Singing vs Song-Leading

Watch this video comparing Obama and Romney singing:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26852192/vp/46200939#46200939



Vocal talent aside, why was Obama's performance so much more compelling?

Obama's "Let's Stay Together" conveyed real emotion, while Romney's "America the Beautiful" did not.  Romney led the song, while Obama sang the song. And the audience immediately felt the difference.

From the Green Room: If you want to convey emotion, be a singer, not a song-leader. Emotions are contagious. The surest way to get your audience to feel a certain way, is if they feel the emotion coming from you. 

I love this article from this week's Onion:

Nation Descends into Chaos as Throat Infection Throws Off Obama's Cadence

WASHINGTON—Looting, fires, and mass rioting swept across the nation today when a mild throat infection threw off President Barack Obama's normally reassuring and confident speech cadence, sources in every major city reported.

"My fellow [cough] Americans, please [cough] remain calm," Obama said during a nationally televised emergency address to the nation that caused the Dow Jones to plunge 50 points with every cough, sniffle, or wheeze. "Now is not the time for [cough]…everything's [cough]. Stop it."

Without the president's fluid, almost poetic tone to reassure them, the American people have abandoned all semblance of law and order and descended into a nationwide panic, burning buildings to the ground, disobeying police, and relinquishing all hope for the future...

As Julianne Moore once said,

“You know, comedy's hard. With drama, you have a responsibility to the emotional truth, but with comedy, you have emotional truth and you have technique on top of it.”

How true.

From the Green Room: Comedic exaggeration aside, your listeners respond just as much (or more!) to the sound of your voice as they do to what you have to say.

Address the Individual

This week on Slate, John Dickerson comments on Obama's second press conference:

http://www.slate.com/id/2214510/

Obama returned to the theme of togetherness to buy time. We will "travel that road as one people," he said in his opening remarks. "We are all in this together." Lovely sentiment, but the times seem to call for a stronger pitch. Why should people join together when bailouts are rewarding people who didn't act in the common interest?...

Obama may be popular enough to make the case. But to bring about collective action in this environment, Obama may have to return to a lesson he wrote about in Dreams From My Father: the power of self-interest in helping to create community.

Good point. Truly connecting to an audience means addressing individuals - not the collective group. In Obama's case, he could have spoken to each individual, without losing his call for people to join together to get our nation back on track. Obama could have stated that we travel that road - not just as one people - but as a community of individuals, each with something to contribute.

From the Green Room: When you speak to an audience, imagine you are having a one-on-one conversation with each individual present.

Squeakin' Lincoln: Mastering the Art of Public Speaking

Check out these descriptions of Abraham Lincoln's speaking style, as quote in Abraham Lincoln Online (alo.com):

Lincoln's voice was, when he first began speaking, shrill, squeaking, piping, unpleasant; his general look, his form, his pose, the color of his flesh, wrinkled and dry, his sensitiveness, and his momentary diffidence, everything seemed to be against him, but he soon recovered.
--William H. Herndon letter, July 19, 1887

Whenever he began to talk his eyes flashed and every facial movement helped express his idea and feeling. Then involuntarily vanished all thought or consciousness of his uncouth appearance, or awkward manner, or even his high keyed, unpleasant voice.
--Abram Bergen in Intimate Memories of Lincoln

Shrill. Squeaking. Unpleasant. Wrinkled and Dry Flesh.

Surely this is not the Lincoln whom Obama tries to emulate.

Or is it?

Baesd on the words of his audience, Lincoln's conviction and passion seemed to erase any physical distractions. How? Because he was able to synthesize body and language. "Every facial movement helped express his idea and feeling." The audience was able to forget his high-pitched voice because when he got into the speech - every part of him joined together to communicate a single idea.

By matching his externals and internals, this man had mastered the art of public speaking.

Clearly Obama lacks Lincoln's physical awkwardness. Yet even those of us like Obama, whose appearance is not "wrinkled and dry"and whose voice is not "shrill, shreaking, and piping," can be our own worst enemies when our words say one thing - while our body language says another.

The audience will pay attention, when what they hear is also what they see.

From the Green Room: Body language makes a greater impact that spoken language. Use it to communicate your message.