Narrative And Conversational Singing

Singers recite lyrics that tell a story. This means that the craft of storytelling is fundamental to the art of singing, regardless of musical genre. However, the storytelling that occurs in singing is very different from that of written storytelling. We can read a story and pause whenever we choose to think about the nuanced meanings that the storywriter is trying to convey through his words. When we listen to the singer as a storyteller, by contrast, he must work quickly and artfully—and with tonal nuance, musical acumen, charming phrasing, and heightened emotional persuasion—to communicate the story of the musical piece. In short, the singer must become an outstanding narrator as well as a skilled and heart-felt musician. Whether it’s Billie Holiday, Mick Jagger, or Karen Carpenter, their talent as singing narrators is always bound-up with their ability to make lyrics “come alive” with the aim of expressing “in the moment” the meaning of the story. This is why a singer should never let even one word pass—not one—without giving it some measure of emotional power and meaning. Each and every word must be convincingly narrated, in other words, so that the listener feels instantly the story that the words and music are telling.

Along with the requirement of narrative singing, the singer must also make his singing personal; that is, he must make direct contact with the emotional life of the listener. The most potent way to achieve this aim as a singer is by singing conversationally. Human beings, as social beings, are bound together through the intimacies of conversational interaction; this immediately establishes a one-to-one relationship and creates the most powerful form of communication between human beings—a simple conversation. It stands to reason that the best singing is one that converses. It’s not a coincidence that the singers that we hold in the highest esteem—Annie Lennox, Michael Jackson, Dione Warwick—are highly skilled conversational singers.

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