12 Days of Christmas: A list of things I wish I had known as a young singer that I know now.
- Amedee Royer
- 2 days ago
- 5 min read
In honor of the “12 Days of Christmas”, here is my list of 12 things I wish I had known as a young singer that I know now. Enjoy!
No one in the audience wants you to fail. Truly. Most people just want to see someone enjoy singing. The audience wants to experience the music with you. Your brain is lying to you. The audience isn’t a pack of mangy hyenas on the prowl. They are not waiting on bated breath to see you mess up. The audience wants to be transported with you. You both want the same thing. A beautiful musical experience to help lift the collective spirit!
Mistakes happen. Mistakes happen. Don’t give up. A bomb performance will be forgotten by others. Pick your self up, forgive yourself for being human. Move on. And live another day to sing again.
Nerves are friend not foe: Nervous energy is NOT the enemy. It’s actually good to have a flood of energy before you perform. Don’t fight it and pretend it isn’t there. That energy is meant to take you to the next level! Expect it and harness it. Know that it is going to happen (because performances are boring without it) embrace it and change your mindset… speaking of mindset…
Mantras: Say them! “I love to sing!” Say it out loud! “I’m excited to sing”. You feel those sweaty palms, butterflies in your stomach, pulse quickening… that’s ENERGY, my friends! There is no difference chemically in your body and brain between the feeling of “nervous” and “excited”. Tell yourself “I’m excited to sing!” And go do it. Say it out loud and your brain will believe it.
Short and slow: and… we are back.. to (drum role, please!) PRACTICE TIME! You keep making the same mistake in practice?? Here’s my advice: shorten the phrase and go slower. Let me say that again… short and slow! Singing the entire song over and over and making the same mistake sets you up for making that mistake in performance. Short and slow might mean working on one note! Just one note. But once you get it, add another note. And “brick by brick you build your empire”. Question: How do we eat an elephant? Answer: one bite at a time ;).
Move your body: EXERCISE! You are not a floating head. You have a body ;) And as a vocal musician your instrument is your body. Treat your body with kindness. Your body needs to move and LOVES to move. Move it! Drink water. Eat fruits and vegetables. Sleep when it is sleeping time. It will only improve your singing. If you exercise daily, it will help inform your vocal practice and performance. And as a bonus fill you with happy chemicals just like singing! Win/win!
Breathe: Yes. Actually take a full, 3 dimensional, intercostal muscle and lung expanding, inner tube breath and sing with it! And then do it again and again. Breathe, sing, breathe, sing. Etc. That inertia and connectivity of the breath is legato singing. BREATHE :).
Be smart about breathing: it took me until my mid twenties to have a teacher tell me I should plan out my breaths before each entrance. What?!! I can plan my breaths?!?To be honest, my mind was BLOWN! And I’ve never thought of singing the same since…. Plan out your breaths before each entrance. You want to sing beautifully then breathe besutifully. Know how and when you are going to breathe before a phrase and do it that way. Every time. You will not regret the effort it took, I guarantee you.
Become the teacher you need: You are your best teacher and coach. Your voice lives in you. You are the best one to figure out your voice and sound. If a note feels good in your body and sounds good on the outside, hit the save button. Figure out how and why it felt/sounded so good and try to replicate that same feeling on the next note. Rinse and repeat. Did it feel good and did it sound good? Great! Figure out how and do it again.
Don’t let your song surprise you: Why do I tell my students I want them to be absolutely bored with their song before a performance and audition? Because when we add ADRENALINE to your performance we don’t want it to throw you. We want to use the energy! The best performances are when the “known” (your performance prep) meets the “unknown” (audience, adrenaline). That’s where the magic happens! Hear me out…you should get to the point where you know every single intricate detail of your song SO WELL that you are bored to tears with it. There should be no unknowns in the score. (Breaths, entrances, words, notes, phrases). You should be able to sing it at 100% the minute you wake up out of bed. If someone was to say on the street “Hey, can you sing a song?” you could whip that baby out immediately without flinching and just sing. Be prepared. Be stable. Be bored.
Bed time score study: Is there anything as comfy, cozy as getting to quietly study while drinking coffee in bed? I call this experience “bed desk ” and if you haven’t done it…give it a go! It’s delightful. In preparation for my senior recital at Wheaton, my teacher (the formidable and talented Dr. Sarah Holman) suggested I keep my music folder by my bed. That way I could look at it before I go to bed at night and first thing when I wake up in the morning. This concept changed how I practiced. And I have kept this practice for every major performance ever since. Here is why: your brain is your instrument. It doesn’t always need to make noise to practice. It loves getting to look at a score and remember technique, breaths, phrases and words. Please give your brain a chance to download information and prepare. Every night and morning :)
Sing songs you LOVE: Sing songs you love. The ones you’ve always wanted to sing.Not just the ones you are assigned by a teacher or getting paid to sing. We gotta keep the JOY alive people! Burn out happens. It happened to me. I stopped giving myself permission to sing songs out of joy. I used to think I was wasting my time to sing a song “I’m never going to perform”. It’s not my job to learn that song or audition with it, so I shouldn’t waste my time. WRONG! With that mentality my joy of singing just dried right up. Picking repertoire that I want to sing helped revive my love for singing. Life’s to short! Sing the songs you love even if you don’t have an audience for them. It’s not about having an audience, my dear. It’s about YOU! You need to sing. Sing the songs you love!
With all my heart
Amedee