Singers: Emotions During Performance?

Cafe Society
1

A pop singer named Vicki Carr used to sing “With Pen In Hand” (a tune about divorce), and every time I saw her perform it, I noticed she couldn’t sing it without tears streaming down her face.

I think I was in my late 20’s at the time, and I remember thinking “she’s singing it that way because she’s experienced it.”

She always got through it, but damn! It looked like it liked to have killed her to sing it!

So anyway, last night I pick up my “gitter” and decide to do some Cash, (specifically a song called “Give My Love To Rose”), and as I’m singing the tune, I’m thinking of this poor guy giving his bag of money to the guy who found him, dying, and I start chokin’ up!

WTF?

So does this happen to any of you pros who sing in bands or solo? Do you ever all of a sudden realize what you’re singing about and start cryin’ and fartin’? :smiley:

I’m working up some Christmas tunes for the grandkids, but I guess I better stay away from Blue Christmas and Pretty Paper, huh?

Thanks

Q

2

There’s a Forrester Sisters song called “Letter Home”. I can’t even sing that one in the shower, never mind with a guitar. I even cry singing along to the damned old cassette tape. Gets me every time.

My husband tears up during Dixie Chicks’ “Travellin’ Soldier”, but he’s not a musician, so that doesn’t count.

(I’m a very amateur musician.)

3

Bernadette Peters used to cry practically every time she performed. I think it’s quite understandable that a person would get emotionally wrapped up in a lyric. Plus, the tears are always a crowd pleaser.

4

I played/sang the George Michael song ‘Waiting for that Day’ at a World Aids Day benefit on Saturday and cried throughout. It felt good and people seemed to appreciate that I meant it.
There’s probably 3 threads this could go in!
MiM

5

When I get emotional I literally get “all choked up” meaning that my throat closes up and gets tight and I can’t sing. On those songs that really hit home I have to concentrate on vocal technique at the difficult parts or I’m really singing with a “cry in my voice” which is not pretty in my case.

I’ve always wondered how those other singers do it. Maybe some people can cry without getting choked up.

6

Jacques Brel used to bawl during Ne me quitte pas.

I’ve definitely got choked up by singing. See Songs you find unbearable moving. I learned John Doe No. 24 but I can’t play it in public.

7

Last spring, the church choir I sang in was part of a Passion Play (on Palm Sunday). So the service went something like this–Congregational singing of a couple of traditional Palm Sunday songs (While Jesus and his disciples milled around through the congregation with small children waving palms). Then there was the announcement time, and prayer time, and then the Passion Play. With the choir and some musicians providing background music, the actors acted out the Last Supper, Jesus praying in the Garden, the trial with Pontius Pilate, the Crucifixion, an earthquake, and finally, the body was taken down from the cross, wrapped up in a sheet, and carried out the door feet first.

For all of this, most of the choir was located behind a scrim–to make us less distracting to the audience. This meant that it was hard to see exactly what was going on–though the whole being nailed to the cross thing was audible. (Note: the guy playing Jesus was in fact TIED to the cross, the nails went into the cross, but not into his body).

Sitting in the choir loft, it is impossible to judge what the congregation felt-- and there is this weird sense of disconnect sometimes when you are part of a performance, even if that performance is part of a chuch service. Still, several people who were seated where they could in fact see what was going on, mentioned that watching made them tear up (or worse).

And that’s besides the fact that the music we sang was both musically difficult, and somewhat emotionally difficult–I can’t tell you who wrote the music we sang during the trial scene(it is apparently fairly well known, among people who’d know that kind of stuff) but there is something heartrending about shrieking “He is death guilty, he is death guilty, Take him, Take him, let us crucify him” at the top of your range repeatedly.

Even apart from such a dramatic moment, there are a number of sopranos in that choir who sometimes cry (or talk about crying) during anthems, especially those for special occassions. Including one who has trouble with “A Mighty Fortress is our God” and “For All the Saints”-- both of which were sung at her mother’s funeral.

8

I’m a pretty seasoned vocal performer, and I’ve come to believe strongly that if I’m really “feelin’ it,” during a performance, the audience probably isn’t. I think delivering an emotional punch is as much about craft as it is life experience.

That’s not to say that the audience shouldn’t think a performer is really feeling it. Giving the impression that you are completely sincere in whatever sentiment you’re expressing when you sing is basic craft for a singer - just as it is for an actor.

