Kate's Voice

It’s Saint Paddy’s day and I thought it was a good time to resurrect an earlier post as my gift to all pub crawlers. There’s nothing worse than someone singing at a bar who has no idea what they are doing.  In an effort to contribute to the masses in honor of my Irish heritage, here you go.

Years ago, I was sitting in a bar on the Champs Elysee, listening to a great jazz group and enjoying a glass of wine.  Because they were playing a lot of songs from the Great American Songbook, we struck up a conversation with the piano player.  He was a real piano player, with a great sense of style and the songs he played from the Great American Songbook were quite wonderful but he spoke mostly French.  That was a struggle, but it was fun and after awhile, he figured out I was a singer and asked if I’d like to sing something from the Great American Songbook.  That’s when I got nervous.

Now, really, that doesn’t make any sense.  I am a singer and have been singing all my life, but as a classical singer, I wasn’t really prepared to sing in a bar!  I didn’t even know the best songs for singing in a bar!  For years, the only experience I had with piano bar songs was when I sang opera in a piano bar, and I am sure those songs were not among the most popular piano bar songs!  So I have determined that the reason I got nervous was the same reason I get nervous in other situations:  A lack of preparation.

Since then, I have learned a lot of songs that are perfect for singing in a piano bar, and know the best songs for singing in a bar, and even the best karaoke songs.  So here’s how to sing in a bar with a real piano player, how to find the best songs for singing in a bar, what are the most popular piano bar songs, and the difference between karaoke songs and piano bar songs and the Great American Songbook.

1.  Be prepared with your voice.  Practice singing every day. Take lessons or a voice class if you like.  That would certainly help.

2.  Be prepared with your songs.  First place to start is by picking songs you like to sing and practicing them. Next, you can find discussions on line about what songs are best to sing in a bar, and even what songs are best to sing when you are intoxicated…always good to be prepared with that one!!  Most people agree that the best songs to sing in a piano bar are standards.  however, not everyone agrees on what a standard is!!! For an Irish standard, check out this list, “Whiskey in the Jar,” and “The Irish Rover” are the top two picks.

3.  Be prepared with a standard.  For a more in-depth look at what a standard is, try the Great American Songbook.  That is really every song written in America, but tradition dictates that it points to songs written between 1920 and 1960, more than anything else.  Other standards are whatever people are singing in the bars you visit and almost any famous song!!

4.  Be prepared to tell the real piano player the name of your song and the key in which you sing it.  Singing live in a piano bar is not the same as singing Karaoke songs!

5.  Be prepared to sing Karaoke songs.  Listen to a top forty station on the radio or to an oldies station.  Find the songs that you like and learn them just like the artist on the radio.  Then join the crowd at a Karaoke bar and have fun!!  Singing Karaoke songs gives you practice with your voice and in front of others who are drinking, which is important!!

In general, singing in a bar is all about sharing your gift with others.  People who study singing or sing professionally are often nervous about singing in front of others when they are not prepared because what they sound like matters more to them than it does to others.  Chances are, if you have an interest in singing, you have a gift to share.  Enjoy it!

Related posts and links:

Top Ten Irish Pub Songs

Digital Downloads of Irish Music

Last week, one of my clients greeted me by shaking his head and making a bubbling sound like Lionel and the King in the Oscar-winning film, The King’s Speech.” We laughed and then he asked, “Why did they do that?” Great question!  My answer?  Because it worked to create the voice the King wanted! “ The deeper question is, “Why did it work and how?”

Physical training requires an extreme use of muscles

In the King’s Speech, the teaching techniques were designed to emulate those which were popular at the time of King George IV.   However, almost anyone who has gone through voice training will tell you that they have had to make some strange sounds.  If you think of voice training as muscle training, you understand that those funny sounds are actually vocal “push ups” and “squats.”  Just as you get your body into unusual positions in order to train your gluts and pecs, your arytenoids and cricothryroids are exercised by creating sounds that are different from everyday speech.  Some of those exercises do sound odd. OK.  Weird!

Extreme training tactics help you let go of the voices in your head so that the voice in your heart can be heard

To train a voice, you have to learn new approaches to communication.  Specifically, you have to learn to make new sounds that project who you are to the world.  This is not necessarily easy and even if someone wants to make changes, they still may not be able to give up the voice that has represented them all their life.  This is true even when they have vocal challenges like the King in The King’s Speech.”

Years ago, I was inspired to adopt this approach by my mentor, performance skills coach, Eloise Ristad.  She gave workshops to help people get beyond their well-rehearsed fears and psychological road blocks. She suggested that her workshop participants move out of their old ways of seeing and hearing themselves in order to allow their talent and skills to come through.  Just like Lionel, she often resorted to crazy activities like having someone roll on the floor or even stand on one’s head while singing. This approach was designed to trick the person into a new perspective, and it worked over and over again.  In her wonderful book, A Soprano on Her Head: Right side up reflections on life and other performances, she describes the results:

When my sopranos responded to head-standing (by freeing their voice to sing as they wanted), they set the stage for brain-joggling freshness. ..  From there, they had to work themselves back up to an acceptable position without losing their new insights. Neither of them found an “answer” while standing on her head, but rather a way of shaking off the crusty accumulation of habits from years of overzealous training.”

How to trick yourself into the voice you want:

1. Silence your inner critics.  Just say “no” to those voices in your head that tell you that you can never create the voice you want.
2. Listen to the voice inside that says you have something to say and find a way to say it even when faced with odds such as stuttering, tone deafness, or debilitating stage fright.
3. Give yourself permission to make ugly sounds instead of always trying to sound great.  Stand on your head while speaking, roll on the floor while practicing your talk, and jump up and down to get the energy you need to deliver your song with elation instead of trepidation. Then take those feelings with you into public.
4.  Stop the using the word “should” to describe where you want to be with your voice.  Open the door to new possibilities and bring joy into the process by being your own best judge of your progress. It’s your voice, after all.
5. Find a mentor/coach you can trust to help you with your vocal transformation.  A good coach has the skills and expertise to free your authentic voice…the one you’ve been wanting to use and the one the rest of us have been waiting to hear!

Related posts

Where to find your voice in 2011
Extreme Vocal Repair
Say it in your own voice, girlfriend