I have found this thread interesting, particularly as I just suffered through a song session with 9 singers, all of whom were truly terrible, and 8 of whom were under 21. What struck me was that of them all, only one had some vague idea that there was an outside world made up of the audience. I have the same problem with my writing students -- they think they are writing for themselves, and not to be read by someone. Having spent many years in the theatre, the first rule I learned was that it had to go over the footlights. The other related problem was that the singers had no interest in the song, you never felt that they really loved singing or having a lovely song come out of their mouths(these were Cole Porter songs, Rogers and Hammerstein songs, you name it). Thinking about it afterwards, it occurred to me that one of things they had not learned was how to slightly separate themselves from their material so as to "sell it", but not so much separation that they were not affected by it. This is a complicated manoeuvre, and one either has it naturally, or one has to learn it after a lot of performing -- this slight separation move, I mean. I suspect that many young people are so wrapped up in themselves (or their nervousness), or being sincere or authentic that they cannot pull away from what they are doing even slightly enough so as to monitor how effectively they are doing. I certainly couldn't when I was a young actor, and I remember that now when I am trying to play or sing musically, since I am a shy novice (it all comes back to me, alas).


yours,

Peter T.