Keeping The Emotions In Check

I think if you don't get emotional about it then your hearts not really into it. I get emotional singing Folsom Prison. I can barely get through that song. I cried when Kurt Cobain died and when Johny died. I probably loose my mind when John Prine goes.

Hey Siggi56!

I'm not allowed to say here what I think of the 'personage' who told you it was an insult to your audience to cry.

First off you are a musician - a purveyor of emotion through the medium of sound. If you don't try your own product how's anyone else supposed to take your word for it? If you don't feel it how can you convey it?

Come to think of it that's it!

I cry or get choked up often when I play. Sometimes it's what the song means to me; sometimes it's the song itself; sometimes, if there's a song that I've been wanting to learn for years (sometimes decades), cracking it can crack me - perhaps that is arrogant of me or prideful at least, don't know haven't thought about it, not gonna bother, got better things to do!

Songs which feature artits crying or emotional voice cracks include:

Michael Jackson - She's out of My Life  (one of his best)

Sinead O'Conner - Nothing Compares to You

Is there anyone who can listen to either Elgar's Nimrod from the Enigma Variations or Kate Bush's This Woman's Work without getting a lump in the throat? (If you don't it's best you say nothing! Likewise if you Beavis and Butthead -out at the mention of the word 'Nimrod')

Just now while trying to find the name of the above mentioned Kate Bush song I digressed into another of hers all of which I could remember was
"...all they wanted
was a sound that could kill someone
from a distance.." ( less than one line, Per)
and when I saw those words looking back at me in the Google search window I started to well up. Perhaps it was the perversion of everything that I hold sacred - a child's laugh, my dog barking 'cause he's pleased to see me, hearing the words 'I love you' or a song from the heart, etc is what sound should be about!!!

Don't fight it but use it - it will use you so get used to a symbiotic relationship.

If what siggi56 or I have written embarrases you or you think that it's wet, I just have to say - "This is Chordie a site for musicians, are you sure you're in the right place?"

Good on yer siggi56!

Sorry folks, no disrespect intended here but if I'm out somewhere and a dude sings these songs and cries while doing so, I'm gonna toss the remaining food on the plate in front of me in their general direction and gladly endure the consequences that result from my actions. Or maybe I'll just quietly get up, walk away, and never return to said venue, ever! TeeHeee!!!!!

Southpaw,

Absolutely no disrespect taken!

Not EVER!

I asked the question and I needed a "both sides" answer.

I took voice lessons for about 6 months, and it was my teacher who told me I needed to get my emotions under control, or else I'd lose the "tone" of the song and maybe even go "off-key" if I could not recover, which would be an "insult" and an "arrogance": thinking only of myself and how the song relates to me, rather than how I am presenting it to my audience.

See?

I can kinda see her point, can't you?

I just cannot control my feelings when I sing and play those songs.

I only wanted to know if I am alone in this (I see I am not! ), and what, if anything, I can do to help it.

I really appreciate the replies, pro and con!

Note to KajiMa: Thanks for visiting the blog! As you can tell, I don't pull any punches, considering this might be the last chance I have to express myself, and who knows for how much longer?

That is why I love my guitar: It and the songs I play on it, require memory, in the form of which fingers to place on which strings to get the correct tone for my voice.

I also play "brain games" and World of Warcraft, but I love my guitars and singing the best.

Whew!

Dude, that was a lot of coding *LOL*, but as I wrote earlier, I thank you for the responses!

Bill/Siggi56

Emotion is the essence of good music.  With out emotion it wouldn't be good, in my opinion.  As a matter of fact, I think we owe it to our audience to let the emotions flow when we do a song.

Hey Siggi ,
   I know exactly where you're coming from ... A lot of the songs I've written do that to me ... In fact one song that I wrote basically for my family after my mother passed away was really tough ... When I was writing it , I kept dripping tears on the paper ... I've found that when I'm learning a new song like that , whether my own , or a cover , I have to practice it over and over untill I can get through it , and then practice some more untill it gets to the point where I'm hardened to it to a certain extent ... It helps when you get to the point where you can sing the lyrics without having to think too much about what you're singing , L O L ...I've found that I can then do it in public with emotion , but not too much ... That works for me ... Some of them are a bugger ...
                     Jerry

Life's too short to worry about it.  Play the songs you play them. 

"Never Be One" by Alabama usually makes me cry.  I pull it out every once in a while and torture myself with it.  I was pretty much too busy to connect well with my eldest daughter until she was close to two, and while there were good reasons for it and that's what it meant to be who I was at the time and I'd make the same decisions again knowing where they've lead me today.  So, my 'busyness' wasn't a mistake, but there were nevertheless consequences for it.  One of the consequences is that "Never Be One" makes me cry. 

That said, while emotions are (nearly) always legitimate, the display and especially the excessive display of them may not always be. 

Difference between display and excessive display.  Jimmy Buffett has a song that includes a line about a buddy named Ruby.  The lyric goes "Ruby tells the waitress that the chicken died in vain."  Well, he did a concert just a couple days after his long term friend and road companion Ruby died.  When he sang that lyric, he stumbled on it and it's obvious he was persevering rather than performing right at that moment.  Totally acceptable and appropriate.  Had he stopped and broken down and curled up on the stage wailing and bawling and pounding the ground screaming "Why? Why? Why?", that would have been excessive. 

So, keep it within the realms of normality (which can be a fairly wide realm) and I think you'll be fine. 

- Zurf