Show Emotion While Singing Video Tutorial vs Article

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Video Tutorial

Article

You're watching VisiHow. This is a video tutorial series on how to sing. In the previous tutorial, we discussed how to increase your vocal range. In this tutorial, we're going to teach you how to show emotion while singing.

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   Showing emotion is an important part of singing, because it allows the audience to understand the music itself

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   It also shows that you, as an entertainer, understand the lyrics and their meaning to you and that you can express and convey the meaning to the audience.

   

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   Knowing how to show emotion when singing takes confidence and the ability to understand the composer's intention and phrase the lyrics accordingly

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   Showing emotion is important for different genres of music, be it opera or German lyrical songs. We need to understand lyrics in other languages to convey the music correctly. As an example, we can watch other people singing and observe their stance, body, their presence on stage, posture, gestures, and facial expressions. The facial expressions may include the movement of the eyes and head, articulation of the mouth, and raising of the cheekbones. Witnessing this will make you feel the music that may become something like a part of you. Being emotional about music is knowing how to be comfortable with yourself in music. This way, you will understand what the music holds for you. You will understand the composer's intention of making singers enjoy the lyrics and music.

   

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   To demonstrate showing emotion while singing, let's perform a small passage from "Don Giovanni" by Mozart, requiring us to be a little bit comical

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   We will be singing from the perspective of Don Giovanni. The passage is jocular and contagious with dances, which requires us to be a comical person but remain serious at the same time.

   

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This was a video tutorial on how to show emotion while singing. Please make sure to view our next tutorial on how to do basic warm-up exercises for the voice. If you have any questions or comments, please leave them in the section below. Thank you for watching VisiHow!

Singing is a form of expression of emotion and communicating through music. It is telling a story or conveying a message to an audience with a melody. However, singing well is not just being able to memorize the lines and hitting the right notes. Singing without emotion is like a body that is lifeless and without soul. It is not enough that you possess a good voice.

Before you sing the melody, read and understand the lyrics first, phrasing it with cadences like telling a story. Immerse yourself in the position of the character and feel and capture the emotions. Then move on to sing the notes. You can sing with feeling and emotions as you tell the story of the song. This article focuses on assisting singers and singing enthusiasts to show the appropriate emotion while singing.

Audiences are moved deeply if and when the singer's personal connection to them is established while singing. However, in cases of singers, like those members of a choir, it can be easily seen when they are more focused on notes, lyrics, phrasing, dynamics, vocal technique and the beautiful melody than they are on the meaning. Sad to say, but this kind of performance disconnects the singers and audience - the music remains on the music sheet. If the singers are genuinely connected on a meaningful, personal level, then their body, faces, hearts, souls and voices will express that connection with the music. Then the audience cannot help but be engaged as well, as if transported to a different level.

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   Sing to your audience

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   Make eye-contact. Sing your song like you are telling them a story, with movements, facial expressions, word stress and articulation. This keeps them interested and listening to your song.

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   Connect to the song

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   Choose a song that you can relate to. If you have tried singing a song that you struggle to sing, do away with that. Find a song that has your life experience in it and it should be easy for you to interpret it.  

   1. Listen to the song you like and decide what the main emotion is - sadness, anger hurt or happiness.
   2. Sing from the heart and feel the mood of the song to add natural emotion to your performance.
   3. Understand the lyrics and carefully reflect on it.
   4. Can you relate with the song?
   5. How can you interpret the story?
   6. Which words or parts evoke the overall mood of the song?
   7. Can it be interpreted in another tempo or style?

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   Learn vocal compression

   

    

   1. This is a technique using the arytenoids to compress your vocal cords, rendering it some texture and flavor.
   2. Vocal compression adds a sense of urgency and emotion to your voice. It also gives you the ability to "flip" a switch in your voice.

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   Use facial expressions

   

    

   1. Facial expression enhances the particular mood of the song without distracting the audience.
   2. Think about the type of your song and then practice facial expressions in the mirror.

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   Video recording

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   As you sing, you may think you are already emoting, but you just can't connect with your audience.  

   1. Record your singing like it is an actual performance.
   2. Watch and assess your performance, both the positive and the negative.
   3. See how you can improve or be more expressive.

