How To Gesture While Singing

When an audience comes to hear you sing, they want to do more than see you, they want to hear you connect with the story behind the songs you sing. The movements you make around the stage or around the room should enhance both your singing and the story. Gesturing during your song adds interest and can also help your audience to better understand the song lyrics – just don’t make the mistake of overdoing your movements. The following suggestions may prove helpful to you in matching your movements to your music:

Practice singing at home while you do general household tasks like folding cloths or washing dishes, so that you get used to doing other things while you sing. When you’re comfortable moving and singing, speak through your song lyrics and notice what gestures come naturally to you. The way you move your hands when saying the words to the song will help you to identify the most natural gestures for when you sing the words.

Some songs don’t require much movement at all. When you first start practicing a song, allow yourself to move freely and then slowly begin to get rid of the movements that don’t add to the interpretation of the song. Moving around just for the sake of it when you’re singing doesn’t really enhance your song. For example, a classical song generally won’t need many gestures and requires little movement. You needn’t take more than a few steps when singing a classical ballad.

If you’re new to singing, adding movement and gestures to your song may be taking things too far at this stage. Taking it one step at a time is a good idea when you’re figuring out how to put your new technique and a new song before the public. Once you have learned good technique you will then need to learn how to move because movement adds to your artistic interpretation of the song. Learning how to make eye contact with your audience and how to move will help you connect with your audience and help them connect with your songs.

Most beginner singers want to move their hands a lot when they sing because they assume that gesturing makes their song more interesting and exciting and it can when done properly. Just make sure that you don’t only move your hands, but also move your elbows away from your body and your palms are up and open.

Especially if you tend to move your hands when you speak, you will feel uncomfortable and unnatural if your try and keep your hands by your sides when you sing. Speak the words of the song so that you can understand what is happening in the story and how the character would respond to what is happening. By becoming the character in the song, gestures will be part of your natural reaction to what is happening you can use those same gestures when you sing to help tell your story. Remember though, that you should not move unless it adds to the story you are telling.

I hope you found this information helpful. There are loads of great ways to learn how to sing online. Yes, that’s right, now you can affordably teach yourself how to sing with video lessons from acclaimed vocal coaches like Per Bristow. All the best with it!

Continue reading » · Written on: 07-24-10 · No Comments »

Comments are closed.