BecomeSingers is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Learn More
If you want to sing on stage, you should understand that it’s not only a matter of combining music and language but also dealing with awareness. This means being aware of those people around you. Focus your attention on the conductor, and enjoy performing on the stage instead of getting worried. During rehearsals, look around as if there is a huge crowd in front of you. This way, you’ll get accustomed to the size of the audience and space. Next, think about the amount of energy that you need to fill the space. Make sure that you don’t show the size of the energy through your exhausted body. Convey your energy in your singing and dancing. Don’t ever think that the strength of your movements can carry your song.
Setting Up The Correct Mindset For Your Performance
Audience Expectations
You have to know a little bit the audience expectation on your performance if you really want them you enjoy your singing performance on stage. When you’re singing on the stage, it’s like making a contract with your listeners. Think that since they are giving you their precious time, you should give them something in return. Give them something valuable and worthwhile as they expect. Prepare to please them as much as possible.
Give them time to escape from their daily problems and hectic schedules. As they watch you with glittering eyes and hear your music with excitement, they expect you to hold their hands and take them with you on a journey into another dimension. They expect you to ignite their feelings or even present images to imagine in their minds. From what you’re singing, they can forget reality for the moment and go to a different level. In effect, they get hooked on it and imagine your voice often.
Boost Your Confidence
Now that you understand how to develop your singing confidence on a higher level, you can start moving into the level of performance. Learn to prepare and develop your voice, and you’ll notice that it’s truly an art.
Some popular artists display their confidence in music because they know that it is important in their careers. Self-confidence can push them to a new height in singing. Sometimes they can even push their music far from what they thought it could be. The first thing that they learn in this case is that music has no boundaries. Newly-written songs will always come out and no two songs are alike. Composers will always put new words to a melody and a singer will always capture his/her audience. These unlimited possibilities have a lot of room for improvement and expression. So, it’s time that you who express yourself in the style of music that you want.
Jamming with a Band or Group
If you perform with a band or group, ignore their presence right from the start. You might treat it as absurd or a bit harsh, but focusing on your audience is more important if you’re on the stage. Never turn your back to your audience at any given time. If you do, you may strengthen your bond with your members, but lose your relationship and trust with the listeners. For example, if you face your band members when singing in a practice session, you’ll break your audience’s attention. If you act as the lead singer, your duty is to connect, excite, indulge and capture the attention of your audience. Remember this rule when you’re performing in a concert, stage, nightclub, café, or bar.
Remember Your Lyrics
Trying to remember the lyrics can be difficult, and every person has his/her own approach to absorb the lyrics efficiently. So, determine what really works for you and practice it. Begin by reading the lyrics aloud and then, relate the lyrics with the music. If you want the words to stick in your mind, you should make a detailed analysis of what they mean. If you’re fond of memorizing too much, forget it, and just focus on memorizing one page at a time.
If you’re familiar with the lyrics, walk around while singing them and do it fast. The reason is that they will become automatic giving you no time to think if you sing fast. Remember that in music, you cannot stop performing and think about the exact words to sing. While you’re on stage, your tendency is to forget many things because a lot of things are happening there. So, sing the lyrics while you’re busy doing other things, such as playing softball, football, cooking, or walking in the park.
Once you’ve learned singing the lyrics and repeat them while you’re doing other things, you’ll start to progress. Come back to every word that you’re singing, and refresh your mind on what each word means.
Don’t Bother About The Background Noise
When you’re on the stage, there are many types of obstruction that may be going on, so, it’s difficult to listen to your own voice perfectly. This is especially true in singing any type of song that involves a band playing their instruments in the background.
In this case, in-ear monitoring and fold back speakers can help you. (In-ear monitoring refers to special headphones that enable you to listen to yourself while singing).
However, it’s not perfect at all. It’s different from practicing in your bedroom alone. There, you can overpower the sound of your stereo with your voice.
Listen carefully: when you sing, you don’t just get feedback through your ears. Sometimes it helps and you get valuable feedback, but more important than that is you should feel your song.
The feeling that you get from singing is more important than hearing your voice sing.
This feeling allows you to navigate your voice efficiently.
This means that upon jumping on the stage, and you could not hear voice perfectly, there is no reason to worry; just relax. Rather than become desperate about the situation, you should tune in to your feelings. Focus on the sensations that you produce in singing; they can make or break your performance.
Did you notice if there are fold back systems in your performances? If there is none, then, it means that you won’t be able to listen to your own voice while singing. This is the importance of tuning yourself to the sensations that you feel in singing.
You can start this process during your practice sessions. You should feel how you sing instead of simply listening to your voice.
Connect With The Audience
In doing this, take the case of a particular singer, his/her singing ability and style. Watch and analyze how that singer performs. Observe how this performer sings and conveys a unique presence to the audience while performing on the stage. You will notice that the audience connects with the performer on the stage through the song. Watch the brilliant eyes of the audience and the movement of their hands showing their excitement. Artists who can move the audience to their feet are most adored.
While performing on the stage, the listeners will listen and watch every step that you make. If you’re not performing on the stage or elevated platform, then you have a better chance of connecting with your listeners. Your gestures are as loud as your music. Take the case of Elvis Presley; if he did not shake his body well while singing, he would have failed to connect with his audience, right? His intense display of emotions through dancing pushed him all the way to stardom after bonding with his audience.
Overcome Stage Fright
You’ll be amazed to know that stage fright does not only happen to beginners, but also to expert performers. For many years, they perform confidently on stage being watched by thousands of people. Then, it happens that one night, they become hesitant to go up the stage at an instant when they are being called.
However, there are several ways to combat stage fright, ‘though most of them speak about focusing on that very first line to go smoothly. Once you go out of your way, everything might crumble. So, do something important to relieve yourself of tension before singing.
You can get relief from stress through physical exercise. Stretch or make a run on your feet before you perform.
Think about your main goal of performing on stage. Imagine how good you can be in giving pleasure to others. Remember the times when you were called on the stage to receive your awards and compliments for great achievement. Here is one thing that you can do – close your eyes and imagine that your audience is wearing underwear. Sure it works!
Warning: Things You Must Avoid!
Many people are afraid of over-preparation because they think that the materials they use will somehow be useless in the end. This is not a thing that you should worry about because for every performance that you do, everything changes. You will notice that the room’s atmosphere becomes different, and the audience also changes. Be prepared all the time so that you’ll be ready to deal with changes. This way, you’ll have a lot of self-confidence and enjoy what you’re doing.
When you are in showbiz, you’ll feel that it is an exciting experience, but a big responsibility at the same time. Over-practicing for 30 minutes before your singing schedule would only make your voice worn out. Instead, try your range once and hit that note to make sure that you can do it.
