Singing is about much more than just how good your vocal tone is. Its also about how well you deliver a song to your audience.

So we’re talking about things like dynamics, phrasing and expression here, and just so you know, slick song delivery is what separates amateurs from professionals so you want to spend just as much time developing this side to your singing as you do developing your vocal tone.

However, it can be quite daunting staring down the deep, dark rabbit hole of all the song delivery techniques you could potentially work on, and so today we’re going to have a look at just one of these techniques.

We’re going to look at dynamics first because proper use of dynamics can not only create light and shade within your song and really draw your audience in, but it can also help you sound more polished and professional even if you are just starting out.

So in today’s video I’ve got a couple of super easy ways you can start adding dynamics to your songs plus I have a little challenge for you at the end of the video which I think you’re going to enjoy.

Nicola x

[Tweet “Adding dynamics to your singing will really give your songs a lift”]

Practice Step

Record yourself singing a song with a few dynamics added in using the techniques I explained in the video, then record the same song without the dynamics and let me know in the comments below if you hear a difference.

Video Summary

One easy way to make your singing sound better and to give it more depth it to add a few dynamics. With dynamics I’m talking about the loud and the soft of your song.

The worst thing you can do is to sing the song in all one volume from the start to the finish. Especially if you’re a belter. I hear this on the singing shows like The Voice. Singers start the strong too loudly and keep pushing for the whole song. It makes the song sound one dimensional and boring.

Singing is like story telling. You want to aim to envoke an emotional response in yuor audience and you can’t do that by shouting at people at one volume level for the whole song. Its like when you listen to a speaker who is monotone – its BORING.

So here are two techniques about using dynamics:

1. Start the song soft and give yourself somewhere to build up to.

Depending on the song it can be a good idea to start off softer so that you give yourself somewhere to go. If you come in loud straight away, it sets up the audience’s ear to expect that level of volume or louder so its going to be really hard on your voice to keep pushing out those notes for the whole song.

But if you start soft, people will think ‘ooh this is a nice intro’ and they will listen in because you’re singing more softly. Then as you get to the chorus you can give people the lift in volume and energy that they want.

2. Think about the build up and release of tension throughout the song.

Think about how the song creates tension through the verses and releases that tension in the chorus; the catchiest part of the song. This build up and release of tension keeps the audience’s ear fresh and engaged. If you steam roll through the song at one volume then you will bore your audience do go with the natural flow of the song to create dynamics that way.