But for the most part, being actually moved by what you’re doing just gets in the way of doing it as well as you otherwise would, and audiences end up feeling shut out or put off. It’s very self-indulgent.

Think of how you feel when a comedian laughs at his/her own jokes all the time. It’s much less funny that way.

9

When I sang for a band, I used to think it was kind of ironic that you end up getting completely sick of every song you write. It’s fun to get the crowd pumped up, but the song itself fails to move you eventually, and even ends up feeling sophomoric after the 1,000th time you sing it. I used to hear about a musician that would be literally moved to tears during performances of his own music and just smile and shake my head in wonderment as to how anyone can feel that way about a song they sing every freakin’ night.

10

re pravnik’s point about singing something for the thousandth time–

while on the one hand, the music I talked about was emotionally difficult, and the music (the melodies, the harmonies, the accompianment) was such that it added tension to the scene-- on the other hand, some of the words were so repetitive as to become meaningless or silly. And we only rehearsed for a couple of months, had 3 performances back to back, and were done.

11

Speaking of which, Eureka, after rereading your post, please don’t think I was refuting it in any way. I’m sure there’s a huge difference in singing an expression of sincere spiritual belief and singing a punk anthem in a seedy dive about a girlfriend you actually broke up with three years ago. :slight_smile:

12

pravnik,

No, not in the least–as you say, our experiences are totally different,in terms of type of music, motivation for singing, and number of repetitions–but reading your post reminded me of something I hinted at in my first post and then developed further.

13

Huh! Now, that’s something I hadn’t considered, and it makes a lot of sense.

Maybe it should be the goal of the performer to make his audience tear up, and how’s he gonna do that if he can’t get through the tune himself?

Thanks, Figaro.

Quasi

14

The effect on the listener is the only thing that matters to me.

One of the most interesting sliding scales in music (to me, anyway) is the “performance vs. participation” scale.

If I’m listening to a gospel choir, my enjoyment is going to hinge almost entirely on thier experience. If they’re swept away with spirit and wailing at the top of their lungs, I’m gonna smile.

So, any generalization about this is going to leave people saying “yeah - but what about BLAH.”

But, for the most part, getting emotional as a singer just gets in the way. It makes it harder to sing freely, and it draws attention to you instead of whatever it is you’re singing.

To me, that undercuts the effect of the song.

Imagine Bono crying, or angrily shouting, his way through “Sunday, Bloody Sunday.” You could understand why the subject would get to him, but at the same time you’d probably think…“dude…are you ok?” And you’d probably not be enjoying the music in the same way.

My own background probably skews my viewpoint on this - I do mostly opera and classical concert music. That stuff is so demanding vocally and technically that any genuine emotional experience on the part of the performer usually leads to disaster. Either a vocal meltdown or a loss of concentration and mistakes. But I think it applies pretty broadly. I’ve never heard a “singing for myself” singer in any genre that really moved me.

Thanks for the interesting thread.

15

I think Streisand once said decades ago that when she’s belting out an emotion-laden song, she’s usually thinking about whether to have Chinese or Italian for dinner.

My own completely amateur experience tells me that when you step back from the material and at least try to detach yourself from it, the thought/concept/emotion the piece is trying to communicate comes through better.

16

Now why doesn’t that surprise me? :smiley:

I “grew up” in the opera. My mother was a seamstress in the Cologne (Köln for you purists) Opera House in the 50’s, so I got to hear a lot of great singing, though I was too young to appreciate it at the time.

Figaro, I would be interested in your thoughts on the (what I call) “User-Friendly” Operatic acts such as Il Divo, if you’d like to start a new thread.

Thanks

Q

17

I’m more of a lightly-seasoned vocal performer, and much like Figaro, when I’m performing for an audience it’s about the audience, not me. I concentrate on expressing the emotion in the tune to them, versus feeling it myself. Now when I’m singing at home with the kids or singing lullabyes to the baby that’s a different matter. I sing along with the soundtrack to “Les Miserables” and I tear up at the Finale pretty much every time. When I sing it for someone else, on stage, my eyes are dry. The music moves me when I’m a participant, but I have enough professionalism to keep it in check during a performance.

Enjoy,
Steven

18

She also doesn’t listen to music. Ba-ba Wa-wa or someone interviewed her and asked her who her favorite performers are, and she said she doesn’t have any, doesn’t listen to music, and doesn’t sing around the house. Detached is an understatement!