Closing one's eyes while singing leads to increased auditory acuity and improved vocal control - which acts as a type of biofeedback. This allows the singer to express an enormous amount of energy at the moment as it becomes a larger-than-life experience.
Why do we close our eyes when we sing? Turning off one of the five senses (sight, sound, taste, touch and smell), helps us to immerse in the others – and this is particularly the case with sight, as is often our primary sense. By closing down the eyes, it helps us to immerse, shut out the rest of the world and zone in.
They don't do this all the time, but it may help them at certain points to focus on a specific sound they are making that needs to be expressed in a very specific way.. Much like chefs close their eyes when they are tasting, it helps focus the mind without the mind being overwhelmed with visual stimulus.
When singers can't hear themselves over the band, it is instinctual for them to push to compete with the sound. In-ears allow you to listen to yourself clearly and feel less need to strain, often singing more accurately as a result and without risking vocal damage even when doing many shows in a condensed period.
Why is closing your eyes powerful? Simply put: because so much of the world is visual. Today more than ever, we are surrounded by bright, colourful distractions. If you truly want to hear music fully and clearly, it's essential to block out all this visual noise.
In challenging listening conditions, closing the eyes is a strategy with intuitive appeal to improve auditory attention and perception. On the neural level, closing the eyes increases the power of alpha oscillations (∼10 Hz), which are a prime signature of auditory attention.
Closing your eyes calms your mind and relaxes your muscles and organs. Many refer to it as “quiet wakefulness”. When you rest your eyes, you essentially tell your body it's safe and can take a break from focusing or thinking.
Using Diaphragmatic Breathing to Save Your Vocal Cords
When you first start singing, it's recommended that you sing with your stomach. This technique can help you use the airflow more effectively, meaning you don't have to strain your vocal cords.
The technique of the open throat is intended to promote a type of relaxation or vocal release in the throat that helps the singer avoid constriction and tension that would otherwise throttle or stifle the tone.
Direct mouth-to-mic contact is done to increase the volume of the singer's voice, as well as amplify low notes (this is called the proximity effect). It's useful when there's a lot of other onstage interference from loud instruments, other singers or even monitors.
The idea of masked artists and hidden identities have been used both as a way out of the spotlight and as a creative concept. Typically popular in the world of heavy metal, with the likes of Slipknot, Lordi and Buckethead never without terrifying masks, the concept of anonymity has been adopted by mainstream music.
Closing one's eyes while singing leads to increased auditory acuity and improved vocal control - which acts as a type of biofeedback. This allows the singer to express an enormous amount of energy at the moment as it becomes a larger-than-life experience.
Most people can't focus on anything as close as a face at kissing distance so closing your eyes saves them from looking at a distracting blur or the strain of trying to focus. Kissing can also make us feel vulnerable or self-conscious and closing your eyes is a way of making yourself more relaxed.
A very common technique in singing is to smile in order to brighten the tonality of a given note and raise the pitch of the note.
The reason singers need to open their mouths more than speech has to do with air pressure and resonance. You don't open the mouth “wide” (side to side), you open “tall” vertically (up and down). This allows the resonance of the notes you are singing to fully form. The result is a louder note with more “cut”.
Facial expressions communicate a song's intentions to the audience. For example, if a song is rageful and dark, angry facial expressions can alert onlookers to the undercurrent of fury in the music.
The short answer: To monitor our breathing and support.
Don't cup the mic!
It's common to see pop singers cupping the mic with both hands. They do this to reduce external noise and to increase the mid-range and bass tone of the voice.
Many amateur singers or students of singing raise their head whenever they move from low notes to progressively higher notes. The rationale is that as the notes get higher, the student or singer feels that they need to raise their head in order to visualize the higher notes and to be able to sing higher!
One thing that you can do to help eliminate yawning before you start singing is to practice your breathing technique. Before you start singing, breathe deeply while relaxing for about 10 minutes. This can help with yawning due to the need for more oxygen in your lungs.
When the stomach is too full, it is difficult to take the low breaths necessary for healthy singing. Also, singing tends to cause burping when it is done too soon after eating, and burping is an activity that is usually frowned upon by many audience members during a vocal performance.
It's not the same as sleep, but there are relaxation benefits for your brain and body.
don't settle for rest if you can't settle down
Get up and go to another room, do something relaxing and only go back to bed when you feel sleepy again. Lying in the dark with your eyes closed, however calm and comfortable you may be, provides none of the benefits of actual sleep.
Lying down isn't completely useless—it does help your muscles and other organs relax. But you'd get the same results just from reclining on the couch. So sleep is still your best friend.