Dr. Trineice shows you the way to become a more powerful communicator in your next performance.
A singer serves as one of the most powerful vessels for sharing stories, breaking barriers, and bring people together. The ability to bring an audience to a collective joy or sorrow, to be able to inspire an audience with your words, and to be able to take an audience on an emotional journey with the sound of your voice, is the ultimate skill of a true storyteller.
I believe we all have to capability of being good storytellers. While it does come more naturally for some than others, good storytelling is a skill that musicians can acquire. All it takes is a person willing and able to outwardly communicate with passion, conviction, and intent. In other words, you have to “sing it like you mean it.” Here are three tips that will help you become better storytellers.
- Don’t just pick the right song, Pick the right story.
The secret to singing passionately is to sing those songs which are meaningful to you. Look for those musical stories that resonate with your experience, hopes, dreams, and fears. The gift of the lyric, the words of the song, allows singers to articulate stories and emotional concepts in a particular and meaningful way. Choose your repertoire carefully. Don’t just sing songs because you like the way they sound. Try to pick songs that have stories you want to tell.
- Break it down, Put in context
The first thing I do when I add a song into my repertoire is I write the words in prose form. This way, I can see the poetry abstract of the music notes and imposed cadences. I think about the meaning of the words and then translate the words into a dialect I would use in my normal speech, if necessary. Then I think about the context in which I would say the words, whom I would be speaking, and how I feel about it. This perspective allows me to be very distinct and deliberate in my delivery, as the way I speak varies in tone and textures depending on who I’m talking to and my own emotional state at the time.
After my person and perspective have been determined, I go back with a pencil and mark the poetry of the song according to how I would utter the words in conversation. I pay attention to things like: How does the poetry/song start, and how do I feel at that moment? Is there a climax written into the song, or do I have to create one with my arrangement? Then I focus on how I’m feeling throughout the song and let that emotion dictate how I tell the story at that moment. Am I sad and exhausted? Am I unsure? Am I content? Am I excited? Am I elated? I then highlight, underline, add stops and pauses, and parenthesis to indicate phrasing and emphasis based on what is meaningful to me.
- Study good storytellers, but be yourself
Ever notice that when you hang around a person or group of people long enough, you start picking up certain mannerisms of that person or group. It’s generally not intentional—although sometimes it can be—it mostly just happens. You find yourself laughing like someone you’re close to, responding with their typical catchphrase, or even imitating their mannerisms just for fun.
Now imagine what would happen if you surrounded yourself with good storytellers. Imagine if you took the time to study their musical phrasing, vocal nuances, face and body expressions as they related to the emotion they were trying to portray. You would eventually acquire a way of expressing emotion that would ultimately become part of who you are. Music is a language, and every genre of music has its own dialect and mannerisms. Just as a child learns a language by imitating their surroundings, musical language and expression are acquired through exposure to the culture of the music.
However, the challenge is to embody these musical ideas and manners of expression without them compromising your individuality. You never want to become a mere imitation of another person. To avoid this, go back to #1 and #2.
