Powerful Performace Interpretation techniques for Singers, Actors and Public Speakers

Vocal Training Warrior: Vocal Training, Voice Lessons, Singers Voice Lessons, Speakers Vocal Training, Actors Vocal Training, Home Recording Studios, Diaphragmatic Breathing Exercises, Clear Diction Exercises, Vocal Training Videos, Vocal Training E-books.

Artistic Interpretation - The Icing on the cake!

Weather you are singing a song, making a public speech or acting a monologue, how you interpret your performance is critical to your success. Further, it is ultimately the only thing that will separate you and your performance from that of your peers. For instance, if we were to chose a recording of Handels Messiah, we would usually make our choice based on the conductor. This is because each conductor “interprets” the same piece of music differently. The decisions about tempo, volume, phrasing, balance, etc are all the prerogative of the director.

Here is a personal example. One of my favorite instrumental orchestral recordings is The Grand Canyon Suite by Ferde Grofe. The piece is a musical interpretation of the visual components of one of the worlds greatest wonders. I am a fan of the former great conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy. A few years back, I had an old, worn out vinyl recording and was looking for a CD or at least a cassette recording to purchase. Not finding one, I settled for a recording by a different director. Big Mistake! The piece was interpreted so different, and badly, that it was hard to recognize that it was the same piece of music.

Ultimately, interpretation is the most important aspect of any vocal performance. It is where the performer, after mastering their fundamental skills, can create their own performance version of any song, speech, poem, or monologue. The process of interpretation is supposed to be an experience whereby the performer and the listener have the freedom to draw their own conclusions about the success or failure of any creative process. The positive aspect of this freedom of artistic expression is that the performer is free to interpret a song or character that may have been performed many times in a similar fashion and interpret it in a fresh and innovative way.

The risk of this freedom is discovered when ten critics attend the same concert, play, or speech and form ten very different conclusions regarding how successful the performance was. Some may like it, and some may not. The reasons for their conclusions may be realistic or fallacious. Unfortunately, many critics may have the power to affect your career, even if their opinion is completely wrong.

One important goal to possess as a performer is to always create such a strong performance that even your worst critics have to concede to your success. This occurs because your interpretation was so effective that even the critics understood it on some level. One, though, must be very suspect of the opinions of critics.

Here are a few important reasons:

1. There may be only a few present to judge any performance, and as any political pollster would tell you, the more opinions you can get on any subject, the more valid the conclusions are.
2. Professional critics may be politically or financially connected, and their professional opinion may be highly suspect as to the truthfulness of their conclusions. This conclusion is easily confirmed by the yearly results we see in the Academy Awards. Considering the recent films that are chosen each year for the highest awards, it is obvious to those in the real world, the ticket-buying public, that many members of the Academy are highly politically correct and too connected to Hollywood to have an unbiased opinion. The sharp television viewer ratings downturn for the Academy Awards in the last few years reveals that the public has become their critic and has judged them harshly.
3. Performers rely on their often uneducated family and friends to be their critics. I can’t count the number of singers I have had to reprogram after they were told by a friend or family member that they were tone deaf when, in fact, they were not.
4. Critics are often not even performers themselves. These are the worst kind of critics. The truth is, if they are so knowledgeable about the correct way to perform, they would be up on that stage showing everyone how it is done instead of flapping their jaw about your performance successes or failures
5. The best critic of what you are accomplishing is you. Ultimately, every performer must be secure enough in how they are currently performing and in their performance goals. A sailing ship must have a sail and rudder to move forward with confidence, and you must have yours. When you have the self- confidence in your own abilities, or lack thereof, you will be able to graciously receive all opinions about your work without taking them as a personal attack. You will be able to sift through all the opinions of the critics, forsake the false ones, and embrace the truthful ones, using them as a solid foundation on which to build your future performance goals with confidence.

The Importance of planning how you will communicate your Lyric, Speech or Dialogue is very important. Try this exercise with every work you will perform.

