Unlocking the power of your voice extends far beyond hitting the right notes. Ministration skills are different from singing, if not mastered often makes you less of a great vocalist than you are.

In this exploration of ‘The Psychology of Singing’, we embark on a journey to uncover the rarely shared elements that shape your ministration and the secrets to harnessing them for vocal greatness.

Here are a few psychology of singing elements you need to master for better ministrations:

1. Audience Faces and the Psychology of Singing

Have you ever wondered what went wrong after you’ve had a beautiful seamless rehearsal but you underperformed? Your audience is one of the causes.

Imagine seeing the big guns in front of you or your musical heroes. A new audience, not just in huge numbers, can intimidate you whereby you lose balance.

I remember at the early stages of my leading worship, I would climb the altar, look at my Pastor, and almost ‘peed’ on my body because his expression was always like who is this?

I and other members of the worship team asked him why he was always upset with us and he said he doesn’t even see us most of the time as he’s fixated on his ministrations too. Hahaha.

Always over-prepare so you can handle the scary faces (if you want a 100% result, rehearse 200%), and look for familiar/friendly faces you can connect with. Create a quick rapport with the audience by asking them to do something while you try to catch your breath.

If the audience seems cold, they don’t hate you. It’s your duty to warm them up. Stop saying I’m not here to cajole anyone because not everyone is worship-ready without being motivated.

2. Smiling

Try smiling if:

• your voice is going flat
• you’re finding it difficult to reach a high-pitch
• you feel nervous

Your body lets out three hormones when you smile; dopamine, endorphins, and serotonin which make you feel happier and relaxed. The muscles that control singing perform better when you’re relaxed.

3. Overthinking

This reduces concentration and productivity, makes you mentally exhausted, and creates anxiety.

So what do you do as a singer? Never overthink your ministrations, distract yourself from preempting the end before going on stage. Avoid singing songs you haven’t naturally internalized within you because it makes you overthink.

4. Unpleasant Surprises

Singing can be affected by surprises like the keyboardist giving you the wrong key, the wrong intro, the drummer picking turbo speed, the mic going off during ministrations, and your audience looking lost.

In order to avoid unpleasant surprises, always make sure to have checklists and tick them: batteries, line check, sound check, song list with keys, and tempos for the musicians.

Get familiar with where you’re going so you can adequately prepare and not sing songs no one can relate to. Furthermore, think ahead of the worst-case scenarios and how you can save the day in a few seconds.

5. Lighting

I was invited to sing at a concert and the moment I got on stage I was literally blinded by the stage lights, I froze for a few seconds and forgot my lines, I had to psych myself up and pretended to see my audience. Some people wear dark glasses to avoid this.

Avoid the temptation to look straight into the lamps, but try and rehearse with the lights on to know how to work with them.

You can also work with the light engineers for more suitable repositioning or diffusion.

6. Sound and Room Acoustics

Imagine speaking your first word to the microphone and everything roars like a thunderstorm, or you’re welcomed with an echo chamber! You instantly become conscious and uncomfortable with your own voice.

On the other hand, if your sound/acoustics is so beautiful it can greatly influence your ministrations. If you’re struggling to hear yourself there is a tendency that you sing with errors unknowingly.

Go for soundcheck, get familiar with the hall, and adjust yourself ahead. If you have your way, improve the acoustics of the hall and or get a better sound.

Your ministration is as good as the sound production quality. Don’t take it lightly.

7. Cheers

I have witnessed a choir ministration where I was conducting and the congregation responded with rousing cheers at our opening phrase, I was thrown off balance. I saw the choristers smiling instead of singing and we missed our next line.

We were never aware that would happen.

Learn to ignore cheers, applause, chatters, or even a sudden scream from the audience and rather stay focused on your singing as this can throw you off balance sometimes.

8. Locked Groove

Have you ever felt like singing by merely hearing musicians play? The groove is so inspiring you can’t keep calm.

If you find yourself struggling on stage sometimes it could be your musicians. Motivate them to give a compelling groove that will make everyone vibe to the sound.

This has a way of boosting your confidence even before you open your mouth. Always make sure you achieve a magnetic groove at rehearsals.

9. Room temperature

Ooh, you don’t think you’re too cold for that pitch or feeling too hot you can’t breathe well? For you to know how much psychological effects it has on singing, I have seen ‘A list’ artists demand a specific room temperature in their tech rider.

Dry air or a very cold room has a quicker effect on your voice than drinking cold water. Just like your palm in cold weather, your voice doesn’t resonate well enough to make a broad pitch.

10. Repetitive Practice

Research has it that It takes 21 days to develop a habit, that is 1 hour of repetitive practice of the same thing in 21 days.

If you rehearse well enough it is easier to master difficult parts and easily remember your lines. Short rehearsals are the reasons why your team is not efficient.

If you ever see a team that rarely makes mistakes, ask them how many times they’ve done it. Perfection comes from practice.

So, whatever your singing challenge is today, choose our repetitive exercises targeted at specific singing deficiencies on Elevate Vocal Academy. Dedicate an hour daily for the next 21 days and see what happens.

BONUS:

The church is full, the sound is loud, there are many instruments, the crowd is huge and you’re leading them in praise worship, but during the rehearsals the crowd was unavailable, what happens?

They drown your voice, the volume you set during the soundcheck now seems not loud enough, and the key you used also feels low.

What do you do? Set your sound in a way that it has some headroom so you can increase it during congregational singing without feedback.

Also, try pushing your key a semitone or tone higher than rehearsed during the ministration to make up for the audience competing with your voice. Give it a try.

Ready to elevate your vocal skills and start singing like a pro?

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