Welcome to Groove sing and all the things.
Today, we're gonna talk about three reasons to keep your emotions out of your singing.
I know that sounds crazy.
Stay with me.
But if we haven't met yet, again, I may Hailstone from Amy Halstone Studios.
I'm a vocal and performance coach, guitar teacher, performer, and recording artists myself.
I've been teaching guitar for over thirty years, and I've been a vocal and performance coach for nearly a decade.
Again, today, our subject is three reasons to keep your emotions out of your singing.
And, yes, I said it.
And, yes, I meant it.
So singing with too much emotion will not give you the result you hoped for.
It's very fun in the moment, and many singers, me, early on, included, we think that's what we're supposed to be doing.
It's but this is not the case.
So as singers, we dearly love to over sing and do all the things and all the big emotions and big volume and big effects and everything.
Um, it's very fun and it adds drama to our performances.
And does it make our performances much more believable? No, it does not.
Being more subtle and just telling the story takes much more artistry, than showing every trick that we can do from the beginning of our song.
It also requires more vulnerability to really say something as a singer and to just simply tell our story to our listeners one vulnerable human to another.
And how do we do this? We cannot feel the emotions of the song we're singing.
We have to let our audience do that.
The number one reason to leave your emotions out of your singing is tension.
Singing with too much emotion will cause tension, period.
Tension anywhere in the body while singing, it's not gonna result in a great performance.
Um, it took me a really long time to learn this because I dearly loved to sing with big emotions and big volume and all the things.
Um, until my coach told me over and over and over to stop doing this.
Stop feeling the emotions.
Be accountable for your emotions, but don't feel them.
We have to allow room for our listeners to feel their emotions.
And because I was initially a self taught singer, and this is what I thought I was supposed to be doing.
I I think as singers, we see our heroes sing, and we assume this is what they're doing.
In reality, no, they're making it look like they're very emotional, they're using emotional sounds, but they look like they're working very hard, but they're not.
They're singing effortlessly.
That's what mastery is.
Not being all wrapped up in so much emotions that we have to push the singing through all of the emotions that will choke our tone every time.
And our our words need to flow not be forced.
And again, believe me, the only reason I can teach about this is because I have done all of these things.
And luckily, I had a very patient coach who did not give up on me.
So our goal as singers is to sound emotional, but not be emotional.
It sounds counterintuitive, doesn't it? But it's absolutely true.
The number two reason that we're gonna discuss today as we've already hit on a little bit is we must leave room for our listeners to put themselves into the song.
Have you ever been at a concert or watching a talent show? And a singer is doing really impressive things with their voice, and they're just dripping with emotions.
And maybe you were a bit impressed by the performance, but I'll bet you weren't moved by the performance.
Um, if we're all wrapped up on stage in our emotions and delivering a song to our audience, they might think, wow.
What a great singer.
But they won't be emotionally invested themselves.
Why? Because when singers start out in that big place with big emotions and big effects, the performance becomes more of a spectacle to behold than a performance that will take us on our emotional our own emotional journey.
And because we've left no room for them, we've made it all about ourselves at that point.
Um, I first experienced this when I went to a concert of an international superstar singer, and it was an amazing show.
It was like, wow.
The singing was great.
I thought, wow.
Yeah.
Wow.
But I really didn't care.
Like, I wasn't moved at all.
I wasn't drawn into the songs at all.
The singer was pumping so much emotion into the songs that, again, I I just didn't care.
I, uh, proceeded to tell my coach about my experience at my lesson the next week.
And that's when I first learned this concept because he told me, like, yeah.
I mean, there was no room for you, you know.
Um, it was it's more about the show.
Um, and this was a revelation to me.
And when singers make everything about themselves and their feeling, again, there's no room for us, And that's the point.
Um, and and, obviously, I've held on to that, and I teach my students that because it's one of those things that you might not learn on your own.
Like, it's it's one of those things that's very subtle it might sound kinda out there to some people, and I I totally understand that.
Like most things that make great art, it's subtle.
None of this is blatant or completely obvious.
It's much more nuanced than that.
Well, it's kinda like when we like something, we're not sure why, we just know we like it.
That's how I feel about this concept.
It's there, but it's not blatant, but I y k y k, if you know, you know.
So you'll start to now that you've been introduced to this, if this is the first time you're hearing this sort of thinking, you'll start to notice it.
So moving on, singing is much easier without big emotions, having to sing through the big emotions.
But if I may reiterate, it's more difficult to be honest and just simply tell our story in a more vulnerable way.
Not that there's never a time for these elements in singing.
Um, but most of our singing will be in a more neutral mode like speaking, and we take our listeners on a journey.
Um, so we can't stay in neutral mode all the time.
We have to throw in some bells and whistles, and that's fun for us as singers.
But if we do too much of that stuff, it will exhaust them.
Before I finish up this episode, I'd love to give you a gift for spending some time with me today.
It's an exclusive video for singers, three secrets and exercises to help relieve tension and find more freedom in your singing.
When I was learning to sing when I was working through all of this stuff, tension is the number one enemy of good singing, at least it was for me.
Um, tension hides.
So I I teach you some of the things, some of the ways to look for tension and some exercises on how to get past that, and just some introduction to concept, three concepts and exercises to help you sing more effortlessly.
And that's always our goal.
You can also always book a private session with me, if you like.
Um, just go to amyhailstone.
com/services.
So what's a singer to do? How can we take a hold of this concept? Basically, learn your song and sing it very simply when you're learning it.
Don't sing it with all the bells and whistles yet.
Learn to sing it in that small, light place, And then you have somewhere to go in your performance.
Yes.
You can use emotional sounds and licks and trills and riffs and runs and a little baby belt or whatever you like, but you're gonna come back to that small, neutral place because basically you put the story before all that other stuff.
The other stuff is good, but it can't be more important than what you're singing.
It's all part of being a singer, but the core of what we do is just telling a story, not getting lost in our own story.
We are in service to the song and to our listeners.
So I think by now, you get the idea.
They're gonna be much more drawn in to your performance if you approach it like that.
If you're watching on YouTube, um, leave a comment of a singer who you feel like really body's this and who really moves you every time you hear them sing.
Maybe you've seen them live and you get drawn into their performance.
Leave us a comment of who they are so we can check them out as well.
Thanks so much for joining me today.
On Bruceing and all the things.
Please visit me at amyhealstone.
com.
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