As a performer, you are not just a disembodied voice. The rest of you, along with where & how you move the rest of you, can help or sabotage your performance impact - even on your recordings where they can't see you. Today I'm interviewing my friend and frequent collaborator Diane Kimbrough for some master ninja stage tips, so click the audio link here and listen up to PART ONE! (Then go on to PART TWO !)

Some of the topics we discussed:

• Diane's background & experience
• Explanation of what live performance coaching is.
• How Diane uses her dance and acting experience in her coaching.
• Defining stage presence.
• How Diane and I work synergistically to increase stage and vocal abilities.
• The value of getting live performance coaching before recording final studio vocals.
• How both of us work on focusing message delivery.
• Why a veteran artist would need some updated performance coaching.
• Diane's coaching strategy of videotaping performance and playing it back without sound.
• A vital understanding Diane wants artists to get out of her coaching sessions: The song itself - the structure of the music and the lyrics - should largely dictate stage movement. How that goes with my vocal training.
• How to figure out who your voice needs to represent in any song.
• Diane and I discuss and solve our disparate ways of approaching and coaching authenticity. We discuss what is and is not 'real', how to use acting techniques to make the moment real for the audience even when it's not real for you.
• Why you don't need to freak out at the thought of acting.
• Case study about an artist we both successfully worked with who had a serious eating disorder and issues with 'feeling' emotion.
• How critical voices and situations like bad-fitting heels affect confidence on stage. Knowledge brings power.
• Case study about another of our artists who we helped go from serious insecurity to up & coming artist catching serious career fire.
• Diane says it's best to have some stage experience before booking coaching sessions.
• Ways Diane asks clients to practice what they learn from her. Written homework is assigned, along with continual videotaping and silent viewing to review how audiences see you.
• The importance of separating singing and stage movement practice. Why you should put your guitar down and try singing without it.
• How that same strategy - separate practice - is a wise way to practice vocal technique.
• Diane and I bat around the concept of singing to the one heart. We use different words for the same thing... Diane calls it having a conversation on a melodic line.

PLEASE NOTE: There was so much we shared I decided to split the interview. This is Part 1. Click here for Part 2.

About Diane Kimbrough: 

As an actress, dancer, and choreographer, Diane’s career has taken her to Europe, South America, the Caribbean, and the Middle East where she has directed and choreographed live shows for companies including IBM, Kawasaki, NCR, Chevrolet, Texaco, and Suzuki. She herself has appeared on stage & television with an array of stars from Garth Brooks to the L.A. Dodgers.

Her work has appeared on every major television network. She has staged a wide array of events from ABC’s “Monday Night Football” promo to “The All-American Thanksgiving Day Parade” for CBS. Diane is a veteran of eight seasons of the CMAs (Country Music Association Awards), staging such knockout numbers as Alan Jackson’s “Chattahoochie”, Brad Paisley’s “Online” and Shania Twain’s “I’m Outta Here” and “Any Man of Mine”.

Managers and record labels, including Arista, Atlantic, Capitol, Columbia, Epic, Mercury, RCA and Sony as well as a host of indie labels, have hired Diane to coach their emerging artists as well as top-selling stars. Her clients include solo artists, vocal groups and bands of any genre. Diane’s philosophy… “Create an experience and you’ve created a fan.”

Find and contact her at her website http://dianekimbrough.com

Labels: "All Things Vocal", "Diane Kimbrough", "judy rodman", live performance techniques, live stage vocals, singing on stage, stage performance