Vocal Course Lesson 15

Overview"what this lesson is about"

Movement and Stage Presence

Whether you’re singing in front of a small audience or on a large stage, movement is an essential element in your performance routine. Good singing is like good story telling. In order to hold your audience and communicate effectively, you’ll need to use movements and gestures in order to deliver a great performance.

Watch The Video

Use Prosody and Contrast

Prosody is the skill of matching the emotion of your lyric with the sound of your voice and your movement. By considering the meaning of your lyrics and the emotions that are behind them, you can work out your movements to effectively engage your audience. For up beat, energetic lyrics, show it with your eyes, hands, and body language. For sad, downcast lyrics, bring your posture down and use hand gestures that reflect those words.

Contrast is also important with movement. Avoid staying in the same place for too long, both with your body and with your position on the stage if you can move. While we do want to move in order to communicate, avoid repetitive movements with your hands and legs. They might work for dance routines, but for singing it’s best to move like you were really talking to someone in a conversation.

Practice Routine

Practice Time : 7 days, 15 – 30 minutes

Warm up with Scale 4 with these sounds

• Oo (book)
• Eh (let)
• Ah (father)
• Oo (boot)

Practice Scale 10 with these sounds

• Ah (father)
• Eh (let)
• Ee (feet)
• Oh (no)
• Oo (boot)

Practice singing Song 3 and Song 4 and video your performance. Work on these principles:

• Use hand gestures
• Move around “the stage”
• Match the expressions of your face to the emotions of the lyrics
• Avoid repetitive movements
• Use contrast to keep your delivery dynamic and fresh

Thanks

That’s the end of the John Scott Vocal Course. We hope you enjoyed working through this course. Don’t forget to film yourself singing the practice routines and upload the videos to get feedback from our tutors. Although this is the end of the course it doesn’t mean it’s the end of your development. We suggest working back through the lessons and repeating the practice routines as often as you can.

Continue working on your Song 1, Song 2, Song 3 and Song 4. Make sure you save each version so you can look back to see how far your singing has developed.