Those of you who know Eekwol’s music might think the title for this QT is referring to her irreverent, challenging lyrics, the mouthy-ness of her ideas – sometimes taking on the politics of race or the raising up of good kids – lyrics that tell it like it is regardless of the subject. Mouthy in a good way.
But actually, I’m going to talk about Eekwol’s mouth. Literally. The focus of this QT is enunciation and in a live show, Eekwol is pretty amazing. Like most rappers or spoken word performers, she packs in a lot of words. The challenge of delivering this kind of material is in making it understood by an audience on the first pass. Two things are extra critical: 1) the artist’s ability to move her mouth and 2) the sound person’s skill in creating a mix that’s crystal clear with vocals up front. (At a recent WCMA showcase I watched a couple of young rappers giving it their all with nary an audible word, thanks to the sound quality.)
In the last QT I spoke about the overall force of Eekwol’s performance. Enunciation is one of several elements that contributed to her ability to connect with her audience and it’s something that’s too often overlooked. Or, if it’s there, it’s muddied up by the mix. I’m not a sound engineer so I’ll leave advice on that to someone who is, but after four years of acting classes I’ve learned something about how to move the mouth. It takes practise, even for those who have natural talent. And then there’s the art of going beyond simply being heard clearly to using enunciation to add more emotion to your storytelling. Have you thought about clipping a consonant, just so, in order to add extra impact to a particular lyric?
Quick Tips isn’t about presenting masses of information or solutions. Instead it’s about breaking down live performing into its many varied elements and giving some guidance as to what you might reconsider the next time you’re on stage. With the internet, you’ll find everything you could ever want to know about any aspect of performing. QT will give you direction regarding what you might go looking for. Sometimes QT will seem like a kind of skills checklist. Sometimes it will resonate on a deeper level – the “meaning” of what you are doing on stage. Either way, I’d love your feedback on what you are finding useful, or perhaps less so, after you read my Quick Tips.