Take it from me – as someone who’s quit too many times after saying ‘yes’ – that it’s better to think ahead and say ‘no’ than say ‘yes’ to something you don’t really want to do. Or CAN’T do. [Read more…]
When Singing is Frustrating
Yes, I get frustrated with my singing sometimes. Sometimes, it happens a lot. Every day. Constantly. “Why am I doing this? I suck. I hate singing…whine whine whine…”
Then I stop and pay attention. And the proper path opens. [Read more…]
Perform Fearlessly Part II: Pre-Rehearsal Period
Hypothetical: You’ve just been hired for a job. You know exactly what you’ll be doing; you have a month to figure it out; and then the rehearsals begin. Though it seems distant, you can begin dealing with your future stage-fright now.
Dissolve Stage Fright Before Rehearsals Begin
- Decide if you are ready for the role. You might not be. If someone offered me Otello tomorrow, I would be flattered, but I would turn it down. If you are ready then…
- Figure out your technique. The rehearsal period does not have enough time for you to learn how to sing your part. Take lessons, practice like crazy, get coachings, and do what it takes.
- Learn your music ACCURATELY. Take the time to get it right now. This will make stage fright less likely, and you’ll have a better rehearsal period. See my earlier post Learning Music for a method for accurate music learning.
- Begin making acting choices. You should have some ideas about your character before you arrive to rehearsals. You may not stick with your earliest choices, but it’s imperative to think about this now. What does your character want? What strategies will he/she employ to get that? etc.
- Listen to your emotions: During this time you should listen to your emotions. Personally, I get anxious whenever I am avoiding something important…like practicing. If you are feeling strange or nervous now, figure out why and deal with it.
- Continue dissolving your poisonous assumptions. Those were:
- “A judgmental audience is watching me.”- Counter with: They want me to succeed.
- “I must succeed.” Counter with: My worth is not determined by any performance.
- “I might fail.” Counter with: Only if I don’t prepare.
- “Nobody will love me ever again if I fail.” Counter with: Yes, they will.
And keep breathing. See you tomorrow.
[Thoughts on stage fright? Any suggestions? Please leave a comment below.]
Perform Fearlessly: Defeat Stage Fright
Oh, no! Stage fright!
We have all experienced stage fright. Wikipedia describes it as having “numerous manifestations: fluttering or pounding heart, tremor in the hands and legs, diarrhea, facial nerve tics, dry mouth.” It feels awful, and it might ruin your fun or, at it’s worst, you might run away from a good opportunity or perform badly.
Here’s the truth:
We Don’t Have to be Afraid
You can avoid stage fright. By applying techniques, you can avoid what becomes an energy-and-joy-sucking trap for many performers.
Stage fright can be confronted at several stages:
- Right now.
- Before rehearsals begin.
- During the rehearsals.
- The day of the performance.
- Immediately before the performance.
- During the performance.
Beginning Singer is going to go through each period over the next week and talk about each in detail. Let’s get started!
Right Now: Whittle away Stage-Fright
Major events happen, and we are either ready for them or we aren’t. Therefore, we mustn’t wait for a performance to begin to start dealing with our stage-fright. Like the Jekyll and Hyde song says, “This is the moment.” Here are 5 actions you can do today that will help you overcome stage fright in the future.
1. Analyze your stage fright
Your stage fright comes from a combination of poisonous assumptions:
- “A judgmental audience is watching me.”
- “I must succeed.”
- “I might fail.”
- “Nobody will love me ever again if I fail.”
2. Decide whether those assumptions are rational.
They aren’t. Changing these assumptions is your primary task in dealing with stage fright. Rationally, remember that:
- Audiences want you to succeed.
- Your value as a human being is not determined by your performance.
- Your preparation determines this. Nothing else.
- No one will kill you or do this (see video) if you do badly.
3. Learn how to concentrate
Learn some form of meditation. The simplest is to pay attention to your breathing. You should be doing this anyway as a singer, but now you should make an art of it. Learn the difference between a scared breath and a peaceful breath. They are different.
