Posture Tips by Judy Rodman

Live performers in venues from intimate club settings and small churches to major stadium arenas: You can greatly increase the quality of your performance when certain stances are taken. Use confident body language...This is not an arrogant stance. It's a posture that tells your audience that what you have to give them will be worth their attention!

Here are 10 essential posture tips for live stage performance.

1. DON'T - stand stiffly with your arms clenched into your sides… you lose resonance, control and your audience! Especially watch the hand holding the mic... don't let that arm clench your side. This is "non-verbal" body language that communicates a lack of confidence, cuing the voice to create an unsure, thin, pitchy sound.
2. DON'T - lean toward the audience in such a way as to cause your ribcage to collapse inwards. This causes trouble with support and control of breath and tightens the throat. If you lean forward, do so from the hips so as to keep the ribs and throat open.
3. DON'T - slouch over when you sing while playing guitar, keyboard, drums or other instrument, because this also causes collapsed ribcage and tight throat
4. DON'T - bounce your chest up and down like you're on a trampoline. Try singing while on a trampoline. See my point? Move more sideways.
5. DO - Play your instrument with your tall, flexible spine holding your chest open, bottom of the ribcage expanded all around
6. DO - Stand or sit with your weight balanced right in front of your tailbone
7. DO - Move! Vocal power should come from the pelvic floor. “Feeling the groove” in your feet, legs and spine transfers energy to the hips and butt, enabling better breath support and control. You also tend to have a more open throat because your head is floating tall on your neck.
8. DO - Use confident body language...This is not an arrogant stance. It's a stance that tells your audience that what you have to give them will be worth their attention!
9. DO - When going for a high note, keep your head back, pulling just slightly to the side, chin loosely level
10. DO - When using a boom stand while standing, singing and playing, move your foot forward into the stand. This allows you to bend your upper spine back and open your chest. If you're using a straight stand, be sure and get close enough that you don't have to lean forward and close your ribs. Or - take the stand in your hand and lean it towards YOU. Or better yet, take the mic out of the stand and use it to help balance you. Don't lean your head in to follow the mic, bring it back to your mouth.
11. DO - Talk with your hands... they are connected to your arms, shoulders, spine, ribcage and eventually your diaphragm. Let your hands authentically help communicate what you're saying or singing. This adds to good stage presence. It also keeps your arms from becoming dead weight, pulling your ribcage down and destroying your breath control. Talk with your eyes, too… sparkling, communicative eyes open your throat!

Many times a singer has trouble getting studio vocals and can't figure out why. It happens a lot with vocalists who do a lot of live performance work and are used to singing while holding a microphone (wired or wireless). But of course, it also happens with people who are new to the studio.

Here are 10 essential posture tips for recording studio vocals:

1. Stand with your feet in farther towards the mic than you're used to. Ask the engineer to make this possible, which may entail a longer boom stand position so you can move under it. You may need to move the music stand farther back, too (though I hope you're not reading the lyric while recording!) It's so important not to move your head forward (closing the ribs and the throat), and if you move it forward while in this position, you'll hit the mic with your mouth!
2. Stand tall, flexible, and confident! Don't stand there like a bump on a log. Unless your voice needs to communicate that you are a bump on a log :)
3. Talk with your hands!!! Use your hands just like you would with your friendliest live crowd (or your favorite unguarded vocal performance in the shower or to a pet audience) Your hands are connected to your arms...which are connected to your shoulders... spine... ribcage... diaphragm. Your expressive hands & arms can keep your chest from caving in, which gives your diaphragm too much slack and also limits your inhale. You need to keep the bottom of your ribs expanded but not frozen, and "talking with your hands" can help.
4. Use a dummy mic! I've had amazing success having vocalists use to live performance hold a dead mic or similarly weighted object in their hands while singing. It psychologically causes the body to balance itself differently. Without the mic, these singers feel front-heavy, like a fish out of water. Sometimes all they need to do is to use the previous tip and "talk with their hands". However, sometimes that's not enough. If you'd like to try this, grab the dummy mic and hold it close to your mouth like you do on stage, but keep your mouth closer to the live mic which is recording you.
5. Don't clench your ribcage with your upper arms. This is a position you assume when you're scared. If you're scared, don't show it with body language. Air out your armpits!
6. Let the groove get into your legs. If you allow a dance-like sway in your feet, legs and hips, you will affect your spine in such a way as to free up your ribcage, and also to free up your mind. It will tell your automatic nervous system that you are confident, into the music, and confident. Act as if, and ye shall be!
7. Keep your head level! Don't lift or dip your chin. Just flexibly balance your head on your neck... don't let your neck or shoulders get tight for any reason.
8. Keep your eyes communicating. This affects your posture, your open throat, and your emotional impact.
9. MOVE YOUR MOUTH! Communicate, communicate, communicate. What the heck are you saying? And remember, you're not singing to the control room- you're singing to the object of the song, for the sake of those who will listen to the final product and hopefully, be moved!
10. While you are doing your studio vocals, it is not the time to be worrying about technique... use your posture to set you up, literally, in the right position and then just loosen up and make somebody feel something!