Every song tells a story, and when singing for an audience you want that story to shine through and connect the audience to the song and story. All the movements you make on stage should relate back to and enhance the story telling of your song. 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:
Begin by doing simple chores around your house while you practice singing, this will allow you to get the feel of moving around while you sing. After you have mastered moving and singing at the same time, say rather than sing the lyrics to your song and notice your natural body language and hand gestures. Knowing how you gesture when you speak helps you figure out how to move when your singing.
Moving too much may detract from some songs. During your initial practices it’s probably better to move too much and then later eliminate the movements that don’t enhance the words of the song. Moving around just for the sake of it when you’re singing doesn’t really enhance your song. When you sing classical music for example, you won’t need many gestures at all. You needn’t take more than a few steps when singing a classical ballad.
If singing is new to you, adding some sort of movement may just be too much for you right now. 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. You will need to know how to move and to engage your audience with your song.
Beginner singers tend to move their hands a lot when they sing because they believe that gestures make their song more appealing to the audience – and gestures can do just that, when they are used effectively. 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.
Because you normally move your hands when you speak, you should do so when you sing as well or you will feel stiff and uncomfortable trying to force your arms to remain still during your song. Work the song as a monolog to discover what’s happening and how the character would react to the actions in the story. 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. However avoid excessive gesturing only to fill dead space.
I hope you found this information helpful. If you’re wondering if it’s possible to teach yourself to sing without the expense of one-on-one vocal coaching, then I highly recommend checking out these online singing lessons from experienced vocal coach Per Bristow. All the best with it!