Read out loud your entire song lyric, speech, or acting part exactly how you would perform it in character.

When you are done, ask yourself the following questions:

1. What is the main theme of the story, lyric, or speech?
2. To whom am I singing or speaking?
3. What is the visual location of my performance?
4. What mood is portrayed in the words?
5. If music, what mood is conveyed in the harmony?
6. Why was this lyric, speech, or script written?
7. What result am I trying to accomplish in my audience?
8. What do I want the audience to remember about my performance?
9. What movements, mannerisms, etc. do I need to rehearse to convey my message?
10. How should I dress to perform?
11. If I am a character other than myself, who am I, and how will I effectively imitate that person?
12. Create your own questions!

Write out the answers to these questions about every character, speech, or song you perform. I am sure you will be able to think of more relevant questions. The clearer you are about what you are trying to accomplish in any performance, the more effective you will be.

I hope you have enjoyed this important discussion. Pass it along to a friend!

Jonathan Morgan Jenkins
http://www.vocaltrainingwarrior.com

Buy Jonathan's best selling ebook on sale for only 9.95!
http://www.vocaltrainingwarrior.com/ebooks

http://www.youtube.com/vocaltrainingwarrior


Subscribe in a reader

Singing, Speaking and Laughter will Improve your Health

Vocal Training Warrior: Vocal Training, Voice Lessons, Singers Voice Lessons, Speakers Vocal Training, Actors Vocal Training, Home Recording Studios, Diaphragmatic Breathing Exercises, Clear Diction Exercises, Vocal Training Videos, Vocal Training E-books.

In my popular book, Singing and Speaking on the Edge of a Grunt, chapter one discusses the incredible health benefits associated with singing, speaking, laughing, athletics and other “natural” physical activities. Research has proved that these activities release human endorphin hormones into the body.


The result is that people experience physical and mental health in a natural way and not because they have ingested some drug or had a few drinks. I recall all the rehearsals and the concerts I directed when I was the founder and musical director of the Capistrano Chorale. Our rehearsals were in the evenings and it was often the case that myself and many of the members would arrive very tired from a day of toils. Sometimes it was very difficult to find the strength to begin the rehearsal. But, when it was over, the whole group was full of endorphins and the room was full of energy.

Just as in vocal music where there exist “style” groups that range from the Opera Music crowd to the Country Music crowd (click here to see my youtube video on performing in multiple vocal styles) , so there is the same division in the medical community. There are medical professionals that use only drugs and surgery in their practice and there are those on the other extreme that believe Chiropractic and Acupuncture, for an example, are the only true approaches to promote health. Then there are the rest of us in between that realize that most approaches to medical care have their place and, further, they have more in common than they have different.

In this article, I want to showcase a well-known medical professional that has always tried to bridge the gap between the two extremes. His name is Hunter " Patch" Adams. Hunter founded the Gesundheit Hospital in the 1970s as a pilot project. The hospital was proposed as a model health care system aimed at changing society. It was envisioned to be a forty-bed rural community hospital in West Virginia where care is free and is based on compassion and friendship. Many may recall the 1998 feature film starring Robin Williams called Patch Adams. I admire Dr Adams as he truly thinks "out of the box." As a professional, I relate to him and his approach. Singing, Speaking and Laughing all produce health in our body both physically and mentally. If there exists a natural means to create overall health, then these approaches must be tried first or, at least, in conjunction with traditional medical therapies. I will let Patch tell you his story about his vision and work since 1967. His story is taken from his website, http://www.patchadams.org/.

