A couple years ago I had the good fortune to take a class from Carl Anderson, not on how to sing, but on how to connect with your audience. I was there on somewhat of a lark, having for about twelve minutes been front man for a grunge band (too true.) Mostly I was there 'cause Carl was giving the class, and I had seen a lot of Carl at church; at the time I happened to be a regular at Agape and eventually joined the choir (and was pretty devout for a time, but that's for another post.)
It wasn't ten minutes into Carl's presentation that I realized the information I was getting was too good to fritter away on a silly band gig; Carl was giving the real deal on how to connect with an audience, any audience, any venue. Beau the grunge was gone, Robert the public speaker was riveted, hanging on Carl's every word, working to squeeze out of this one session what I'd got from five days of modeling John Grinder back in the mid-80s.
At the core of Carl's presentation was a modest little handout, twelve bullet points to keep in mind. Here they are, with a thirteenth taken from the lecture:
I will stay in AUTHENTICITY
I will not compete
I will make space
I will not listen to myself
I will HONOR the composer
I will HONOR the accompanist
I will HEAR every chord CHANGE
I will know the story
I will listen to the audience
I will be willing to expose all of myself
I will be willing to let things be different from the plan
I will give BREATH a note value
The universe DELIGHTS to accompany YOU
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