Well done for reading and singing. I hate to read out loud, not because I hate reading out loud, but because I stumble over my words and get the order mixed up because of mild dysphasia. Not a good look if you're peddling your work. If I'm ever lucky enough to be invited to read to an audience, I'll hire someone like to you to do it for me!
I love this! Good for you on your singing and your writing and your performing. You're inspiring.
I'm just getting started for my readings for my poetry collection Tethers End by performing more often at open mic nights locally and online. I have been thinking much about what kind of "extra" information I want to give that lets the poems breathe on their own but provides a theatrical element. For a single poem, unless it's ekphrastic, I typically let the poem speak for itself. Some, if including a very technical or obscure term, might get a bit of preface. I also know that my newer work even more accomplished that what is in the collection, so I plan to include some of those poems without feeling like I'm "misleading" the potential book purchaser.
I was at a poetry open mic recently where one performer more in the spoken word vein, sang the refrain and then went into verses that were spoken. That was an interesting combination that worked for that piece.
When you've made the effort to write affecting or entertaining work, it's worth the time and effort to make sure you can share it in a way that will be memorable.
Good luck on your readings! BTW, I've had a couple of Lit Mag News how-to columns abut preparing for a reading.
My friend, the late poet Teri Jewell, had an amazing voice and when she used the words "Aryan Nation: in a poem she sang them like a rising fire alarm. It was astonishing.
Totally in agreement about the reading. I prepare for these by reading aloud on my own and I smoothen the text when something "sticks" in the delivery. I've deleted tags and sentences because a pause did the job. It isn't cheating the listener, it's hearing the writer's voice. Talking about voice, a tried to take lessons many years ago and the teacher said: I you can speak, you can sing. That was wildly optimistic, lol!
Well, more people can sing than believe they can. I was told in 5th grade that I can't sing. BS. I sang in my JHS choir and in college in a choir that performed several times at Lincoln Center.
I agree completely with your discussion of an author event--reading, commenting on the work, adding something more than is in the text. I often pick a scene I can comment on before and after reading it, answer questions, and then link to another scene. As for singing, I don't have a voice so I envy you that, but I played the piano for years when I was young and I loved the freedom I had in interpreting certain pieces. I knew a mazurka was never going to sound the same way twice.
When you sing, your instrument isn't just different each day, it can be different during the day. Paradoxically, some days when I think I'm not really up for my lesson, the sound is much better than I could have forecast.
Well done for reading and singing. I hate to read out loud, not because I hate reading out loud, but because I stumble over my words and get the order mixed up because of mild dysphasia. Not a good look if you're peddling your work. If I'm ever lucky enough to be invited to read to an audience, I'll hire someone like to you to do it for me!
:-) You know, before my very first reading, my mother asked, "Whose book will you be reading from?"
Laughter emoji needed here!
What makes it even funnier is that she supported my writing from elementary school on, and was, secretly, a writer herself. One of the first personal essays I published during the pandemic was about that side of her life: https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/community/articles/my-mothers-secret-holocaust-memoirs
I love this! Good for you on your singing and your writing and your performing. You're inspiring.
I'm just getting started for my readings for my poetry collection Tethers End by performing more often at open mic nights locally and online. I have been thinking much about what kind of "extra" information I want to give that lets the poems breathe on their own but provides a theatrical element. For a single poem, unless it's ekphrastic, I typically let the poem speak for itself. Some, if including a very technical or obscure term, might get a bit of preface. I also know that my newer work even more accomplished that what is in the collection, so I plan to include some of those poems without feeling like I'm "misleading" the potential book purchaser.
I was at a poetry open mic recently where one performer more in the spoken word vein, sang the refrain and then went into verses that were spoken. That was an interesting combination that worked for that piece.
When you've made the effort to write affecting or entertaining work, it's worth the time and effort to make sure you can share it in a way that will be memorable.
Good luck on your readings! BTW, I've had a couple of Lit Mag News how-to columns abut preparing for a reading.
My friend, the late poet Teri Jewell, had an amazing voice and when she used the words "Aryan Nation: in a poem she sang them like a rising fire alarm. It was astonishing.
Totally in agreement about the reading. I prepare for these by reading aloud on my own and I smoothen the text when something "sticks" in the delivery. I've deleted tags and sentences because a pause did the job. It isn't cheating the listener, it's hearing the writer's voice. Talking about voice, a tried to take lessons many years ago and the teacher said: I you can speak, you can sing. That was wildly optimistic, lol!
Well, more people can sing than believe they can. I was told in 5th grade that I can't sing. BS. I sang in my JHS choir and in college in a choir that performed several times at Lincoln Center.
I agree completely with your discussion of an author event--reading, commenting on the work, adding something more than is in the text. I often pick a scene I can comment on before and after reading it, answer questions, and then link to another scene. As for singing, I don't have a voice so I envy you that, but I played the piano for years when I was young and I loved the freedom I had in interpreting certain pieces. I knew a mazurka was never going to sound the same way twice.
When you sing, your instrument isn't just different each day, it can be different during the day. Paradoxically, some days when I think I'm not really up for my lesson, the sound is much better than I could have forecast.
Interesting. I didn't know any of that. Perhaps something to use in a story.
I have been working on a book about discovering voice. The first chapter has already been published: https://www.levraphael.com/healthyaging-levraphael.pdf
Acting is enough, though I knew a pot who could sing some of her lines.....