Vision for a Free Hospital Based on Fun and Friendship

by Patch Adams

I entered medical school in 1967 to use medicine as a vehicle for social change. I used my free time to study the history of health care delivery around the world and to look at contemporary models with the idea of creating a medical model that would address all the problems of the way care is delivered. I didn't intend to create a model that would be the answer to the problems; but to model creative problem solving, and to spark each medical facility to design their own ideal rather than succumb to the garbage of managed care, or a resignation to the impossibility of humanistic care. Beginning in the climate of the political "war on poverty," I felt confident that a free hospital to serve the poorest state, West Virginia, would find easy funding and that we would be built in four years. I smile writing this as we enter our 33rd year without having broken ground on the hospital. However, we have asked our architect to go to finished drawings so that we can begin building as soon as we have funding in hand. None of the journey has gone as I imagined and the vision is so much deeper, more comprehensive and far-reaching as a consequence of such deliberate progress.

The original vision had all the principles we have maintained all these years. There would be no charge for the care. Barter was also not an option. In fact, we wanted to eliminate the idea of debt in the medical interaction as a way to begin recreating human community. We didn't want people to think they owed something; we wanted them to think they belonged to something. We could not conceive of a community that did not care for its people. This also meant a refusal to accept third party reimbursement, both to refuse payment and to sever the stranglehold that insurance companies had on how medicine was practiced. We would have nothing to do with malpractice insurance, which forces fear and mistrust into every medical interaction. We espouse the politics of vulnerability and are clearly aware that we can only offer caring and never promise curing. In such a flagrantly imperfect science, we need the right to make mistakes.

The loudest cry of patients was for compassion and attention, which was a call for time. So initial interviews with patients were three to four hours long, so that we could fall in love with each other. Intimacy was the greatest gift we could give them, especially at a deathbed, with intractable pain or chronic, unsolved medical problems. It was natural to insist on a house call to sweeten this intimacy. When I made a house call, I opened every drawer and snooped in every closet. I wanted to know the patients in all of their complexities. An apparent secret in the practice of medicine (so easily erased when business is the context) is how care is bidirectional. This intimacy is as important for the caregiver as it is the patient. The bidirectionality of healing is at the core of preventing burnout. The business of medicine has connected the word care with the concept "burden," to describe all who need care, who are not wealthy. But we found the unencumbered practice of medicine is an ecstatic experience.

In spending this amount of time with patients, we found that the vast majority of our adult population does not have a day-to-day vitality for life (which we would define as good health). The idea that a person was healthy because of normal lab values and clear x-rays had no relationship to who the person was. Good health was much more deeply related to close friendships, meaningful work, a lived spirituality of any kind, an opportunity for loving service and an engaging relationship to nature, the arts, wonder, curiosity, passion and hope. All of these are time-consuming, impractical needs. When we don't meet these needs, the business of high-tech medicine diagnoses mental illness and treats with pills.

What the majority need is an engagement with life. This is why we fully integrated medicine with performing arts, arts and crafts, agriculture, nature, education, recreation and social service, as essential parts of health care delivery. We knew that the best medical thing we could do for the patients was to help them have grand friendship skills and find meaning in their lives. This is a major reason that the staff's home was the hospital. We insisted on friendships with our patients (made easy by not charging, and giving them our lives). A patient ideally would bring their whole family while they were healthy, and stay a few days as friends, becoming familiar with the hospital (home, sanctuary), so that just being there was relaxing, even healing.

We wanted patients to bring all their interests and skills to essentially become temporary staff as well as patients during their stay. For example, if a car mechanic came as a patient, we could notify the poor in our greater community who might need their car fixed, and have it happen while the mechanic was getting care. The mechanic may also give classes on basic mechanics. All these features help build community, creating a sense of interdependence. Those receiving care cannot feel indebted because they become both the help and the helped.

