
| human nature to judge? | | | | being a collecting point or receptacle for emotions. Let |
| Judging means more than gauging the apparent | | | | feelings flow through you and to the audience, without |
| degree of similarity a person has to us. A man may | | | | letting them become trapped within. |
| judge that someone else is like him. Yet, he may not | | | | In the film Remains of the Day, Anthony Hopkins, no |
| like himself. A more focused definition of judging is | | | | slouch at conveying the full range of human emotion, |
| needed. I believe what we usually refer to as judging in | | | | communicates feelings that leave you emotionally |
| social interactions is actually condemning and finding | | | | ripped apart at the end of the film. Yet, his character |
| fault. We seek weakness so we can disregard what | | | | doesn't cry once in the film. For much of the film his |
| others are saying. We do this so another's views of | | | | character is stoic, quiet, laconic, and subservient. |
| the world won't upturn our apple carts. Our | | | | Hopkins' mastery of being a conduit or conductor for |
| condemnation of others is an indicator of our | | | | emotion, rather than a recipient or host, makes the |
| propensity to condemn ourselves. We must be gentler | | | | character and film successful. |