Express yourself!
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...meh.Now, the first step to changing anything is to become aware... of what you're doing, what you want to change, and how to change it. So first lets...
Assess the level of emotional authenticity in your voice
You want feeling in your sound. Is it there? You can listen to playback of a recording, or ask someone whose opinion you value. Don't ask someone who doesn't like your style of music, or that wouldn't know or wouldn't want to hurt your feelings with the truth. Ask a listener that you think should like your type of Song, someone who normally would respond to your music if you are delivering emotion. Or ask an expert you trust... a good musician, your studio producer or vocal coach. If you find your voice lacking in color don't worry. There are ways to help bring a numb, lifeless, flat, thin, more or less dead vocal to emotionally authentic life!
Here are 13 suggestions to sing with more feeling:
1. Don't strain for vocal range.
It's hard to abandon yourself to the song you're singing if your high or low notes are straining or unreachable. It's hard to listen to you strain, too! Make sure the key is right for you. Consider changing the melody to eliminate highest or lowest notes. Learn how to Sing whatever range you choose with efficient, healthy vocal technique. Even a small tweak to your technique can make a big difference to your strain level.
Singing with authentic feeling requires authentic style language. Some examples:
3. Don't over-emote.- If you hold all the ends of your lines out as you would for choir or musical theater, it will sound inauthentic in more pop styles.
- If you scoop, slide and slur around as is normal for r&b, jazz or country on a pop or EDM song, you may turn off listeners in the crisper, more linear musical genre.
- To sound authentic within the style, don't sing bluegrass with vibrato.
- On the other hand, don't sing traditional country, jazz or r&b without bending something.
Over-emotionalizing your performance is just as bad as under-emotionalizing and will sound fake. And probably too loud! True story: I've seen whole front tables of audience clear out at the first break taken by an over-emoting singer. The unfortunate and rather clueless performer went on to sing even more loudly and emotionally, thinking that was what was missing. The second row of tables then began to clear.
4. Don't sing a sad song happily.
Make sure you know what message you're delivering, and what emotion that should accompany it. Authenticity should link the lyrical message with any feeling you express.Think how silly it would sound to sing Pharrell Williams song 'Happy' with a mournful frown. Or Bonnie Raitt's song 'I Can't Make You Love Me' with a beauty pagent smile. Ewe.
5. Don't sing a song you can't relate to.
If you do sing a song about something you haven't experienced, figure out another scenario that you do know where that lyric would work. Many love songs have been written about dogs. Or couches. Whatever works! You could sing a song you don't understand as a vocal exercise, but please... not for performance.
6. Talk the lines out before singing them.
This is a very good way to figure out who you're talking to, where you are, and what you want them to feel.
7. Remember your prime directive: To make THE HEART YOU'RE SINGING TO feel your song!
To do this, ask yourself: Who am I communicating to? What do I want them to know? What would their response look like if I get them to feel what I'm singing? Because in the end, great communication skill is not about what YOU feel anyway - it's what you make the object of your lyric feel!
Use sensory imagination and good acting technique to really zone in... where is this scene you're in? What do you see, what can you smell, hear and taste in the air, what textures can you touch? Go there mentally before you sing the first line.
9. Avoid having someone in the front row or studio control room who distracts you.
If you possibly can, don't let anyone who would distract you within your sensory input area. Or get really good at ignoring them!
10. Emphasize the 'money words' in every line (MAJOR NINJA TECHNIQUE TIP!!!)
11. Finish the ends of your lines as if the last word is the most important.
- What words or syll-ables would you emphasize if you were talking the line?
- Re-pull those words or syllables to emphasize them when singing and you'll instantly have more feeling in your voice! Get a lyric sheet and mark the money words. Try singing with emphasis on those words. Record it with your phone if you can, to check out the results.
When you don't finish the last of the line, you leave an incomplete thought dangling! It's one of my pet peeves... it steals the point of the lyric right when you got me interested and I'm waiting for the payoff! You can drop your volume and articulate softly but still articulate the last word like you want it understood.
12. Move your body!
13. Be be brave.
Frozen body generally delivers frozen voice. To sing in full color, you need to sing from all of you. Loosen up! Dance with your guitar, sway on the piano bench or at the mic stand. Feel the drummer in your hips, express yourself with your hands and eyes.
As I often say,
...real singing is not for the squeamish.You must abandon yourself, your care for what people think, your fear of making odd facial gestures your voice may need, your reticence to share the message in the song fully. You can do all that after you leave the stage or vocal booth... but great courage is required for great performance.
Side effects from singing with more feeling:
- You have richer vocal resonance because your voice operates more fully.
- You'll get great response not only from the heart your lyric is directed to (which is your prime directive), you'll have the 'gravy' of capturing the audience that's listening to you do it.
- You'll no doubt experience less vocal fatigue! Not bad side effects.
- However you'll also probably notice that you're hungry after you perform, because singing with feeling takes more mental, vocal AND physical energy!
For more help:
It's my intention that this post, like all others in my All Things Vocal blog and podcast, helps you in very real, actionable ways - for free. If you can and want to go farther... my 6 disc vocal training package has a great section on setting yourself up for emotionally compelling performance plus a ton of other lessons.
Your thoughts- how do you think your voice is expressing itself?
