Stage Presence

Stage presence is one of those things that is very important to any performer. The way you act on stage determines everything,for instance, if your song is a very upbeat song you can't just stand there and sing. You have to make the performance interesting and one way to do that is by your stage presence. I have had trouble with my stage presence over the years just because I was so used to going up in church and just standing still and singing. And since it was church music,and stage presence wasn't such a big deal. Most people in the church just wanted to hear the song.

But over the years, I have competed in very many competitions and a big part of that was stage presence.

I think one of the first things to being able to connect with a song is listening to its lyrics and figuring out what the song means and if it means something to you. It is absolutely pointless to sing a song that has no meaning to you. When working on stage presence you have to start with a song that you know you can easily connect with. For me that song was Anyway by Martina McBride. The lyrics mean everything to me.The song itself is not as important as the lyrics. Its like when you read a story the words matter. Without them the story would be pointless.The song “Anyway” talks about how people might try to knock you down but you should ignore them and do it anyway.

Also when doing stage presence you wanna make sure that the choreography fits the song. I mean you are not going to start doing the air guitar in the middle of an opera song, it just doesn't work.

So when performing you need to make sure everything fits and you probably will not get it right the first try. Usually when I work on my stage presence it takes me months to get right. Eventually when I get really good it won’t take much to get stage presence down because I will know from past experience what to do. Exactly why the quote “Practice makes perfect” plays a big role in music. You will never be able to sing a song absolutely perfect the first time, you have to keep practicing. Usually when I get ready for a competition I start practicing about 3 months ahead of time.  That way I have one month to work on the song itself and then one month to work on stage presence and lastly I will combine them together.

Stage presence is a very long process, but once you get everything put together and that moment when it becomes absolutely perfect, there is no better feeling in the world than when you can connect to a song. Because it is something new that you can relate to. And that song will never go away you can always sing it again.

Music will always be there for you. You may know that the song means something to you but you have to show the audience and try to convince them why it is important that they listen to you. When I sing I sing because I have something to say and I want people to listen.

Another thing that is very important in stage presence is eye contact. That moment when you can look someone in the eye it makes you seem very confident. Something my music teacher Mrs.Hekkel told me is “when you can look someone in the eye it changes from a girl singing to a woman singing.” I think that is a perfect way to put it, it is saying that you have a lot more confidence. When you are looking at the ground you look scared and nervous, but if you put your head up and have that confidence it makes a world of difference in your performance. And this is a very hard step for some people because it does take a lot to be able to look someone in the eye. That’s why you can look right above their heads and it still gives you that confidence without having to look directly in their eyes.

Stage presence is a huge part of performing, it makes the entire performance come together. And that’s what makes the performance extra special.