Who
am I and why am I talking to you? I am a fellow singer/songwriter who
has searched for years to find his own voice. I studied voice and
composition at Chicago Musical College until I found the theater
department and started doing plays. I’ve studied guitar, songwriting,
dance, acting and taken lots and lots of voice lessons.
My main goal in studying voice was not to be limited as to
what kind of music I could sing. I’ve sung children’s songs, Irish tunes,
folk songs, rock songs, jazz tunes, old standards, show tunes and my own
tunes. I’ve sung on the street, on the radio, in commercials,
coffeehouses, concert halls, piano bars, nursing homes, hospitals, singing
telegrams in a chicken suit, on the phone and in theaters all over the
America and Europe. Also many, many bars.
All this to say, after all these years....I finally
discovered my own voice. Mostly it came from putting the practice and
performance hours in my “Log Book.” Just like an airplane pilot. Hundreds
and hundreds of hours of playing, singing, writing and slowly refining the
components of what I do.
Which brings me to The Singer’s Tool Box. So
what's in the singer’s tool box? Let’s look at a few of our tools and how
we can best use them to our advantage.
1. You! You are the first and most important item
in the tool box. It’s your job to take care of yourself. Get lots of rest,
exercise, drink lots of fluids, try to maintain a healthy diet, stay away
from smoke and other pollutants. You are your main instrument and tool.
From you springs, your voice, your writing and instrument playing, so take
very good care. You deserve it.
2. Breath: Breathe! When we speak, we instinctively
measure out the amount of breath we’ll need to speak. In singing, we
should do the same, but the problem is that nerves and tension play a
tremendous role when we are in front of an audience. To get to the basics
of good breathing technique, try this exercise. Sit quietly, close your
eyes, back straight, relax your shoulders and take a breath deep into your
abdomen. Don’t let your shoulders lift, but feel the expansion in your mid
section. Now, breathe in and purse your lips as if you were holding a
cocktail straw between them. Breathe out slowly through that straw. Before
you get to the end of the breath, take your next breath. Feel the pressure
in your abdomen? Vóila, that is all the breathing reserve you need for
singing.
3. Rhythm and Notes: Music is made up of various
sized increments of sounds. Give full value to each and every rhythmic and
note figure. Don’t cheat the beat. Dig in to every single beat and note of
each measure.
4. Words: Ah...words, beautiful, beautiful words.
Use the words, don’t slop over one single if, and, or but! They are all
important. The beginning of a word is as important as the end. Take a good
look at any word: The sound of it, the rhythm, the texture, the
percussiveness or smoothness and see what value it really holds in the
song.
Imagine trying to emphatically explain to a 5 year old
child why they should not play with matches, this would give you an idea
of the emphasis that needs to be placed on EVERY SINGLE WORD AND SYLLABLE.
It’s that urgent. You want them to know that they might hurt
themselves.
5. Dynamics: Sometimes, as songwriters, we work so
hard on polishing a song, that we forget to polish the performance of the
song. But...we are singers as well as songwriters. A friend of mine wrote
a beautiful love song and sang it well, but the whole song was pretty much
the same dynamic. I suggested to him that he might get very quiet and sing
the last phrase in a beautiful falsetto. He said, “After I finish writing
a song, I never go back and re-work my performance.” That’s really
unfortunate, because as we live with a song, over time, we begin to really
understand what the song is about and how best to sing it. They are always
works in progress.
Use all the colors available to you to serve the song.
Sing softly, really softly, whisper it, scream it, use the bottom, top of
your voice and everywhere in between. Play around and see what you can do.
What sounds and colors are on your palette?
6. Our life experience: This is our well-spring.
Love, loss, passion, pain, joy, happiness, anger and hurt. Use these to
breathe life into the images of your songs.
7. Urgency: Why on earth should anybody listen to
your song? Have something to say and then really say it. Sing the Song!
Listen carefully to the people who inspired you to be an
artist in the first place. I’m pretty sure you will find that they offered
110% and nothing less. Listen to how they use the tools. They are masters
and you can be too. Practice and persevere. See ya out there.
Also see
