Singing Excellence Review
Rating: 
Singing Excellence is, in a word, excellent! This 2008 e-book by Seth Lutnick isn’t so much about singing as it is about performing. Lutnick is a musical-theatre actor; he applies acting principles and theatrical stagecraft to musical performance to help vocalists bring emotional expression to their singing.
Only seven of the 21 chapters in the book discuss actual singing technique; three of those chapters discuss breathing, which is as fundamental to good singing as it is to good acting. Lutnick discusses vocal projection at length, and gives good pointers on singing with or without a microphone.
One chapter discusses range and resonance in the singing voice. It includes a good explanation of how the vocal tract functions and emphasizes the importance of using good resonance in speaking and in singing. As for specifics of vocal technique, readers are advised to seek a qualified voice teacher.
Lutnick devotes an entire chapter to finding and working with a voice teacher or vocal coach. The singer’s musical instrument is the human body. Just as each human is unique, so is his or her voice. The best way to tune and get the most from your unique instrument is with the guidance of an experienced professional.
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The remainder of the book is devoted to performance technique. When Lutnick talks about singing with power, he’s not referring to belting out a song at fortissimo volume. He’s talking about emotional power; the ability to convey feeling and meaning and evoke a heartfelt response in the audience.
Various chapters discuss hand gestures, facial expressions, eye contact with the audience, how to stand and move on stage while performing. He gives examples most people can relate to of both good and not-so-good performances. He also uses gentle humor, especially when describing some of his own learning experiences.
Several chapters explain in depth how to analyze a song for its emotional nuances, relate it to your own experience, and give a performance that tells a story for the audience. Even if the song lyrics don’t actually tell a story, the singer can imagine a settng for it.
The questions to answer for each song are: 1) who is singing it? (i.e. the character–perhaps a boy whose girlfriend wants to break up). 2) to whom are they singing it? (character again–perhaps addressing the girlfriend). 3) why are they singing it? (maybe to persuade the girl not to leave).
The idea is to figure out what the songwriter felt, feel it yourself, and convey that so the audience can feel it, too. Lutnick again provides many examples, using popular songs and performers.
There is an excellent chapter on stage fright and how to overcome it. Preparation is key. A performance that looks easy and natural to the audience actually requires a great deal of thought and planning.
Each chapter in the book concludes with a summary of its main points, and an exercise to demonstrate them. Sometimes the “exercise” is to watch a music video or movie of specific performers who are good (and not-so-good) examples of the skill under discussion. Other times it is a suggested activity such as analyzing a song or practicing breathing.
This valuable book could be made even better by the addition of a table of contents and/or index to allow readers to quickly find particular topics. After reading the entire book through, most performers will want to refer to it again and again for help with their own specific performance situations.
Highly Recommended!