Mastering Your Performance Headspace
I have been singing and performing for as long as I can remember, from Munchkin No1 in The Wizard Of Oz (I played the same Munchkin in two separate performances of the Wizard of Oz – I must have had the face for it), to performing in multiple other musical and variety shows, choirs and bands, and now to running a number of bands, working with a fair few great musicians across Surrey and the UK and teaching in secondary schools and privately.
I like to think I step into my performance space, Beyonce has Sasha Fierce, David Bowie had Ziggy Stardust, Miley Cyrus had Hannah Montana. I can’t say my performance alter-ego has a name but she wears heels, she loves a jumpsuit, she wears makeup, she stands proud and is forever trying to come up with a good dance routine while singing on stage. That’s not me in my day to day life, although I do love a healed boot in the winter months.
So I guess the question is, how do you get in that head space to be able to just go for it and perform.
In The Beginning.
I think back to when it all started, from the age of about 5 I was enrolled in dance classes. I have very vivid memories of hopping around the room like a Rabbit, or stomping like an Elephant, instantly becoming something else. Then at the age of 7 I started singing and drama classes on Saturday. I loved acting out my character and again pretending to be something else. At the age of 11 I started private singing lessons at school with my long term singing teacher Debbie, not only did she teach me songs and technique to hone my singing skills, she also became someone I was extremely comfortable in front of. I was never embarrassed of making mistakes, and I turned the mistake into something I wanted to master and achieve. I grew up in a family that always taught us to strive for better and more.
I love the quote “If at first you don’t succeed, try and try again” by William Edward Hickson. This seemed to become a little family motto.
Music is Life.
I also had (and still have) a deep love for music, I loved collecting CDs (last counted I have 550 CDs in my loft) and I loved trying to replicate the singers I was listening to. In the 90’s I wanted to be all 5 members of Steps and by the time my teenage years kicked in, Kelly Clarkson, Avril Lavigne, Foo Fighters and No Doubt were at the top of my “angry girl” CD rack. I remember having my friends around to listen to “Songs About Jane” by Maroon 5. How cool was I to have a listening party? I didn’t go anywhere without my portable CD player in one pocket and a book full of CDs in the other. I would like to thank HMV for their 2 for £10.00 deal.
I started guitar lessons at the age of 13 and wrote my own songs. I can’t say they were any good, but it kept me busy, and my guitar tutor took me to a few open mic nights in my local area to perform them. He must have heard something in them, or he was just being very nice.
Music became my everything and it really helped with how I was feeling. If I felt a bit angry or sad I’d get out my angry girl music and sing at the top of my lungs, if I was feeling happy in the sun, I’d bring out Corinne Bailey Rae, The Kooks or Norah Jones. This is still how I listen to music now, one day I feel a little bit Country the next I need some Soul with a capital S. While writing this I am listening to The Gorilla’s. The great thing about this is I have an extensive music taste, and an understanding of what is required of most genre’s to sing them. I think it is amazing that so much different music has been written using the same notes as Beethoven and Mozart.
More Than A Feeling.
Through doing performance after performance I started to get this feeling while on stage, it was almost a wave of confidence, but I wasn’t confident, I’d have horrible coughing fits that came out of nowhere before 90% of my performances while growing up, and Id instantly forget all my words, I’d walk on stage and wish for someone to come and say “its ok, you don’t have to do it” but as soon as the music started, I knew all the words, I started to move, I’d stand tall, put a smile on my face and this feeling would come back. I know this feeling to be “performance Shannon”. Over the years I have trained to turn it on sooner, and I’m not having big coughing fits before each performance. I’m not sure I’d have much of a voice left to sing with if I’d spent the last 15 years doing that. The feeling is one of excitement and love for what I do, most the time I’d come off stage feeling amazing as I had so much fun with my band mates, the audience would be buzzing, and maybe a little bit drunk, and the “performance Shannon” feeling has given me the confidence to go for it and sing my socks off.
I love locking into that space, it’s comfortable, and I think it’s just come from years of doing it and seeing performance as a fun and freeing extension of who I am. Many times I have had to run workshops for big groups of people and it scares me, I think that’s because “teacher Shannon” is closer to the real me than “performance Shannon”. Isn’t it odd how you can have all these different extensions of yourself, and I’m sure a trained psychiatrist would have more to say on that.
Find Your Happy Space
My advice to anyone looking to become a performer is find what it is that makes you happy in that space, in my case it’s that feeling I talked about, and keep going back to it. The more you work there the easier it is to perform.
If this is something you want to look into further please get in touch to book a singing lesson and let’s explore your performance alter ego together.