The High Performance Singer

One more thought this week on where confidence comes from. I think this one is be the biggest key of all of them: Who ARE you? ... Imagine you're at a party where you don't know very many people. As you have conversations with various strangers, do you try to be someone you're not, to impress them or meet some unknown expectations? Or do you not worry about impressing anyone, and be yourself? Which attitude is going to make you feel more confident? I'm a natural intro

More than one new student has contacted me this week describing issues of confidence on stage, so today I'll talk about where confidence on stage comes from, and how to get it. I wish I could snap my fingers and help people feel confident. I'm sure they wish I could, too! And there are certainly some tricks you can use to stay calm right now, in the near term, tonight, if you're fighting stage fright. But actual deep confidence takes a while to develop. Here is where I be

A singer I know got some great feedback recently from a new band member. He told her that although she was an excellent performer, she was undermining herself between songs. Here's how: While singing in this particular band, she takes on the persona of a rockstar-type diva. She's high-energy and edgy. She takes risks, both vocally and with her performance. She rocks out and she gives her all, often ending up nearly out of breath because she's been moving so much. In sh

I've had to learn about 40 songs recently for a cover band I just joined. But most of them are still not anywhere near done. There's learning how a song goes, and then there's owning a song. You're a much better performer when you get to the point of owning your songs. The Six Stages of Learning a Song 1) Learning lyrics, melody, phrasing, and structure. This means just knowing "when to sing" and "what to sing" to get through the song start to finish successfully, even if

Which of these rules of the stage should NEVER be broken? Never turn your back to the audience Never apologize or recognize a mistake Never start a song over, or go back and fix any mistakes Never criticize or belittle the audience Never criticize or belittle yourself ... ... The main idea is to know the rules, so that you can choose your rare exceptions. Here are some exceptions I've seen, experienced, or heard about for most, but not all, of the rules above... Never turn y

The placebo effect: The proven phenomenon that sugar pills are sometimes as effective as real medication for curing whatever ails the test subjects - headaches, depression, arthritis, you name it. And sometimes, they're even more effective than "real" medication. Why? Because belief is reality. And that's even more true when you're dealing with a problem like stage fright, which is a mental construct to begin with! I just finished presenting a six-week workshop on how to

A few years ago, I founded a band with another singer. As our first gig approached, we wanted to make a huge splash with a great show. We planned stage decor, learned far more songs than we needed, got matching outfits including knee-high boots with very high heels, and even worked up choreography for several songs! (Yeah, in high-heel boots. Brilliant.) What expectations we had! The night of the gig there was so much for us to plan, do, and think about, that it was compl

You know how animals can smell fear? Well, we humans may not have canine noses, but we have very sharp eyes and excellent mental capacity for reading faces. Especially eyes! So, having the right kind of eye contact can make you seem more confident on stage. And even better than that, it can make you BE more confident. When you boil it down, there are only two kinds of eye contact: Fearful eye contact, and Confident eye contact. Fearful eye contact comes from those sing

Learning about stage presence is one thing. But in order to practice what you know about stage presence, you have to sing on stage for real! One of the biggest challenges for new singers (who are not also instrumentalists in bands) is to find singing performance opportunities. It's the chicken-and-egg problem: without singing experience you aren't good enough to win an audition to get into a band or performance situation; but without getting into a band or other performan

Ever wonder why people aren't raving about your singing voice even though you can't see any problems with it? Or why people love someone else's singing voice even though they don't have perfect vocal technique? What do you need to do to get your singing voice noticed? Some people think of the definition of a good singer as someone who doesn't have a discernible break, who is on pitch, who has a pleasing tonal quality, who has perfect control of their vibrato, etc. But ther

The first time I played drums at a live gig, I was so nervous that I dropped beats several times throughout the song, and forgot where the transitions between sections were. The first time for anything can be scary. Your first time singing in public? Your first audition? Your first time as lead singer? Your first time in front of a crowd of over 50 people? Your first time with a new band? Your first time improvising on stage? Or even just the first time singing a song y

You know left brain vs. right brain, right? Left brain: organized, analytical, judgemental, ego-driven, individual, critical, mathematic, language center, logical, aware of time, tends to rush, tends to live in the past and future, tends to get caught in cycles of thought, likes to classify, sense of personal identity, aware of details, multitasker, tells stories to make sense of our life. Right brain: creative, holistic, aware of body language and tone of voice, naturally j

It happens… Those nights when the audience just isn’t that into you. Maybe you were booked in the wrong venue for your genre. Maybe you’re having a really off night. Who knows. But what do you do when it happens? Change It Up First, why isn’t paying attention? Are you being boring? You may be loud, but if you’re always loud, that’s boring. You may be playing powerful heartfelt ballads, but if that’s all you’re playing, that’s boring too. Here are some ideas for chang