How to Prepare for a Singing Performance

Video Transcript

"Hi, this is Tom Keanaston. I'm a singer, composer, lyricist, pianist, music director. I live in West Palm Beach, Florida, and also New York City. This clip is going to be about how to prepare for a singing performance. Assuming that you know the song you're going to sing, let's of course, start with that. Make sure you know the song that you're going to sing. Make sure you've practiced it, you're confident with it, and you're ready to go. Now let's say it's the day that you're going to be singing it. You're singing for a friend's wedding, you're singing at a birthday party, maybe you're auditioning for a choir, or something like that. The first thing you want to do is before you go in to the room, you need to relax. Do a lot of deep breathing, slow and deep. And make sure, as you would when you're singing, that you don't breath up here, but you breath deeply, down in to your, you know, using what we call the, muscle called the diaphragm. Breath deep and downward. Keep your shoulders relaxed, you might want to move them around, just as if you're going to maybe start lifting weights, stretching. It's the same thing, you're using your whole body when you sing, you're using your vocal chords, which are muscles, when you sing. You would prepare the same way you would if you were going to exercise or dance. So, let's say you've done all of that, now you want to prepare mentally. You've prepared physically, not you want to prepare mentally. You want to think about the song that you're going to sing, you want to review it in your mind, visualize singing it, and of course, I'm sorry, I should back up a little bit, let's assume you've already warmed up your voice before you came to the venue. You might do a little humming, even if you've already warmed up, right before you go in. You know, nothing major, just hmmm. As long as you're not disturbing anyone. So now you want to prepare mentally. You want to clear your head while you're doing that breathing, visualize yourself singing the song in front of the people that you're going to sing for, and visualize yourself doing it beautifully, and visualize everyone enjoying your performance. It's important that you already have that notion in your head before you go in. Athletes use this same technique. And then you might want to sing it lightly in your head, just make sure you go over the words and etc., etc. When you're getting ready to sing, shoulders back, chin up, confident, put a smile on your face, and sing as beautifully as you possibly can, and I am sure it will go very, very well. This is Tom Kenaston. This has been how to prepare for a singing performance."