07/22/2026
I learned this song in 1 hour for this recording…
Performing is a scary thing for most people, but I grew up on stage, so here are some performance tips…
Firstly, you can kind of see that I’m reading the lyrics, so there’s that, you may never feel ready. Do it anyway.
And singing is more storytelling than anything else. People will not remember how polished you sound, how perfectly you hit each note (although you do have to be on key); People will resonate with you make them feel based on their own humanness. The feelings you inspire in them are a reflection of themselves, remember and changing their own feelings.
(To practice singing on key, set up a new student account on the VAA App.) Don’t worry about a wrong note too much, though, that depends on which one you choose afterward that one, anyway. You could take the song in a whole new direction, in any direction, technically.
Anyway, how honest, how vulnerable, can you be while staying present to the audience?
That’s the performance.
Imagine this song’s performance, in this case, I’m singing to an audience of one: You.
As performers, we want to:
- Set the vibe and also play to your audience,
- Share your skilled musicality (correct notes, timing)
- Maintain presence and be slightly conversational, incorporating things like eye contact, body language, and gestures or play it out wide as if the a big room or space of people,
- Make it look like you don’t necessarily know what you’re going to say/sound like next,
- Break the fourth wall and bring the audience into your own world of feeling and meaning, then return to yourself, then come back into presence with them in openness/curiosity and conversation, again;
- Another piece that wasn’t played up in this relatively understated performance is the theatrics of it all. You can go as far as you want to take it,
- And you gotta make it look easy, engaged, in flow and natural at once.
Practice makes progress, so if you’re looking for more tips, tricks, tools, tech and voice lessons for the summer, I’m delighted to be accepting Fall Voice Mentorship applications. Rock on
Cover: Godspeed by Frank Ocean 🤲
