Entering Singing Contests

I've often said that I'd rather sing in front of 100,000 people than spend a single hour in a recording studio. My problem is that without someone to "talk" to, I can only hear the flaws in my voice through the earphones.

It's true that when you perform "live", your audience can see you, the expressions on your face, your smile, your frown, the way your body moves, and many vocal "flaws" go unnoticed, if not by you, the performer, at least by the listeners. Not so with a recording. Since the listener cannot see the singer, every note matters, and even more than that, the meaning and feeling of the lyric must be felt through the recording. I had occasion to be one of 3 judges for a singing contest a studio in Florida was conducting last month. I listened to about 600 singers in 2 weeks, and the single thread that seemed to flow through each entry was the lack of sufficient expression to keep me interested in more than just the initial few seconds. But as a judge, I HAD to listen to the whole song. It was a truly grueling experience, and yet it infused me with a new way to impart to you singers the value of understanding, feeling, and communicating the words of your songs to your listeners.

It's just not enough...NOT ENOUGH to have a pretty voice! You must make your listener BELIEVE what you are saying...yes...on stage, but even MORE so in a recording. You must REVEAL your essence through your song...your soul, your joys and sorrows, your beauty and your ugliness...ALL of who you are.

And I will say it again until you understand, singers!

DO NOT BE IMPRESSED BY THE SOUND OF YOUR OWN VOICE!
BE GRATEFUL FOR THE GIFT AND USE IT TO THE BENEFIT OF EVERYONE WHO HEARS YOU SING!

In other words, as Ralph Waldo Emerson so eloquently put it,

"Get your bloated self out of your own way and let your light shine out from you into the world."