The High Performance Singer

A singer I know got some great feedback recently from a new band member. He told her that although she was an excellent performer, she was undermining herself between songs. Here's how: While singing in this particular band, she takes on the persona of a rockstar-type diva. She's high-energy and edgy. She takes risks, both vocally and with her performance. She rocks out and she gives her all, often ending up nearly out of breath because she's been moving so much. In sh

This past weekend was a big gig for a lot of singers: it was a reunion gig of Guitar Villians Live Band Karaoke, with 31 singers vying for $800 in cash prizes. Each singer got to sing only one song. Can you imagine the pressure? Understandably, a lot of them were nervous. Some came to me for advice to chill out and calm down. There are a lot of quick-fix techniques in this mini e-book, which you might already have. But I've learned another couple of tricks recently. Fir

Have you ever been to an open mic night? Not to be catty, but it seems like sometimes people use their open mic slots to simply play as long as they possibly can, without regard to whether what they play is actually interesting to the audience. If each person gets a 20-minute slot, they play for 20 minutes. If each person gets three songs, they play threeee looooong sooooongs. And the audience, although supportive, consists of other people just waiting their turn to do th

Many open mic nights, jam sessions, and karaoke opportunities take place in bars, where students under 21 can't usually enter (in the US, anyway). Consequently, several of my students were wondering how to get stage experience when they are too young to enter establishments where they could perform. The idea of coffee-shop style open mic nights came up, but since these students also don't accompany themselves, there was the complication of finding musicians to play for them

What makes your band sound good at a gig? Great vocals? The band playing nice and tight after some productive rehearsals? Good room acoustics? The biggest baddest subwoofer in the city? Crispy clear highs? The perfect guitar tone? Yeah yeah yeah, these things all contribute. But there's one factor that will make or break you, regardless of anything else you do... The sound guy. (Or gal, rarely.) *From here on out I'm going to refer to sound "guys" rather than make

Have you auditioned for a band and failed to get in? Have you auditioned for a lot of bands, and still not gotten into one? Do you know why? Today I'm going to talk about how to increase your chances of getting into a band. ... I'm going to start with a real example of how a most unlikely candidate got into a band: As many of you know, I recently joined a band, Guitar Villians. But not as a vocalist; as a keyboard player. This is my first gig as keyboard player. I play k

Open mic nights and jam sessions are a great way to get stage time and to meet other musicians - perhaps musicians who are looking for someone just like you for their project! Here are three things to keep in mind, to avoid wasting your time and the opportunity: 1) Before you go, find out: Is it an "open mic night," where you're expected to accompany yourself, or a "jam session," where there should be a more or less full band and people will be swapping out on all instrum

Last week we had a student performance with a live band. We had only one rehearsal prior to the gig, so we had to pick songs with low "train wreck" risk! If you find yourself in a similar situation - where you have the chance to sing with a live band with little to no rehearsal, such as at an open mic night - do you know how to pick good songs that won't crash and burn on stage? Here are 5 tips. 1) Does the song have any time signature changes, measures with unusual count

Learning about stage presence is one thing. But in order to practice what you know about stage presence, you have to sing on stage for real! One of the biggest challenges for new singers (who are not also instrumentalists in bands) is to find singing performance opportunities. It's the chicken-and-egg problem: without singing experience you aren't good enough to win an audition to get into a band or performance situation; but without getting into a band or other performan

Do you have anaudition for a band coming up? Do you know how to pick a good song for your audition? Usually, the band will give you some direction in terms of which songs they'd like to hear. They might give you several songs of which you pick three, or they might give you a general genre or several artists to work within. Assuming that you have some choice, here are three things to keep in mind while picking your audition songs. You LOVE the song. This will do more than a

I have performed with vocalists who sound connected, relaxed, and open during pre-gig vocal warmups, but then sound squeaky, shouty, or forced once they sing on stage. What happens? They sing the vocal warmups perfectly, but then sing completely differently on stage. They tend to sing too loud, forcing their voice on stage. Vocal exercises are just that... exercises. You already know it: Singing vocal exercises with nonsense syllables is not the same as singing a song wit

Sometimes I've been asked which key I prefer to sing in - not just for one song, but in general. That's an absurd question and tells me that the person asking doesn't understand much about voice or music. You don't have one key you sing in. What really matters is where the melody lies in the song, the pitches of the most dramatic notes, and which pitches are most commonly used in a song. Just because a song is in the key of G, for example, doesn't mean that the melody run

I went on a mountain bike ride yesterday with a friend. It's been a long time, and I was rusty and out of shape. I knew it was going to be sketchy. I knew I couldn't ride the hard stuff. I ended up walking some rocky sections, even going off the trail a couple of times. I had no confidence. Whenever I saw a rocky patch coming up, I freaked out, slowed down, and saw nothing but the difficulties ahead. I focused on the obstacles. After the first loop, my friend and I ta

The ability to reset your mental state using an anchor is a great way to handle performance anxiety... if you've learned to anchor. But sometimes you just need a quick fix! Maybe you're tired. Maybe you didn't get enough sleep. Maybe you are dealing with some strong emotions. Maybe you feel unprepared. Maybe you simply haven't had time to learn how to anchor well! Whatever the reason, there are a lot of ways to reduce performance anxiety without doing weeks of mental t

It happens… Those nights when the audience just isn’t that into you. Maybe you were booked in the wrong venue for your genre. Maybe you’re having a really off night. Who knows. But what do you do when it happens? Change It Up First, why isn’t paying attention? Are you being boring? You may be loud, but if you’re always loud, that’s boring. You may be playing powerful heartfelt ballads, but if that’s all you’re playing, that’s boring too. Here are some ideas for chang