5 Vocal Performances I Return to Again and Again in My Teaching
In my teaching, I often use videos of wonderful singers to illustrate a point, demonstrate an idea or simply to inspire my students by watching some of the greats. YouTube is absolutely awash with amazing videos of all kinds of singers and I always love discovering new videos of performances. However, I keep returning to the following clips. You can read the details of the performance (ie. where and when) on YouTube. For the purposes of this article I’ll just be detailing why I like to use them.
Judy Garland – As Long As He Needs Me - WATCH ON YOUTUBE
It can be difficult to perform as a singer. We don’t have an instrument to hold, and we usually don’t have sheet music to hide behind. I often give my students ideas of what they can do with their face or their hands to express the character or the emotion in the song. But ideally, we’re working towards a focused and honest interpretation where one feels so present that any facial expression or gesture comes naturally.
That’s what I see in this clip. I’m a huge Judy Garland fan - her voice, her phrasing, everything. But the reason I keep coming back to this clip is the beauty of Judy’s commanding presence. ‘Presence’ or ‘stage presence’ is a difficult thing to encapsulate or define. For me, it’s about seeing a performer completely and utterly focused on their performance, absolutely “dialled in” to what they are doing in such a compelling way that you can’t look away. In this performance, it feels to me that Judy is so utterly immersed in the emotion of the song that nothing is premeditated - it’s all honest and “in the moment”.
2. Whitney Houston – I Will Always Love You - WATCH ON YOUTUBE
At the risk of getting on my soapbox, I believe that the rise of vocal talent reality shows has had a funny effect on what we perceive as vocal excellence. I believe they’ve led us to believe that showing strain on our face (and neck) equals effort and effort equals emotion.
I often use this clip of Whitney Houston, one of the greatest singers of all time to demonstrate that the above is rubbish. In this clip, you see Houston’s staggeringly beautifully ‘belt’ singing with ZERO visible strain. She doesn’t need to tense her neck muscles and screw up her face for her to produce incredible high notes or for us to feel the depth of her emotion.
3. Cecile McLorin-Salvant – I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate - WATCH ON YOUTUBE
I’m a huge fan of Cecile McLorin-Salvant and there are many performances of hers that I often show my students. One thing that is encapsulated in this video is McLorin-Salvant’s range of vocal colours and tones that she uses. She is a master of her voice - she has a huge vocal range and uses it with complete control. But she also has fun with the colours in her voice and it’s a joy to watch. I use this video to show my students how much you can do with your voice - how many choices you can make if you experiment with tones and colours.
4. Diana Damrau – The Queen of the Night Aria - WATCH ON YOUTUBE
Whilst I don’t perform classical music much anymore, my university degree was in classical singing and I still teach classical singing technique and music in my lessons. In my teaching, I often find both children and adults alike have many pre-conceived ideas about classical singing that are often based on very little information. To me, classical singing is extraordinary because, put quite simply, it’s a way of training the human voice to project without amplification. To fill HUGE concert halls with a sound from just the human body.
But why does this matter in an age where even the local primary school has a microphone and speaker system? If you’ve been lucky enough to be in the same room as an opera singer going full pelt you wouldn’t need to ask the question - it’s gobsmacking. The power of the sound is so immediate and overwhelming that it takes your breath away. In addition to this, there’s something so powerful about being in a big theatre or concert hall and having the singer’s voice travel straight from them to you, with no intermediary sound system sending it from elsewhere in the room.
You can’t really encapsulate the above on a sound system or in a YouTube clip. However, I love showing this fabulous clip of Diana Damrau singing this famous aria. Her villainous characterisation is wonderful. And the Queen of the Night theme is so famous, even still to the younger generation that it captures people - young and old - and challenges them to maybe consider engaging more with classical music.
5. Sara Bareilles – Moments In The Woods - WATCH ON YOUTUBE
Acting through song is tricky. You’re thinking about your vocal technique, changing registers, getting rhythms right, listening to your accompanist and still you need to make sure you’re in character and telling the story of the song.
This clip of Sara Bareilles is a wonderful example of brilliant acting through singing. Her singing is flawless - accurate to the score and in time and in tune. But it doesn’t feel like she’s singing. The acting is so clear and captivating that it feels like she is giving a monologue. The character and the meaning of the words isn’t secondary to the singing - it’s intrinsically linked. And it means you understand what she is saying, what she is trying to convey without even thinking about it. That’s masterful acting through singing.
