Creating A Dynamic And Expressive Vocal Performance

By Author: Maxwell David
Total Articles: 26
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If you're relatively new to singing, you're likely to be thinking mostly about your vocal skills and how you can use singing techniques to develop and enhance your sound. However, when you reach the stage where your singing technique is stable, secure and providing an adequate level of support, it is important to consider how you are communicating the sentiments in the song you are singing.

An expressive vocal performance as well as a physical connection with the song on stage will produce an extremely powerful performance. However, the process of engaging with the sentiments of the repertoire and creating new levels of expression can be particularly challenging if you don't have any experience in acting or drama.

Expressing repertoire effectively and communicating the story behind the lyrics not only helps an audience to fully engage with your performance but the process will also help you develop the tone and colour of your voice.

There are many different ways to develop these skills. Most importantly, you need to connect with the lyrics and completely understand the context and meaning of what you are ...
... singing. This may take a little time and even some research depending on what you're singing. But once you've done this, you will naturally begin to express the material more effectively. This is why choosing to sing songs which already mean something to you and that you can relate to will help you to create a more expressive performance from the outset.

Following this, there are two main ways you can develop more expression in your performance:
#1 Personal Performance:
A ‘personal performance' means you are singing the song as yourself. To do this, you need to identify the sentiments and emotions in each section of the song and then think carefully about how you would normally express these emotions in your day-to-day life. So, if you experience joy-how do you react, how does your facial expression change and do you do anything different physically? Once you've thought about your normal reaction to the range of emotions in the song, you simply apply your natural expressions to your performance. This can often be an excellent way to create a genuine performance and become more expressive without deep exploration of a character.

#2: Character Performance:
If you choose to perform the repertoire as the character who sings the song, the process will be lengthier. This obviously applies more to repertoire in opera, musical theatre and classical genres. It may be the repertoire you choose to sing is not sung by a particular character. In this case, you will need to sing the song as yourself.

Singing as a character involves exploring the character and developing a good understanding of the context in which you're singing. Research into the character and the context of the song will provide an excellent basis for experimenting with the physicality and demeanour of the character. Think about how the character would walk, talk and react in particular situations and surroundings. This process of exploration and experimentation will help you when it comes to communicating the sentiments of the repertoire effectively as the character singing the song.

Ultimately, however, whatever method you use, providing you are effective in expressing the sentiments of the repertoire and communicating these to the audience, your performance will be greatly improved.
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