There seems to be an idea amongst humans that when a thing is difficult to explain its best to label it as inexplicable. We give up and marvel at it instead.
So how, then, can we learn its secrets?
Thus is stage presence dismissed as something we should not strive to learn. The ‘it’ factor that defines so many ‘greats’ is denied to the masses who aren’t born possessed of its dark arts because it ‘can’t be taught!’. To which I say Pah! Nonsense. What is the point of learning to sing and act if you can’t hold a stage and its attendant audience in thrall?
So let me explain what I think is the unexplained secret of stage presence...
Tension/Relaxation.
There. That’s it.
So much of what I write here is simply culled from the extraordinary folk I’ve been lucky to have worked with. This idea is kinda my own, so if you violently disagree please comment and let me know. Because I’m sure I’m correct.
Let me explain...
When we learn to sing we engage in a series of processes designed to teach our innate muscle memories actions that become default. Just as a baby learns to stand and walk-and needs to study each movement carefully before ‘forgetting’ them-we need to carefully study and learn each action until it becomes fully automatic. So many teachers talk only of the relaxation of the body when learning to sing, yet tension is just as important. So singing is therefore a study in learning to adopt a posture that moves tensions and relaxations around the body (with breath) until a balance is achieved and our voices resonate at an optimal level. And we sound glorious.
Those tensions have consequences. I’ve been lucky (or unlucky enough) to have sung before many politicians and stateswoman/men. Politics aside, it’s fascinating to observe how orating humans can grow or shrink when faced with an audience. Politicians need to learn how to move an audience with more than their message. The way they address and stand before their crowd will sink them or carry them to glory as plainly as the words they choose will. The best of them learn to use their bodies as a tool, and that’s postural.
I firmly believe that us classical singers who learn to keep our abdominal tension loose, with open ribs and a beautiful, open apoggia have the tools to develop a posture that will grant enormous power when faced with a friendly and willing audience-or a bored and indifferent audition panel. Whether you believe in Chi Energy (and I certainly do!) or not, with our strong posture through singing-no matter whether we are standing tall or lying down-we are able to direct energy through ourselves that allows our Chi Centre to radiate and free our brain to give full resources to the words we are forming. This being a Mikey Blog I need to quickly namedrop-at the Guildhall we worked with the legend that is Ken Rea. Actors revere this man for his skills in this field. He would talk about directing Chi Energy, and his drama students would follow us singers to learn about how we train our bodies for this very aim!
Of course it’s a difficult study. We are busy engaging ourselves in the study of the voice, the study of WORDS, the study of acting etc. But feeling how our singing posture, and it’s support scaffold allows ourselves to ‘open’ ourselves to the audience can be achieved as we study everything else. Alongside. In fact it must!
So next time you stand in front of an audience, and feel secure in your music and text, feel how your wonderful back breathing and loose abdominals allow your inner mind to connect with the words, look out at those listening to you, feel your power over them beaming from your chest...
And be awesome. Change their lives with your singing. Wish it.
Choose it. Choose to develop this power.
Of course,some people just aren’t ‘stage-animals’. But if we are basically fully functioning human beings we all can choose what we wish to be.
And strive to meet our ambitions.
So how, then, can we learn its secrets?
Thus is stage presence dismissed as something we should not strive to learn. The ‘it’ factor that defines so many ‘greats’ is denied to the masses who aren’t born possessed of its dark arts because it ‘can’t be taught!’. To which I say Pah! Nonsense. What is the point of learning to sing and act if you can’t hold a stage and its attendant audience in thrall?
So let me explain what I think is the unexplained secret of stage presence...
Tension/Relaxation.
There. That’s it.
So much of what I write here is simply culled from the extraordinary folk I’ve been lucky to have worked with. This idea is kinda my own, so if you violently disagree please comment and let me know. Because I’m sure I’m correct.
Let me explain...
When we learn to sing we engage in a series of processes designed to teach our innate muscle memories actions that become default. Just as a baby learns to stand and walk-and needs to study each movement carefully before ‘forgetting’ them-we need to carefully study and learn each action until it becomes fully automatic. So many teachers talk only of the relaxation of the body when learning to sing, yet tension is just as important. So singing is therefore a study in learning to adopt a posture that moves tensions and relaxations around the body (with breath) until a balance is achieved and our voices resonate at an optimal level. And we sound glorious.
Those tensions have consequences. I’ve been lucky (or unlucky enough) to have sung before many politicians and stateswoman/men. Politics aside, it’s fascinating to observe how orating humans can grow or shrink when faced with an audience. Politicians need to learn how to move an audience with more than their message. The way they address and stand before their crowd will sink them or carry them to glory as plainly as the words they choose will. The best of them learn to use their bodies as a tool, and that’s postural.
I firmly believe that us classical singers who learn to keep our abdominal tension loose, with open ribs and a beautiful, open apoggia have the tools to develop a posture that will grant enormous power when faced with a friendly and willing audience-or a bored and indifferent audition panel. Whether you believe in Chi Energy (and I certainly do!) or not, with our strong posture through singing-no matter whether we are standing tall or lying down-we are able to direct energy through ourselves that allows our Chi Centre to radiate and free our brain to give full resources to the words we are forming. This being a Mikey Blog I need to quickly namedrop-at the Guildhall we worked with the legend that is Ken Rea. Actors revere this man for his skills in this field. He would talk about directing Chi Energy, and his drama students would follow us singers to learn about how we train our bodies for this very aim!
Of course it’s a difficult study. We are busy engaging ourselves in the study of the voice, the study of WORDS, the study of acting etc. But feeling how our singing posture, and it’s support scaffold allows ourselves to ‘open’ ourselves to the audience can be achieved as we study everything else. Alongside. In fact it must!
So next time you stand in front of an audience, and feel secure in your music and text, feel how your wonderful back breathing and loose abdominals allow your inner mind to connect with the words, look out at those listening to you, feel your power over them beaming from your chest...
And be awesome. Change their lives with your singing. Wish it.
Choose it. Choose to develop this power.
Of course,some people just aren’t ‘stage-animals’. But if we are basically fully functioning human beings we all can choose what we wish to be.
And strive to meet our ambitions.