Text, or do you know what you are singing about?

Posted on | October 6, 2007 | No Comments

I have just returned from a wonderful weekend of learning at the ANATS Musical Theatre Forum in Ballarat , Victoria. The University of Ballarat  students performed (and waited) for the delegates and it was a reminder of how incredibly talented and committed Musical Theatre performers must be. You need to dance, act and sing. You need to be able to do all of these at the same time. You must be super fit with wonderful stamina. And to continue in work you need to keep your skills up to date, be personable, and work extremely hard. It is hard work, but so rewarding, and the students demonstrated their skills with a great spirit of generosity. I wish them good luck!

The overwhelming message from the weekend was the importance of text. Whatever style of singing you enjoy, performance is all about singing honestly, from a complete understanding and expression of the emotion, as you choose to interpret it, of the text of your song.  You must have the technique worked into your voice, hopefully the muscle tone and memory is in place, then sing the heart of the song. What is the song about? Anger, fear, joy? Is there a journey in this song? Where do you move to, from and through. Go there. Practice this in your performance, then go ahead and perform. Be vulnerable and express yourself. How does it feel? Truthfully, this is why we learn to sing. To express what is in our heart. But to get to this place we need to do our homework. Spend the time to get this right and you’ll find singing truly exciting. So, get your technique together, understand what you are singing about, and SING!

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