Hey there, this is John Henny. And on today’s singing tip, I want to talk about why you need to open your eyes.
Singers without a lot of performance experience, tend to feel nervousness. And one of the ways that we guard ourselves against this nervousness against this perceived judgment that’s coming from the audience is to close our eyes and close ourselves off. Also, when we’re going for a harder note, we want to focus more and closing our eyes makes us feel like it’s it’s easier to focus that we can pay more attention to the note but what you are doing is you are cutting yourself off from the audience.
As I am speaking to you, if I just close my eyes, now I’m in my own world, I no longer directly communicating with you, we really communicate through the eyes. And when you close your eyes to the audience, you’ve put up a wall, and they feel less connected to you. Now that’s not to say that you need to bug eyed stare at everybody. As a matter of fact, there is a voyeuristic element to being an audience member, they really want to be able to look at you and see what you’re feeling and vicariously experience those emotions as well.
So a really good trick is to put your eyes just above their heads and sing to a spot on the back wall. Imagine that you’re watching a movie that features the person you’re singing about or the situation and then let that movie, change spots so you can direct your energy but give the audience that ability to really look at you and connect with your eyes and the emotions that your eyes will express to the world.
Hey, for more vocal tips, go to my website johnhenny.com and be sure to subscribe to my podcast. The Intelligent Vocalist. Thank you so much!