To help promote diversity and truly to be full service in our planned facility, we insist on integrating all the healing arts. Allopathic medicine, including surgery, ob/gyn, pediatrics, internal medicine, family practice and psychiatry, will work hand in hand with complementary medicine, including acupuncture, homeopathy, naturopathy, chiropractic, ayurvedic, anthroposophic, herbal, body work and faith healing. It will be an exciting opportunity to study how they can all work together under close observation. The entire environment will be an example of preventive medicine exploring how to help a patient and their family grow healthy (or at least healthier!) From the beginning, social, environmental and global health were felt to be essential as part of our medical practice. There, violence and injustice became medical issues. Unemployment, the discrepancies between rich and poor, poverty, pollution, corrupt governments and economic systems all become concerns of a medical practice. There was always an invitation and encouragement to become involved in social change, even if the individual did not feel it affected their life. We want to build a fine community of people whose ethic is caring for all. Now, we have added to our vision a school to teach social change with the whole community as its laboratory. Agriculture will not just be about feeding people, but an exploration into sustainable agriculture. We'll use designing the community as an experiment in appropriate technology.

One of the most radical parts of the vision was that we wanted all of the activity to be infused with fun. I wanted to build the first silly hospital in history. Foolishness was embraced, often to extreme, in even the most profound of situations. We had fun deaths and bizarre, outlandish behaviors with the mentally ill. In our normal, serious world with somber medical environments (even though no research supports being serious and thousands of research papers encourage joy and humor as healing), we saw no contradiction in feeling that a hospital could also be an amusement park, even implying it is important for staff and patient.

The ideal staff people we looked for were, by intention, happy, funny, loving, cooperative and creative. I knew the key to the creation of this beautiful model was in the people deciding and choosing to live there; because it is people that really make a model. Ideas can only be as real as the people living them. Politically, our most potent wedge for change would be living happily together, in constant, joyful service, fully expressing our creative selves at extremely low salaries. The point was not to try to teach a staff this, but to find people for whom this was their way of life.

In our first 12 years (1971-1983) we did all this as a pilot project. Twenty adults and our children moved into a large, six-bedroom house and called ourselves a hospital. We were open twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, for all manner of medical problems from birth to death. Three of the adults were physicians. We saw 500-1000 people each month, with five to fifty overnight guests a night; totaling 15,000 people over those 12 years. We were never sued. At least three thousand of the patients had mental illness and we did not give psychiatric medicines. We referred out what we could not handle. It was truly ecstatic, fascinating, and stimulating. No one gave us a donation and we were 0:1400 for foundation grants, so our staff had to work part-time jobs to pay to practice medicine. After nine years of nobody leaving, most staff said they felt we would never be funded, and wanted to stop. It was the saddest moment for me, for I loved all of them and knew that I had to persevere.

I tried to recreate the work for three more years and realized that in order to continue, I need a facility to support this model of care. Now the job was to raise the funds to build it. It appeared that our ideas were too radical to get conventional funding, and so I realized that we had to go to the people of the world to get the needed funds. The model for that in modern society is through publicity and fame. So I broke a basic tenet of our philosophy—no publicity—and became public. For the last 20 years we have climbed that fame and fortune ladder in hopes that we would attract funds to build our ideal rather than compromise the vision. This went to monstrous extremes in 1998 when a feature film, "Patch Adams," was released with Robin Williams playing me.

These efforts have brought us a three hundred seventeen acre farm in Pocahontas County, West Virginia. The land has three waterfalls, with caves behind one. We built a four acre pond, there is a mountain of hardwood trees and twenty-eight acres of rich bottom land that has had no chemicals on it for 22 years. We have built two beautiful buildings in anticipation of someday building the hospital. Two years ago, with a little sadness that the hospital was still not built, and a hunger to begin seeing patients again, I agreed to consider reopening with a first phase that would include an outpatient clinic and a school for social change, with residence facilities for the staff. We have asked our architect of 21 years to give us finished drawings for it. We owe no money and have a good start for Phase 1.

I could feel frustrated, even sad, that the hospital is still unbuilt. However, in the long run it may prove to have been a very positive time line. After 33 years, we have built a much larger, more diverse, more intelligent, more globally influential model than we ever dreamed of in those first 12 incubating years. Our global impact has affected far more patients' lives and inspired more social change than if we had gotten our funding early on. My failure at fund raising has forced me and our evolutionary staff and friends to expand in every direction and meet a quality and quantity of people that make our greater team of friends and contacts number in the thousands in almost every area of endeavor; especially healing, the arts, and social change. Gesundheit! has indeed become a global mover and shaker active in forty or more countries, expanding beautifully all the time.

