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Posts Tagged ‘performing arts’

If you’re relatively new to singing, you’re likely to be thinking mostly about your vocal skills and how you can use singing techniques to develop and enhance your sound. However, when you reach the stage where your singing technique is stable, secure and providing an adequate level of support, it is important to consider how you are communicating the sentiments in the song you are singing.

An expressive vocal performance as well as a physical connection with the song on stage will produce an extremely powerful performance. However, the process of engaging with the sentiments of the repertoire and creating new levels of expression can be particularly challenging if you don’t have any experience in acting or drama.

Expressing repertoire effectively and communicating the story behind the lyrics not only helps an audience to fully engage with your performance but the process will also help you develop the tone and colour of your voice.

There are many different ways to develop these skills. Most importantly, you need to connect with the lyrics and completely understand the context and meaning of what you are singing. This may take a little time and even some research depending on what you’re singing. But once you’ve done this, you will naturally begin to express the material more effectively. This is why choosing to sing songs which already mean something to you and that you can relate to will help you to create a more expressive performance from the outset.

Following this, there are two main ways you can develop more expression in your performance:

#1 Personal Performance:

A ‘personal performance’ means you are singing the song as yourself. To do this, you need to identify the sentiments and emotions in each section of the song and then think carefully about how you would normally express these emotions in your day-to-day life. So, if you experience joy-how do you react, how does your facial expression change and do you do anything different physically? Once you’ve thought about your normal reaction to the range of emotions in the song, you simply apply your natural expressions to your performance. This can often be an excellent way to create a genuine performance and become more expressive without deep exploration of a character.

#2: Character Performance:

If you choose to perform the repertoire as the character who sings the song, the process will be lengthier. This obviously applies more to repertoire in opera, musical theatre and classical genres. It may be the repertoire you choose to sing is not sung by a particular character. In this case, you will need to sing the song as yourself.

Singing as a character involves exploring the character and developing a good understanding of the context in which you’re singing. Research into the character and the context of the song will provide an excellent basis for experimenting with the physicality and demeanour of the character. Think about how the character would walk, talk and react in particular situations and surroundings. This process of exploration and experimentation will help you when it comes to communicating the sentiments of the repertoire effectively as the character singing the song.

Ultimately, however, whatever method you use, providing you are effective in expressing the sentiments of the repertoire and communicating these to the audience, your performance will be greatly improved.

Achieve performing arts success with mystagedoor.co.uk – the global community of aspiring performers. Join the performing arts platform at mystagedoor.co.uk and get free access to training tips, career advice, showbiz news and the opportunity to meet thousands of other like-minded performers.

Article Source: http://bb-articles.com

Whether you want to train to sing in a stage show to hundreds of people a night or whether you strive to be a vocalist in a band, developing and maintaining strong and secure singing technique is crucial.

First, in the process of working on your technique you must ensure you do not push your voice – straining your voice can cause long term damage and should be avoided at all costs.

To develop good singing technique, you must begin to think about singing from a different part of your body. Instead of thinking about breathing from the chest and singing from the voice box in the neck, we must develop the concepts of:
1.    Using the diaphragm (which is just below the lungs) for effective breathing and
2.    Supporting the voice with the contraction of the ‘core muscles’ located in the lower abdomen (the muscles just below the tummy button)

The following exercises will help you to apply these fundamental singing techniques:
#1: Breathing:
Put your hands around your waist with your thumbs at the back and fingers at the front – this will help you to become aware of the exact movements of the diaphragm.
- In front of a mirror, breathe in for 8 counts, hold your breath for 8 counts and hiss the air out slowly and consistently.
- Watch yourself carefully to make sure your shoulders stay still. You should feel your tummy go out as you breathe in and go in as you breathe out. You should also feel a similar movement around your side and back.
- You may want to imagine having a rubber ring fitted tightly around your waist and as you breathe in you push out onto the ring.
- As you repeat this breathing exercise, you should remember three things:
1. You should try to take as much air into the lungs as your breath in – using more of your total lung capacity
2. As you hiss out, you should try to maintain as much control of the air flow as possible – keep a consistent flow to the hiss
3. You should try to encourage as much air out of the body  – towards the end of the breath use the tummy muscles to direct the remaining air out of the lungs

- Once you have completed this slow breathing exercise, you need to try speeding up the breathing process.
- Breathing like a steam train, produce short, sharp bursts of air. Remember to ensure you are breathing ‘diaphragmatically’ – tummy going out when you breath in and in when you breath out.
- Gradually speed the breaths up – stop if you feel dizzy at any stage.
- Use the contraction of the ‘core muscles’ (the band of muscles below the tummy button) to pressurise the air and maintain as much control of your breathing as possible.

#2: Support
- Progressing from the breathing exercises, instead of producing short sharp breaths, produce three short sharp bursts of sounds on a note which is easy for you to sing (try singing to ‘HA’)
- Gradually increase the number of sounds you are producing on each note until you are singing scales to ‘ha’
- With each note, you should feel the diaphragm flatten and the tummy expand as you breath in and the core muscles contract to support the voice as you sing the sound
- Repetition of this simple exercise will establish an initial awareness of what ‘support’ is and how the contraction of the core muscles can be used to help create security, stability, power and projection to your singing.

Achieve performing arts success with mystagedoor.co.uk – the global community of aspiring performers. Join the performing arts platform at mystagedoor.co.uk and get free access to training tips, career advice, showbiz news and the opportunity to meet thousands of other like-minded performers.

