Imagery in Song Helps Articulation

I’ve often written about having a vivid imagination as you sing and create visions of story, character, plot and poetry.  These tools help your listeners be in the moment with you, to feel and imagine for themselves what messages and lessons the songs are presenting.  Today I suggest that the clarity of your imagery, for yourself as a singer, will actually result in a technically better singing performance as well.

When we are clear-eyed in our vision of the imagery we’re invoking during a song, this brings the clarity of the communication to our listener, yes, but also to ourselves, and this is the key point:  when you know what you’re saying, you will say AND sing it it more clearly, and the articulation of your words creates a better singing technique (and will be even clearer to your listener as a result).

Try this exercise:  read aloud, without singing, the lyrics of your song, as if you are telling this story to a friend, family member or even to a child.  You already know that to invoke vivid clarity of meaning you must have the imagery in a concrete form in your mind to impart this meaning.  Your singing technique will follow this intention if you make it clear for yourself, and the singing will immediately improve.  Try this:  read your lyrics aloud to someone and ask them how it sounded to them:  did they get it?  Was anything confusing or unclear?

Make the imagery vivid for yourself and watch your singing improve in significant ways!

Simpler Accompaniment for Busy Wordplay

I was working with a student the other day, a great guitarist as well as a great singer.  Her quandary was about having to sing a very quick and wordy section of a song, and what to do with the guitar accompaniment during those sections.  I led her through a series of options that I want to impart to you all as well.

Simply put:  simplify your playing during “busy” lyric sections.

Simplifying the accompaniment could take the form of using different strumming techniques, the use of “chimes” on downbeat chords, which is a descriptive word indicating a single strum on a chord, letting it ring (sustain) while you sing a section over it.  This means there is no further rhythm played after the chime.  That will help you navigate the word-heavy and perhaps quick tempos as well while quieting and simplifying your instrument somewhat, and will also provide a sonic emphasis that will draw attention to the lyrics you’re singing.  You could possibly reserve that technique also for sections in the song that are more dramatic and deserve some focus.

Thanks for reading!   See you next time for all things Folk Diva! 

Hey, if you have a suggestion for a blog topic let me know! Email me HERE

Love and Blessings,

Susie

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Award-winning recording artist, Broadway singer, journalist, educator and critically-acclaimed powerhouse vocalist, Susie Glaze has been called “one of the most beautiful voices in bluegrass and folk music today” by Roz Larman of KPFK’s Folk Scene.  LA Weekly voted her ensemble Best New Folk in their Best of LA Weekly for 2019, calling Susie “an incomparable vocalist.”  “A flat out superb vocalist… Glaze delivers warm, amber-toned vocals that explore the psychic depth of a lyric with deft acuity and technical perfection.”  As an educator, Susie has lectured at USC Thornton School of Music and Cal State Northridge on “Balladry to Bluegrass,” illuminating the historical path of ancient folk forms in the United Kingdom to the United States via immigration into the mountains of Appalachia.  Susie has taught workshops since 2018 at California music camps RiverTunes and Vocáli Voice Camp.  She is a current specialist in performance and historian on the work of American folk music icon, Jean Ritchie.  Susie now offers private voice coaching online via the Zoom platform.   www.susieglaze.com