Let’s talk “song delivery”

Then what?

Once you’ve memorized a song, then you can really begin to start working on your song delivery. You need to ‘sing yourself into a song’. When I was studying voice in college, my professor would assign me a song on Tuesday and expect it memorized on Thursday. If it wasn’t memorized, I was not to bother coming to my lesson because there was ‘nothing we could do’ with the song in his estimation. He also maintained the notion that you never sang a song in public that you hadn’t sung at least 100 times on your own. Perhaps that seems like quite a high standard, but it’s worked well for me and if that’s the standard that my secular college held to, how much more do I want to give to my Savior?

In order to get a real message across to your audience, you must be authentic in your delivery. Think about what you are saying and make sure you really say it when you are singing. Bear in mind that this song is not about you. You are a servant there to simply hand off a message. Your emotion is not nearly as important as the emotion and thoughts of your audience. You want to INVOKE emotion rather than feel it yourself. In reality the audience isn’t nearly as interested in how you feel as they are in how you make them feel.

For this reason I recommend staying away from hand motions for the most part, especially hand motions that draw attention to YOU. Use your hands and body only in a way that you would use them if you were speaking this message to someone. Try to keep the concept of the song as a message foremost in your mind. You are there to communicate a message—what will it be? If you tend to overuse hand and body motions that are not a natural part of conversation, then the attention will begin to be drawn away from the message and onto whatever it is you are doing with your hands or body.

Try to maintain eye contact with the people you are singing to.  Many singers will get ‘lost’ in what they are singing and close their eyes. They may start swaying mindlessly and appear to be ‘in their own world’. Stay engaged with your audience. You are talking to THEM. Your message is for THEM. If your song is a prayer then you can try to engage them with what you are saying and occasionally lift your eyes upward to give the sense that you’re ALL lifting this song/prayer to the Lord, just don’t go there all by yourself.

May God bless you as you pass on His message through song…

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