I was thrown into an improvisatory singing situation last week that I was not prepared for, or familiar with.

A friend of mine surprised a group of us last week with a drum circle.  We were all there to celebrate her birthday and she had hired these women to come in with lots of drums for us to play together. How neat…

It was of course very interesting.  I was enjoying being a part of this circle and looking forward to the leaders she hired running it, but they were not singers.  I guess in a drum circle it is the time in which to have someone lead chants and singing while everyone drums.

So my friend, the birthday girl, said to me in the middle of the beat, “You sing Ariella, you lead us”.  (Of course this opera-singing voice teacher was totally trained to pull out an American-Indian style chant to lead in front of 10 women hat she did not know, right…? ha ha)

So as I always try to sing when asked, I did, (not warmed up or prepared in any way).

It was very uncomfortable for me.  First of all I had to lead all these women in a “repeat after me type of thing”, so I started with some “tribally” chest voice sounds.  I was completely out of my element and extremely uncomfortable with the imposed improv.  Everyone was relieved that I was doing it (since no one else wanted to).  I personally had not improvised melody in front of people like that for MANY years and was quite jarred by the experience.

So then I stopped at some point and we kept on drumming.  I was hoping someone would take over, but no one did.  So we kept drumming and it became clear to me that I should continue with my leading.  This time, I dropped the whole repeat after me concept and went into my head voice where I am most comfortable and just improvised melody- still “a la” tribal/opera (if there is such a thing).

I really sang out, sang high, and improvised right in front of all these women.

Needless to say it was quite an experience for me.

Kind of horrible, but invigorating as well.

What was horrible about it was that I was not AT ALL in my comfort zone and felt a lot of pressure.  The improviser in me, who was quite free in her guitar playing high school days, was all pent up.  I knew I had the ability to really let go and have a spiritually freeing musical experience, but I had to fight a huge battle within myself to get through it and look casual doing so.

The invigorating thing about it was that I let go.  I felt like a linebacker running through the pack, but I did it.  I got that voice out and free.

I’m not sure if I felt sick, or charged after all of it.  But what I do know is that in music as singers, we don’t always have opportunities to be creative. (If you are writing your own songs for a band it is one thing), but if you are singing opera or musical theater, you cannot often just break out into your own melody on stage as you feel it.  It is really a wonderful thing to get to do when you are tapped into it on a regular basis.  It takes a lot of trust.

I invite you to try some improv for fun, or for some challenge.  It helps to free you no matter if you enjoy the process or not.  Whether it be singing or even acting.  I can only imagine how good it is for your brain to be “in the grey”, (as they used to call it in my comic, improv days).

And no matter what it will help you on stage, because unplanned things always happen.  And you need to react appropriately to them.

It was good for me in an awful way, that drum circle.

Ah, the life of a singer.

Ariella Vaccarino

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Written by Ariella Vaccarino creator of  Voice Lessons To Go (singing lessons on CD) and author of  Vocalize!

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Well, I have a concert coming up in a few weeks and I have been on a performing hiatus for a few months now.  As a result my dependable anxiety dreams have begun again.  Yes, even I still have them.  This one is a common recurring theme that presents itself it in similar scenes.

They usually are made up of me finding out that I have a performance to do in a few moments.  Of course, I am never warmed up, and am not dressed properly.  Most of the time, I have NOT YET LEARNED the piece that I am about to be performing on stage, or I don’t know the lyrics, or had forgotten to memorize it.  Sometimes I don’t even know the melody ,  or the staging. Most of the time I don’t know any of it and I am about to be thrown into it. -And often I have gum in my mouth that I can’t seem to find anywhere to put.

These dreams are so stressful for me, and the stress of them seems to last into the following morning after the dreams.  It is the count down to the performance in front of people that I was not prepared for on any level that just repeatedly shows itself in my dreams before a performance.  Ahhhh, yuck.  These seem to happen more when I have taken a break from performing for a while- understandably.

Do you get these?  I have been having them since I was a child (I have been performing since then as well).

There is one thing that I do to combat this stress- since I can’t control the dreaming.  What I can control is what I do with my time before a performance when I am awake.  And that is PREPARE- even over prepare. Get your music learned as soon as possible, keep your voice in good shape through regular vocalizing year round (Voice Lessons TO GO is great for that), so that you are not in a race to get yourself in vocal shape while prepping for a concert.  MEMORIZE your material as soon as you can.  You will have to memorize it anyway, and that seems to hold a lot of anxiety for us until the deed of memorization is done.  So get it done.  Show up memorized, and well rehearsed to your first rehearsal so that you are ahead of the game.

Doing these things will help you to combat your performing anxiety.  The dreams are bad enough.  Make your reality as stress-free as possible by being overly prepared.  Feel like you can perform your piece in your sleep!

I’m going to take my own advice and go practice!  I’d love to hear some of your anxiety singing dreams!

(I know I am not alone on this one!)

Ariella Vaccarino

Thank you for subscribing to my blogs!  I am working hard to bring you great content and free singing advice.  Please take a moment to spread the words via the social book marking links below to help me build my readership.  Thank you!

written by Ariella Vaccarino creator of Voice Lessons To Go (singing lessons on CD) and author of Vocalize!

Want a professional opinion of how you sound?  Sign up for my Vocal Assessment. Then send me a link or mp3 of you singing (audio/or audio visual) with your questions and I will get back to you with my feedback right away.

Friend me on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/voicelessonstogo

Follow me on twitter:http://www.twitter.com/singingvltg (I love a good retweet!)