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   Audio Recording

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   1. If video recording is not possible, you can still learn with just your audio and listen for emotion in your singing.
   2. Select the part where your emotion shines and strengthen your performance, based on those times.
   3. Practice on the part where you have difficulty singing with emotion.

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   Singing in front of a mirror

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   Watch yourself while you sing to see your energy level. This gives you quick visual feedback on how much or little you are doing.

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   Emotion cards

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   Write different emotions on a note card, like excited, angry, furious, overjoyed, crestfallen, ennui, etc.; anything except happy and sad. Pick one card and interpret a verse according to the emotion card you picked. Being pushed outside the expected emotions makes you more able to portray the real feeling of the song.

    

   1. Talk out loud as if you have the emotions you picked.  
      1. If you are excited, tell yourself (face the mirror) how excited you are.
      2. If it's anger, act out shouting at a person.
   2. Observe what your voice does, what sounds you make, what tone of voice you use, your tempo when speaking (fast or slow), and your pitch (high or low).

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   Playing theater games

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   Play a short theater game to encourage your expressiveness.  

   1. You can find helpful theater games online.
   2. Pantomime while you listen to accompaniment or an instrumental music.

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    Warm up your body and face

    

     

    1. Do eyebrow push-ups.
    2. Make your face as wide as possible. Stretch it to a place you haven't reached yet.
    3. Isolate each limb. Lengthen/contract it as much as possible. Seeing and feeling how far your body can go makes you more likely to use that forgotten space.

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    Enunciating

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    Show more emotion by enunciation of vowels and coloring your tone with consonants. This means breaking the word into its phonetics. This aids in the word's clarity.

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    Breath control

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    Learning to hold your breath and sustaining notes with power and stability helps in projecting an emotional sound. Exercise your breathing technique and develop your stamina.

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    Explore

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    Be sure to know part of the singer when making artistic choices. Some singers interpretations are more correct than the others. Try it so you will know it. Omit some gestures, phrases and facial expressions from your performance, if necessary.  

    1. Watch videos on YouTube to study performances of professional singers.
    2. Watch contest shows like The Voice, American Idol and others. See the performances, but more importantly pay attention to how the judges evaluate the singing and give tips to these performers.

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Take time to apply these tips and exercises in your singing. You will know if you have rendered a song well, by the reaction of your audience.

I want to sing with emotion and with power, but I don't know how to connect to it?

I want to be able to sing without strain and show emotion

To do that, you need to be very confident in singing. Your singing and the work with your foundation system must be natural: that will give you overall more control over the airflow, your diaphragm and oblique muscles, abdomen, and breathing itself. Make sure that you are not pressing your voice, which is bad work with the lungs. To do that, start with watching our tutorial on how to use your diaphragm correctly.

As soon as you master that, you will be able to concentrate on the lyrical content and music. You would compare it to running in the park, which is automatic, and will be able to concentrate what to show to the audience through your body and facial work. Therefore, the connection is confidence, correct breathing, and concentration on the lyrical and musical content.

How can I make someone to feel my song?

I'm singing "music of the night" and I want to be able to add some real emotions

In this particular piece, the artistic feeling comes with empathy and comparison. You can always see how your listener would feel as you watch yourself on a recording or in the mirror as you sing the most emotional lines, You do not have to go all out on emotions from the very first line. Concentrate on lines such as "...close your eyes" and "touch me, trust me, savor each sensation". Record them as full verses and always think of someone who listens to you.

After you've practiced empathy, start with comparison. Compare yourself with the character. You may even use the dress and mask when you sing in front of the mirror or on video to see how and what you should do and should not do. Ask your close friend or relative to comment on the best and worst places. Work not on accentuating the best places, but on keeping them as they are recorded or practiced, which may be transitional, very short, and seemingly unimportant. They actually give that natural feeling.

How to tell the story while I'm singing?

OK so I go to singing lessons and I have this song that my singing teacher says I have to sing like its a story to tell a story. but the song is kinda like a Disney song but artist made it into her own song from a Disney movie. its called lost boy by Ruth b

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What is more important vocal emotion or facial emotion?

When singing a song would it be most important to have vocal emotional and focus more on that or focus more on facial emotions throughout the song?. I have tried: Audio recording. Video recording.. I think it was caused by: Only focusing on one aspect.

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If you have problems with any of the steps in this article, please ask a question for more help, or post in the comments section below.

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