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Old 08-03-2005, 01:26 AM   #43
Majic
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Join Date: Aug 2005
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Primadonna Or Stage Fright?

Quote:
Originally Posted by ThePinkPanther
oh and a question for the thread, i don't think my singer likes his voice, but its perfectly fine. Is there any way to make him more confident.
It's easy to dismiss this as a personality problem, but speaking as someone who had a very hard time with this, I don't think this is something you can sweep under the rug and expect to go away.

It takes some serious cojones to be able to stand up in front of people, look them in the eye, and sing. And it takes the big brass variety of cojones to stand up in front of people, look them in the eye, and blow it.

When a guitarist hits one off into the weeds during a solo, he can usually recover and people will generally understand that guitar solos are hard. No big deal.

When a vocalist hits a sour note, however, well, that's not only a sign of a bad vocalist, but a bad person as well.

Sound a bit much? Think about your own reactions to each of these situations and decide for yourself.

A vocalist who misses notes gets absolutely no respect -- much less than instrumentalists who do likewise.

Therapy In Your Face

For a skittish vocalist, my recommendation is to confront the issue head-on, which is mainly one of self-consciousness and self-confidence.

Veterans of drama class are familiar with various exercises for getting rid of stage jitters. Most of them involve doing things that are outrageous and generally not socially acceptable.

Your vocalist needs to learn that he is a person that sings, not a person because he sings, and there's a huge difference.

Be sensitive to the problem, but be honest about it. He needs to take himself less seriously, learn how to separate his ego from his art and practice being able to look people in the eye while singing terribly without flinching.

Once he can do that, he's ready to perform brilliantly.

Confronting the problem at its roots and using drama class style exercises (like getting up in each other's faces and screaming maniacally before performing) to loosen up is the best way to solve a problem like this.

My $0.02, anyway.
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