By learning how to concentrate on your breath, you can spot the moment when one of those assumptions appears and scares you. Cut it off before it causes a scared breath!
4. Practice More
Remember how assumption number three is determined by your preparation? Well, begin preparing your technique. How do you know if you aren’t practicing enough? If you experience a lot of stage fright, then you probably aren’t practicing enough.
5. Exercise
Besides sheer physical fitness, your mind receives a boost by regular exercise. The recent article in Scientific American “Fit Body, Fit Mind?” points out that you can exercise in a variety of ways. You can:
- Exercise your body. Especially work on aerobic fitness for mental results.
- Exercise your mind. Use challenging activities that force you to reason.
- Exercise your relationships. Reinforce your social connections and maintain healthy relationships.
Work on these five actions today and every day, and you will be a long way towards defeating your stage fright.
Give it a Name: Reproduce what you’ve learned in studio
Treat your ideas like babies! Name them.
As singers, we have all probably experienced the thought, “I could do it in my teacher’s studio, but I cannot do it anywhere else.” Being unable to reproduce results outside the studio is very frustrating and leads to insecurity when working away with the teacher. When I work with my students, I will often ask them to describe for themselves what they are experiencing. When I learn a new concept, I must boil it down into more manageable bits, or name it, before I can easily apply it. I believe this practice to be fundamental when learning how to sing.
To name and describe for yourself what you experienced in the studio offers a pathway to successfully mastering what has been learned. It offers a small but necessary first step to navigate through new techniques. Without this, a student may fall into the trap of trying to reproduce results without working through the method of achieving them. This can lead to fatigue and frustration and, ultimately, less desire to sing.
Where can this be applied?
Most obviously, this can be applied whenever you learn a new technique. Less obviously, it can be applied when you have to switch styles. Often, I am asked to sing in a musical theater setting where a total operatic production is inappropriate. Being able to name exactly what must change is a safe way of switching in and out of stlyes. There is less chance then that habits will leak from one style to the next.
Process
There is a process to naming. Namely, it is:
- Why: Why must you do this?
- What: What, as clearly as possible, must you do?
- Name: This must be simple.
These steps cannot be taken out of order, or else the names have no clear meaning to the student (and perhaps for the teacher as well).
Example
Recently, I received a coaching that was very useful. What I primarily learned was:
- It is important to open my throat throughout my range to feel and communicate ease and beauty in my singing.
Of course, that “why” does very little for me process-wise, and so the coach and I had to boil it down into “what to do” ideas that are more concrete:
- My voce naturale is in my chest voice.
- Remember that voce naturale relaxation throughout my voice.
- In chest voice, feel the vowel in my mouth. I can trust the sound of vowels here.
- In the passaggio, leave an open [a] feeling in the throat and pronounce pure vowels with the front of my mouth. I cannot trust the sound of the vowel here to my own ears.
- In the passaggio, protect my voice with closed vowel shapes in the front of my mouth.
- Pick repertoire, for now, that reminds my throat what my voce naturale feels like.
And from there, with these understandings, I can break these ideas down further and name them.
- voce naturale.
- Open throat.
- Mouth vowel.
- Pear shaped vowel.
- Cover or cuperto.
- Be smart.
You’ll notice that the names I ended up with are common names that we classical singers use regularly. The problem arises when the name is used first without clear description of how to achieve it. When a problem arises with a name that has been carefully crafted, you may go back to step two and adjust the meaning. If the name no longer works, it may be abandoned.
“Right” Names?
Those descriptions and names work for me. They may not work for you. You may need something more, or less, esoteric. More and more, I am coming to the conclusion that a lot of what we do in lessons is try to find descriptions and names that really speak to us. And that is very important. If a description does not work for you, or for your students, drop it and try something else. We all have different tastes in literature, movies, music and so on, and why should it be different in singing? Just look at the varying descriptions of registers. All of those descriptions worked for somebody at some point and therefore should not be totally discounted. Vocal science, singing, and our imaginations interact in weird ways, and if the goal is good singing, being “right” in our descriptions of it may not be the most important priority.
As always, I would love to hear from you.