On a recent trip to Sydney I realized something about ‘why’ certain singers sing. Some sing because they want to be known as ‘good singers’: to have an audience compliment the beauty and dexterity in their voice. And some, truly, madly, deeply mean it! These are the story tellers, the ones whom you hear and mysteriously connect with what they’re singing. Even if you’ve heard that song a thousand times before, when they sing it, it all makes sense.
All the vocal technique and musicality in the world don’t mean anything unless they serve the essence of the song. You must be clear on what the concept of a song is before you begin – especially with your originals. A song will show you how to sing it and can reveal many different sides of itself ‘mid stream’ if you are open and receptive. Sometimes meaning changes and evolves every time you sing it!
If you want a song to be intimate, use techniques to serve this goal but keep yourself aware enough of the lyric to ‘ride’ the emotion/feel of the song. There is rarely one singular angle or emotion of the narrative/character throughout the entire song. This is why getting to know a song takes time (and practicing relentlessly, without meaning or purpose, will only give you a sore throat or make you tired!)
See yourself as a story teller. This helps to remove nervousness. Performance no longer becomes about how well you sing and what you sound like. Rather, it becomes about what are you saying and what you want an audience to hear/learn/feel.
Before you practice and perform, check that you are ‘aligned’, not only with the voice production techniques and song craft that can best serve the song, but that your posture, mind and heart are ‘aligned’ with the song’s sentiment and purpose.
Recite the lyrics out loud to feel the natural ‘shape of the language’. Feel where it is right to pause, accent, lilt, emphasize and phrase. Read good poetry aloud to practice this. If you wouldn’t say it – don’t sing it!
Recitation helps memorize the story and lyric. You cannot mean a song if you are reading the words off the page. Once practiced, go for a walk to sing it and find out what has ‘stuck’.
Work out a dynamic map for the song: Where is the climax? Where can you strip it back and give it space? Try sketching this and get the band to agree on the form and shape of the song so that arrangement and instrumentation serve the song’s contours and direction.
There is never any need to fake emotion. Like a dog smelling fear, an audience can tell if you don’t mean it. If you don’t mean/feel it, don’t sing it! Even in the most sheltered and shallow life, there are ways to relate. What does the song mean to you personally? (irrespective of its original context in a film or musical, who sung it or what it meant within the life of the songwriter). If you draw from your deep experiential well (located in your tummy!) to colour interpretation of a song (as it relates to your own emotional history, personality and intellect) – you will be unshakable.
Do not deliberately roughen, over-emote or ‘affect’ your voice. If you want someone to ‘get it’, simply get inside the landscape you are conjuring. See, hear and touch what you are singing about AS you sing.
Try not to think of singing as being too sacred or ‘important’. Think of it as more like kissing or making love – activities that involve self-expression and are heart felt, but aren’t strictly ‘right’ or ‘wrong’.
As any good wizard or witch knows, words are very, very important in spell casting. Your intent, emphasis and placement of the words have a profound impact on their meaning and effectiveness. Thinking of the words as an incantation helps to value each word – like poetry, Poets and songwriters sweat blood over their choice and order of words (and the removal of any excess). Honour this, and work the same principles with your own songs. I recently heard a singer change a Joni Mitchell lyric from “I made my baby say goodbye†to “my baby said goodbye†which totally misses the point. There is a great Sylvie Lewis Song with the line “When I drink, it’s about you I think†– emphasis transforms meaning (accent the ‘you’ and ‘think’ alternately. Notice the difference?)
Put what you want people to ‘get out’ of a song ‘into it’. Use face and body to tell the story. They are your instrument (not your throat!) and have a profound influence on tone. Words don’t mean anything until you breathe life into them. This is why actors often make great singers.
Meaning what you sing is a ‘top down’ approach. It can solve technical issues like un-coordinated breathing and lack of legato/fluency because our sole focus is to be ‘understood’. You don’t think of technical issues mid argument. Rather, your sole focus is to get the point across. So too with singing.
Enjoy!