Hiya.
I was just wondering if looking upwards, (if not directly up to the roof/sky, somewhere between the middle distance and upwards towards ur upper eyelids) somehow helps singing.

I have seen a couple of singers do it. I was just wondering if it was some sort of imagery that helped singing.

It's best to keep your head level so that your vocal chords are positioned properly. Tilting your head slightly might give you a little mental help (look up as you go up), but physically it's probably not the best idea, at least not as I've been taught.
A teacher would be a great person to ask about all this.

I agree that you should probably keep your head and shoulders straight, as dagny said, but it seems you were talking more about the placement of the eyes.
The reason you most likely saw singers do this is for emotional effect. I don't believe that where you place your eyes very much affects your breathing, resonance or quality. It could, though, help with the interpretation and presentation of the song. When you put emotion in your face and in you eyes, it changes the presentation of the song and makes it more appealing to the audience.


Christina

Perhaps they cannot face looking at their audience. are short sighted and cannot see where the audience is or maybe they have overdone the "happy, slightly surprised look" that many singers are taught. But seriously I cannot think of a good reason why a singer would do this unless he or she is focusing on something at the back of the concert venue and to a listener at a lower level it just appears that way.

At college, I had Alexander Technique lessons for six months. The effect on my voice was amazing. Until recently I attended Pilates clases, and again the emphasis on posture had a really positive effect on my voice.

With children I often ask them to look up, normally at the clock on the wall, so they don't crunch their vocal folds or do their normal trick of looking at the floor!

Ideally you should bea bale to move your head without altering the sound, the support work starting from the pelvis, the being strong through core-stability muscles in the abdomen, and allowing the respiratory muscles to work to their optimum. This the keeps the shoulders relaxed.

There are a lot of muscles that end near the top of the neck and jaw area that connect to the shoulders. These need to be as relaxed as possible, hence the Alexander Technique matra "Neck Free", singers are dreadful at tensing up their scalene and Sternocleido-mastoid muscles which can lead to a forcing of the sound.

The jaw should just open freely with no tension.

By doing all of that you should allow the vocal apparatus to work to its full potential. There is enough going on inside without any extraneous tension in the neck and shoulder area.

As for looking up, a slight raising of the eyebrows on higher notes can help open the throat more, but you eyes should be as natural as possible as it is that area of the face that you will be using for all charactaisation, and nobody likes a singer who either looks like they are singing the Telephone Directory, or has turned into a zombie.

When I was singing in choirs when younger we were often told to look up when singing high notes as an easy way to connect with the head voice, so this is maybe where this idea comes from. But I really feel now that looking up is a big problem in singing. Of course sometimes given the steep incline of concert hall seating it is necessary, but generally I would say that in my experience it cuts off communication with the audience (eye contact is always much more engaging) and if you're actually angling your head slightly up, then your neck muscles will contract, making things tight. On another note, I'm not sure that I would want to be using something that affected the way I appeared visually on stage as a technique, particularly with the eyes, which are so expressive.

Looking up is an excellent way to improve your high notes and the rest of your voice Looking up the name of a good singing teacher in your local directory and going to them for lessons

Looking up on the high notes however will not impress the producer of any opera you should be in or the conductor or MD who want you to look at him for musical direction

[quote name='tonyteech' date='Aug 20 2006, 12:14 AM' post='379706']
Looking up is an excellent way to improve your high notes and the rest of your voice Looking up the name of a good singing teacher in your local directory and going to them for lessons

:
I thought that you were being serious for a moment. Have you seen the ones who stand on tiptoe for high notes? They always amuse me.

Quite agree. I remember a singing teacher once saying to me,"for goodness sake, Ann, leave your eyebrows where they are!"
Looking upwards only conveys to the audience that you are looking for divine inspiration for the next words.
I never tell my students to look UP, only straight ahead if their head is angled downwards. If you get them to look up, it takes so long to undo a bad habit.

When I sing I can look anywhere, and as has been stated, some theatres virtually demand that you project upwards to reach the back of the balcony.

Where you look will affect the impact of the words you are singing.

For humorous items, I would look directly at audience members. For general singing, I would look (in a blurry fashion) in the middle distance - not at the front row of the audience - more like a middle row.

I think in a sacred aria, there can be a certain reverence created if you look a little heavenward as you address God! For recititative, you are often in a more conversational or intimate lyric, so looking at the audience is good then. I saw Stephen Varcoe in St John Passion look at fellow soloists in the "dialogue" implied by the text, and very convincing he was too. Effectively religious opera.

The above are just examples of how this whole question can be channelled into the question of stagecraft and communication. Logic you would apply to drama can be applicable to singing - one definition of singing being "speech to music".

PLEASE! Do not DECIDE where to look in a performance in advance! You should create your own dramatic space around you. If your song dictates that you are "talking" to someone - place that person somewhere, and "talk" to them, pretending that they are there, in that spot. If you are describing say, a country scene, allow you eyes to "look" at what you are singing about - the sky (then you WOULD look upwards), the fields - allow your eyes to survey the scene, etc. See what you are describing like as on a huge cinema screen. But NEVER look at anyone directly in the audience, or an examiner, or adjudicator (how uncomfortable would that make YOU feel?) Don't look at a clock, or any fixed point either - that's SO false.
Try not to close your eyes more than fleetingly (you would lose all communication with the audience).
Get "lost" in the text and FEEL what you are singing about. Then you totally forget that there is even an audience there.
(All invaluable things I learnt on an "acting for singers" course with Mecklenburgh Opera.)

At the opera course I was on a couple of weeks ago, we were told in one of the movement sessions "The audience don't want to see up your nose, thankyou".

Brought all our heads down rather rapidly.....

Excellent

Some clarification would be helpful here. Like you I think that predetermining exactly where you will look will lack spontaneity. But you do give guidelines - with a little emphasis here and there - of examples of where a newer singer may plan to look. A framework such as this is very helpful. Greater improvisation ability should develop over time.

While you can forget the audience, perhaps in order to concentrate on what you are doing - there is also importance in keeping the audience engaged. The challenge is to do this while at the same time not letting the audience occupy too much mind space.

George - the audience will be totally spellbound if YOU are completely involved with the text because they will be drawn into the drama. You do not have to eyeball them to "get" to their hearts. As far as I am concerned, when I am singing, the audience does not take up any mind space at all. Like an actor in a film, I am concentrating on the scene.

George - the audience will be totally spellbound if YOU are completely involved with the text because they will be drawn into the drama. You do not have to eyeball them to "get" to their hearts. As far as I am concerned, when I am singing, the audience does not take up any mind space at all. Like an actor in a film, I am concentrating on the scene.

i agree with AnnC....

i love to draw the audience into my world, especially when i sing german lieder....schumann to be exact...

Oh dear! Where has this looking up to help reach high notes come from?? I suppose the eyes can do whatever they like when singing...to an extent! However, if looking upwards causes the chin to lift also and the neck stretching upwards then heaven forbid, that is not the correct way to to reach any note especially "high" notes!



Excuse the stutter!

I agree with Ann here. My performance presence was lousy until I stopped thinking about what the audience might think and get really involved in the song its self. As a result my face was far more natural, and as I was reacting to the song rather than concentrating on trying to perfom, I actually was able to communicate with the audience. Ever since I heeded that advice, I became able to perform, rather than a good technician just delivering songs.