I keep hearing celebrities say, “I never watch myself in a movie/on TV.”

Why the fuck not?

Are you not interested in learning how you look when you perform?

Are you not interested in finding out that maybe you could be doing something different that would work better?

Are you not interested in hearing and seeing the effect of the choices you made?

I think you should take every opportunity to watch and listen to yourself.

I certainly do.

And it’s not just narcissism.

Because from the inside – you can’t tell what’s going on.

From the inside, your voice sounds just fine to you.

Front the inside, we all think we are communicating with our voice and body exactly what we want to convey.

From the inside, we are totally unaware of the physical tics and habits we bring to our performances.

This is why my first voice teacher (Annamarie Baumgartner) made me sing in front of a mirror.

You’d be surprised at all the antics your face gets up to while you’re concentrating on singing.

I’ve seen singers who have wonderful voices, but I know they have never looked at what their face is doing when they sing.

Oh my.

Trust me, you want to know this shit.

And nobody’s voice sounds on the outside like it sounds on the inside.

That’s why when people hear a recording of themselves, they say, “I don’t sound like that!”

Uh, yeah, you do.

You have to listen to yourself, over and over, so you can figure out how to match the physicality of the singing (or the speaking) with what it sounds like to others.  Until you get to the point where, you’ll “feel” what your voice is doing and when it is working correctly.

And when you rehearse something, be aware of anything and everything you are doing – and if someone points out to you something you are doing repeatedly (and possibly unconsciously) do not “pooh-pooh” it and think you would never do such a thing in performance.

If you practice it that way, that’s what’s going to happen performance.

I was helping vocal direct a production of Brigadoon and the guy playing Charlie would always rise slightly on his tip-toes when he’d go for the high note.

I pointed this out.  He said he knew he was doing it and would stop when he was in performance.

Nope.

Every performance I watched this derf-nerfler go up on his tippy-toes to reach that high note.

Take the advice.

If you don’t agree with it, double check it.

But chances are excellent it’s just something that you aren’t aware of.