Connecting With Your Audience By Carol Jack

As a teacher and performer, I have attended many courses and seminars on how to improve my singing. But one simple phrase has always stayed with me: tell the story.

Don’t get me wrong – I believe that singing with a ‘good’ technique is crucial to having the freedom to express yourself in whatever way you choose.  However, it’s not the be-all and end-all of a performance. Your audience is not coming to see or hear a good technique.  They want to feel something, and in order for that to happen, you need to consider the story you are telling.

Before Singing Any Song:

●       Think about WHO you are speaking to

‘I love you’ may be said in different ways to an old friend who always makes you laugh, a boy or girl who makes your heart beat faster, a son or daughter who makes you proud, a son or daughter who brings you pain.

●       Think about WHY you are speaking to that person

Saying ‘I love you’ to someone you are secure with is different from saying I love you to someone you think is leaving.

●       Think about WHAT has happened before you started speaking to that person, what is happening while you are speaking to them, and what you think will happen afterward.

●       Have they told you they want to leave just before you started speaking, are they walking away as you are speaking to them, do you think they will come back after you speak to them?

Bearing these points in mind will help you to connect more with the message you are conveying and in turn, connect more with your audience.