There Is More To Singing Than Singing!

Entering the world of professional Musical theatre, I quickly learnt a lesson: that there was a whole lot of talent already out there. I was sitting outside audition rooms across London, waiting for my turn and listening to all these brilliant voices. It was daunting. It was enough to consider changing my mind, going home and retraining! After all, what did I have to offer when there was so much talent in this profession already? I'd have to figure something out fast if I was to get the jobs I wanted so dearly.

At college I'd spent my three years striving for perfection: trying to hit the highest notes, belt the loudest, choose the hardest songs, but so had everyone else. So what makes a singer stand out? We've all watched the X-Facter auditions and started to loose interest as yet another big voice enters the stage. We need the producer's careful editing and performer's backstories to really make us care.

In an audition room there is no chance to make them care other than your three minutes with the piano. I was lucky enough to experience it from the other side of the panel when I read in for some professional auditions early in my career.

Graduate after graduate from the big Musical theatre colleges came in and sang, note perfect, glossy and confident. I'm ashamed to say that I started to get bored. It is as if the colleges were churning out near replicas of a polished shiny performer.

But then, one young man or woman would start a song and make your heart stop and the world disappear. So, what is it? On top of vocal technique, what do performers need to stand out and win those jobs above all the thousands of other performers? There is certainly a magic "something" that people have, a charisma that can be exciting, but it is more than that.

It comes down to story telling and singing from your heart, until the audience cannot help but lean in to understand you, to follow your story. It is making sense of the words and why you are saying them. It is pouring your heart into the music. It is wearing your emotions on your sleeve so people can connect with you, see that you are a real person and care about what and why you are singing. And it is singing in your own voice, as you, the unique you, not a good replica of someone else.

Can this be learnt? Can it be learnt in the same way that we teach breath control, musicality, support, range and all the other technical aspects of singing that are so important?

I believe it can. From taking the words as a drama piece and breaking them down into the heart of the song, to deciding who you're singing to, who the character is who is singing, connecting the emotions in the song to experiences you understand, to being in the moment rather than watching yourself from the outside. These are all skills that can be enhanced, discovered and practiced like anything else.