When we build the model with people serving it, full and part time, its example will be breathtaking with a process already in place to have an important impact because a variation of that is happening already. The patients of our first 12 years were individuals and families looking closely at their organ systems. The patients of our last 20 years have been communities and societies looking at their organ systems: environmental, social, political, economic. All of these "patients" will dance through the hospital when it is built. I have had to earn the funds to support these last 20 years' activities, with every month being a creative journey of survival. Since the film's release, we're not on such a survival edge, but we have still not raised funds for major construction. The beauty of the journey makes patience easy, especially since every day is wildly exciting and globally influential, regardless of the building progress. This is not to say that the building of the hospital is any less important. On the contrary: it is more important than ever since it has remained, these 31 years, the only model in the U.S. (and one of few in the world) to comprehensively address health care delivery problems. Our example of joyful persistence alone is an important, inspiring model for the changes needed in the world.

We stopped seeing patients in 1983 to devote ourselves to fund raising full time for the hospital, by expanding out into the world. I began lecturing and performing on a wide variety of subjects (fifty lectures, shows and workshops) with every imaginable kind of audience and with as many as eleven lectures in a day. All levels of education from elementary schools to medical schools (most of the ones in the United States and in thirty to forty countries), churches, community centers, conferences and corporations. For most of the time it was for 150-200 days a year and 300 days a year since the film, always all over the world. A constant flow of publicity and my two books translated into ten languages and the film have made our project part of the medical dialogue all over the world when referring to humanized health care.

During these 20 years our clown healing work has expanded all over the world, so that clowns are now a regular part of hospitals on every continent and this is expanding as people hear the message that it is really about spreading joy in every public space as gestures toward peace, justice and care. I started taking clowns to prisons, foreign countries, even to refugee camps and war zones. For 18 years I've taken thirty clowns from all over the world to Russia for two weeks of clowning in hospitals, orphanages, prisons and nursing homes, as well as airports, subways, streets and hotels. Ten years ago this led to our getting involved in the care of orphans in Russia in work that is now recognized all over. We have taken clowns into the war in Bosnia, the Kosovo refugee camps in Macedonia, the Rumanian AIDS orphanages, African refugee camps, Cuba, China, El Salvador, Korea and Haiti. As I write this, we took twenty-two clowns from all six continents and ten tons of aid for three and a half weeks into the war in Afghanistan. Because this work has connected us with many aid and relief organizations (like Airline Ambassadors), it is now easy to organize huge quantities of people and aid quickly and effectively. These experiences have also gotten us involved in the global conversations on conflict resolution.

All of our gestures of love and fun have been a magnet for beautiful people who want to devote their lives to loving service. Every year thousands of doctors and nurses tell me they would be willing to live and work full time 40 to 60 hour weeks in our hospital for $3,000/year. Many more want to come part time. Students of medicine from all over the world constantly entreat us to let them come study what we are doing. This may be the most important reason to get the hospital built.

Nine years ago a special group of old and new friends began to come together in a real group commitment toward the dream; our second major staff change. No longer did I have to carry the vision alone because the individuals of this group—though quite diverse in thought and personality—each felt they found a place and readiness in themselves to want to be and work for the now-collective vision. For any project created by one person this is a grand step so that the vision can continue if something happens to the visionary. Another important bonus is that each of them brings their special interests and talents to the project to vastly broaden how the multiple tasks I used to do now get done, and each adds their blessed creativity again enhancing every part of the vision. What it feels like to me is that now everything is in place to make the hospital a reality.

