The eyes are the window to the soul! All singers are musical story tellers, they need to be able to express themselves.
At the heart of it all, music is about connection and communication and the best way to connect and communicate is by making eye contact.
Making a personal connection with your audience via eye contact helps you tell your story better AND creates the lasting relationship with your audience that will keep them coming back for more.
But making that kind of personal connection with an audience member during a performance can be a little daunting.. so as always it’s best to have a plan in action!
Choose a few places within your performance to make eye contact. This may be in the hook line, the place where the story turns or simply at the start of each chorus.
When you’re not making eye contact, look at the horizon line, at the band, or up into the lights during an emotional moment.
Try to rarely look down unless it suits the emotional needs of the song. Looking down cuts off the audience completely and can lose their attention.
Closing your eyes as you sing is another option, although it can be overused. So only use it fo intense emotional moments where all the focus needs to be on you.
The important thing is to choose when and where you are going to look. Preparation breeds spontaneity! Having your eye contact roughly mapped out will help you avoid that ‘deer-in-the-headlights’ look on stage.