Article Source: http://bb-articles.com

As performers we must never forget that our bodies are our instruments. So, just as you would care for a violin, guitar or any other instrument, you must be prepared to look after your body. If you fail to look after your body, you will not perform to the best of your ability and you may not be offered the opportunities you deserve. Here are three top tips to help you maintain your vocal stretch and stamina on stage:

#1 No Shouting: It’s the most obvious solution to maintaining your vocal health, but you’d be amazed at the number of performers who forget that screaming and shouting will seriously damage your voice. There will be times when you’re not thinking about the development of your performance skills and ‘looking after your instrument’ but if you’re serious about success on the stage, you will need to constantly remind yourself that screaming, shouting or straining the voice in anyway will be detrimental to your performance. A voice can be stretched but not pushed and quite often you will need to stretch muscles involved with the vocal process as part of your training. This is just like an athlete stretching before running a race. However, we know that if the athlete feels like he’s pulling a muscle, he will stop to prevent any damage being caused. The same is true for singers and actors. We must stretch muscles as part of our training in order to improve our vocal performance. However, as soon as we feel we are pushing or straining the voice we must stop.

#2 Warming Up: Carrying out a full vocal warm-up is crucial before going on stage for both singers and actors. Think about our athlete again. Have you ever seen an athlete arrive at the race track and immediately run the race? No, neither have I! They always look like they’ve been stretching, jogging and exercising a long time before the race and they’re always bouncing up and down to keep their muscles warm just before the race begins. Again, the same is true for singers and actors before going on stage. For our best vocal performance, our voices need to be warmed-up with an effective sequence of vocal exercises. So, get into the habit of doing vocal warm-ups before going on stage and your performance will benefit greatly.

#3 Lifestyle: Singers and actors worldwide talk about weird and wonderful concoctions and lifestyle rules which help them look after their voices. Whilst some of these may help you to maintain vocal health, a few solid rules are sure to make a difference:
- Avoid extremely hot and extremely cold drinks
- Be aware that excessive dairy products like milk, cream and chocolate are not good for the voice
- Eat well and get plenty of vitamins and minerals to stay healthy
- If you’ve strained your voice, mixtures such as milk and honey will help you feel better but not necessary prepare you to sing
- If you’re preparing to sing, drink plenty of water or other drinks such as lemon and ginger to clean and lubricate the vocal tract

Achieve performing arts success with mystagedoor.co.uk – the global community of aspiring performers. Join the performing arts platform at mystagedoor.co.uk and get free access to training tips, career advice, showbiz news and the opportunity to meet thousands of other like-minded performers.

Article Source: http://bb-articles.com

Inspired to take to the stage and create their dream, over 180,000 contestants turned out for X-Factor 2008. Most left the competition with shattered dreams. But now every aspiring performer has the opportunity to become a singing sensation with help of some of nation’s most respected experts.

Professionals from all across the performing arts industry are collaborating to provide expert advice and guidance to help aspiring singers achieve their aspirations. The world does not have space for thousands of new singing superstars but there are still fantastic opportunities for performers to entertain audiences all around the world. To help you realise your potential as a singer and take a big step closer to singing success, here are five top tips to help you produce a flawless performance:

#1 REALITY CHECK: If you want to succeed as a singer, you need to know what you’re getting yourself into. Starting out is never easy and, unless you’re very lucky, your first performances won’t be in the most glamorous of venues. You need to prepare yourself for the journey ahead and be ready to make the most of every situation. So, talk to performers about their experiences and find realistic information about the performing arts industry which will help to give you a valuable insight.

#2 GET TECHNICAL: Some performers are blessed with ‘natural talent’. From an early age, natural born performers demonstrate their ability to capture the attention of any audience. However, when it comes to pursuing a career in singing, every performer has to work hard to develop flawless singing technique to maintain their vocal strength. Why not learn the basics of singing technique with an online singing course? This can be an effective and affordable way to realise your full potential as a singer.

#3 CHOOSE YOUR TUNES: Singers are often criticised for choosing the wrong songs. Choosing the most suitable repertoire to perform is an extremely challenging task. To do this, we recommend taking time out to listen to as much music as possible. Don’t just listen to music you think you should sing or music you already listen to – try to broaden your horizons. You may stumble across a style of music which you didn’t consider before but which is perfect for your voice. The combination of singing music which is ideal for your voice and performing music which is not been covered by thousands of other artists will increase your chances of success.

#4 PRESENCE & PERSONALITY: Your presence as a performer on the stage and your personality when working with other people in the business will have a huge impact on your success. First, think about your posture and presence whilst performing. Do you look comfortable and do you look like you are enjoying performing? If so, you are likely to make your audience feel comfortable and more open to your performance. Secondly, think about how you come across to the people you work with. Modesty and honesty alongside perfect manners will get you a long way.

#5 ADVICE & SUPPORT: There is a vast amount of advice and support available to aspiring singers. In particular, thousands of websites offer free advice on developing your singing skills and giving a perfect performance. However, the challenge is to find material which is proven to be successful. We recommend, starting with an online singing course from easysingingtutorials.com – a leading provider of effective and affordable singing tuition. Then, we recommend registering for free at mystagedoor.co.uk – the global community of aspiring performers. Here you will find training tips and advice from leading experts as well as showbiz news and you will have the opportunity to meet other like-minded performers.

Good luck!

Download online singing courses from easysingingtutorials.com – a leading provider of effective and affordable singing tuition. Online singing courses from easysingingtutorials.com follow a unique vocal programme proven to help you achieve your aspirations.

Article Source: http://bb-articles.com