We plan to build a forty-bed rural community hospital. There will be sixty beds for staff and beds for their families in a creative, comfortable communal hospital. There will also be forty beds for guests who would be healing arts students on electives, ophthal-mology teams every three months, plumbers, string quartets, and anyone wanting a service-oriented vacation. There will be 30,000 square feet devoted to the arts in a fully arts-centered hospital. There will be a school for social change and in-depth agricultural programs. It will be funny looking, full of surprises and magic. We'll be exploring how far below the national average our effective operating budget can run—I believe we'll be shockingly inexpensive. Our ideal is that an endowment would cover the annual costs and realize without this we'll find creative ways to pay for its operation. There will be a forty-acre village to house our children's school (also for sick children and children of sick parents) and other important community experiments, like how to integrate all ages in a fun, healthy way. Staff persons who've served for four years and want a little distance from the intensity of the hospital can create their fantasy living space in our village.

I want to tell all readers that the journey has been heavenly all along the way. Simply being in an idealist quest is its own reward. I've never felt I've sacrificed anything or thought it was a hard journey. Hard would have been having to work in corporate medicine and lie to patients and myself every day. My concern for humanity's future drives me to want to put whatever efforts I can to changing everything that hurts people and nature. The Gesundheit! Institute is that for me, and so many others.

Dr Adams is truly a pioneer and a visionary that has changed how we think about our approach to physical and mental health. I would encourage all of you to do what you can to spread his message and, hopefully, donate to his cause.


Jonathan Morgan Jenkins
http://www.vocaltrainingwarrior.com

Buy Jonathan's best selling ebook on sale for only 16.95!
http://www.vocaltrainingwarrior.com/ebooks

http://www.youtube.com/vocaltrainingwarrior


Subscribe in a reader

Performing all Vocal Styles with Expertise and Confidence is Critical to your Resume as a Vocalist.

Vocal Training Warrior: Vocal Training, Voice Lessons, Singers Voice Lessons, Speakers Vocal Training, Actors Vocal Training, Home Recording Studios, Quality Microphones, Podcasting, Diaphragmatic Breathing Exercises, Clear Diction Exercises, Vocal Training Videos, Vocal Training E-books.

To become a truly professional vocalist, you must be able to perform all vocal styles with expertise and confidence. If you are a vocalist that is stuck in a "Style Rut", read this article and you may find that it is not as difficult as you may think to sing and speak in different styles with control and confidence.

During my tenure as a Voice Instructor, I have coached Singers, Speakers and Actors of every age and musical of speaking style. Some typical singing styles would be, Classical, Opera, Musical Theatre, Jazz, Pop, Folk, Rock, Rhythm and Blues and Country. Some typical speaking styles would be, Corporate Trainer, Corporate Speaker, Politician, Teacher, Poet or Rap Artist. Some typical Acting styles would be, Stage Actor, Musical Theatre, Film Actor, Commercial Actor, Voice Over or the creation of specific Characters or Accents. If I missed any, please add them to the list.

My point is that there are so many uses for the Human Voice, an incredible miracle of an instrument. After working with all of these people through the years, I have found these consistent themes in how they perceive their chosen method and/or style.

1) They often worship their chosen style and exclude all others. (This is especially prevalent with snooty academic/classical crowd)
2) They think that their style of singing is the only correct way the voice can operate.
3) They have little or no understanding of how the voice operates.
4) They think they are gifted and do not need competent training.
5) They refuse to even consider expanding their capabilities by attempting to sing or speak in another style.

To me, anyone who thinks in any fashion like this is incredibly naïve and has little or no interest in becoming an accomplished vocalist. If I have ruffled your virgin feathers, I make no apologies.

Before you leave the room or call your Attorney claiming that I have bruised your ego, please allow me one chance to explain to you the many aspects of proper vocal performance that are similar to all vocal styles. Then we will discuss the actual few differences. Here is a list of all the aspects of vocal performance that must be understood and applied by all vocalists and all musical or speaking styles.

