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YOUR
REAL VOICE - the vocal ezine for real people
March 6,
2006
#21
FEATURE EDITORIAL
What's the Song Behind the
Song?
This article picks up where we left off with the idea of the Goofy
Voodoo. That is to say "If I vacuum out my brain, what do I put
in there instead?" Nature abhors a vacuum, and if you've got an
empty space, nature will fill it with something! If we vacuum out
our brains of all the negative and distracting thoughts going on while
we are singing, what are we going to direct our attention to instead?
What we are after here is developing the ability to direct and control
what we pay attention to while we are singing. It's specifically
what we focus on that determines what the result of the singing
is. Have a scattered focus, get scattered and unfocused
singing. You may be hitting all the right notes, but you won't
really be communicating anything that reaches an audience or holds
their attention. Out intent is to focus on what we want to
communicate and have as much of that emotion come to the surface as
possible.
Once you've memorized the words and sung the song enough times to
really get it fully learned and performance-ready, there is a tendency
to go stale on the meaning of the words. They loose their luster
and emotion. Sometimes the better prepared a song is for a
performance, the less spontaneous and genuine it is because it has
become too familiar and it looses some of its original zing and
energy. THAT'S when our minds start to wander again! Our
job is to get that energy back, by using the meaning of the lyrics and
recreating what we want to communicate. Any song we really want
to perform, and are willing to do the work to learn, moves us in some
way, and we want to get to the heart of what we are moved by in the
performance. A great way to reconnect with that meaning is to use
the lyrics in an altered form to access what there is to say for
us.
Take the lyrics to any song you've gotten a little stale on and write
them out completely. Then write them again with COMPLETELY
DIFFERENT words (this is part of The Emotions Course for those of you
that recognize this technique) that you supply. You are not using
any of the words from the original song to do this. You must come
up with completely original words to get at exactly what the song means
to you. You are literally writing the song again, but in your own
interpretation. Once you've completely re-written the song with
your own words, DO IT AGAIN with new words. In fact, you are
going to completely re-write the song three times, each time with
different words. Don't reuse any of the same words to get at the
meaning in each of the new versions. Once you have done three
separate versions of the lyrics, go back and read each one individually
as a whole, and then select a final, fourth version that uses the best
of your words from the three versions you wrote out. You are
combining the best of your own thinking to get the best version you
can. When you put these three versions of the song in your own
words together, you get a version of the song that is very specific to
you, one that you can really own and communicate to others because it's
YOURS.
You are doing this to get your mind super-focused and super-specific
about YOUR version of the song. The more we hone and direct your
focus and thinking off-stage, the easier it is to get it focused ON
STAGE, which is where it counts. On stage is the place you have
the opportunity to make a difference. But the biggest factor in
making that difference to the audience is the work and preparation you
do off-stage.
Now, practice the song again fresh from doing your own version of the
lyrics, and focus completely on the emotion of the song while you sing
it. Most likely you will be able to be much more in tune with the
emotion and what you want to communicate than before you did the
exercise. Now you have really put something in your brain worth
focusing on while you sing! You will probably notice after
the song is over that you were able to stay focused for a much longer
time while singing, and that all the thinking that had interrupted you
before is mostly gone.
Email me at info@sing-in-tune.com if you have any questions about how
to practice the "Vacuum Out Your Brain" process, especially integrating
your new thinking into it. I can easily assist you by
email. If you want more information about The Emotions
Course or would like to register for it, visit
http://www.sing-in-tune.com/emotionscourse.html
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REAL VOICE is the best vocal e-zine for real people! It
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Contact Athena by e-mail at info@sing-in-tune.com
or learn how to sing
perfectly in tune at her web site at www.Sing-In-Tune.com
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