How to sing with expression

Many songs have meaning or tell stories. Sometimes they make us feel happy, energetic or sad.

A singer has to perform a song in a way that helps the listener understand the feeling and emotion of the song.

To do this they use expression.

Watch: Feel & Emotion featuring Nina Simone

As a singer, a good question to ask ourselves before we perform is: "How does this song make you feel?"

Can you think of a song that makes you feel lively? Or a song that makes you feel calm?

Changing not only the way we sing, but dimensions in music, can change the feel and emotion of a song.

Have you ever noticed, if you're reading a story, you might often change your voice to match the character or feeling in the story?

Sometimes at the scary parts, we get quieter. Or in the exciting bits, make the words really choppy.

We can do this in singing, to add expression to a song. The two important ways to do this are with:

• diction - the pronunciation of words.
• dynamics - how quietly or loudly a piece of music should be played.

Diction is how we pronounce the words or say the letters in the lyrics to a song.

This helps our audience hear what we are singing about, so they can follow the story or message in our performance.

It's especially important in a choir. If people sing at different times, with incorrect diction, it can sound messy.

Watch: Singing with diction

Did you know?

The letters 's' and 't' can be tricky sounds to sing well.

Breathing deeply and steadily, can help with singing them.

When we sing, being able to adjust the volume or dynamics of our voice, makes our performance even better.

In music, Italian terms are written to show the dynamics (volume) we need to sing with.

The two most common are:

• Piano - which means quiet and is written as 'p'.

• Forte - which means loud and is written as 'f'.

Pick a song you know well and start singing this as loudly as you can, without shouting.

Now as you sing, get quieter on each line until you are at a whisper.

Try singing again, only this time start quiet and get louder. But remember not to shout.

Is it easier to sing loudly or quietly?

The bathroom or shower is a great place to practice this!