1) How to breathe properly to intake the maximum amount of oxygen every time we breathe.
2) Understand how the body is engineered to use pressurized oxygen to accomplish many vital functions by coordinating the abdominal muscles.
3) Have a thorough understanding of the most important abdominal muscle for singing or speaking called the Diaphragm. This includes its position in the body, how it is used to intake oxygen and how it is used to pressurize airflow and expel it in a controlled and efficient manner.
4) Have a thorough understanding of the Larynx or Vocal Chords and how this marvelous organ is used to accomplish a fundamental sound and correct pitch.
5) How to keep our throat open so the fundamental sound and pitch which emanates from the Larynx is not restricted and therefore diminished in any way before it reaches the resonating chambers of the head.

Before we discuss how style differences are accomplished, please review the above long list of important things that all vocalists must be able to understand and perform masterfully before they can be a powerful vocalist in any style.

Now let’s discuss how we accomplish different styles. You will be amazed at how simple it really is. And when you realize this, my hope is that you will become a vocalist that understands there are more common processes than different ones. And, hopefully, you will become more open to becoming an accomplished singer or speaker in all styles.

Let’s start with the style where the voice is usually operating to its absolute potential. That would be Classical or Opera. I realized that I made a not so flattering comment in #1 of my first group of numbered items. (This is especially prevalent with snooty academic/classical crowd) I did not make this comment about the style; I made this comment about the some of the people that perform that style. The college where I received my formal music degree was a place where the mention of Popular Music was considered Sacrilege. With my childhood musical background being Surf Bands and Rock and Roll, I had to watch what I said for fear of being Tarred and Feathered!

Lets analyze the physical singing style of Classical or Opera. We usually observe the following physical characteristics in the performer.

1) They often breathe correctly.
2) They often understand how to use their abdominal muscles for proper oxygen control.
3) Their Diction is often clear and resonant.
4) Their jaw is often open or dropped to produce the most balanced resonant tone possible.

I my experience, I seldom find these important vocal performance aspects in people who sing in other styles. The main reason is lack of training but another reason is a bad attitude about being open to sing in other styles.

Unfortunately, it appears to be human nature to dismiss a new challenge or even minimize its importance rather than embrace it as a gift that will change our life. We would rather shoot the messenger than listen, embrace and grow. Pretty sad!

What I have found is that, once I can get a student past the mental blocks of experimenting with a new vocal style, it becomes mainly an issue of altering the diction and opening the jaw to different positions that creates basic musical or speaking style changes. It is really that simple.

I want all of you to try something so you can get the effect. I want you to act in character using two extremes. Pick any song or speech you are familiar with and perform it in each of the following characters. Don’t hold back and perform the character as exaggerated as possible.

1) Pretend you are an Opera Singer or Speaking words in a Shakespeare Play.
2) Pretend that you are an old-time Country Singer with all the twang you can muster. If speaking, just say the words that way.

While you are doing this, be aware of the following:

1) How open or closed your throat is.
2) The position of your tongue at all times.
3) How closed or how open your jaw is.
4) What kind of tone, nasally or balanced, you are producing.
5) Do you feel tension in your neck and head or not.

I hope you are getting the picture that the differences in vocal performance are very few compared to the similarities. When you tell your body to become a certain character, the subconscious mind brings it to pass by altering physical positions.

In conclusion, I tell all my students that if they want to truly become and accomplished and fulfilled vocalist, they should be able to sing or speak in any style on command and do it properly.

So, it is time to drop the ego and open yourself up to receiving some proper training. Trust me, when you do this, you will be a very happy vocalist. Further, you will have a healthy respect for all styles, all vocalists and increased admiration for your marvelous musical instrument.

Thanks for Reading! Visit my web site fir more info. http://www.vocaltrainingwarrior.com/ebooks

Goodbye!

Subscribe in a reader

See you next time!

http://www.vocaltrainingwarrior.com

Blessings,

Jonathan Morgan Jenkins