Here are some tips from Songwriters: Pump up your vocals! A Q&A with vocal coach Siobhan Quinn
- Start your day by stretching (yoga’s great!) and vocalizations (no words, start with humming. It’s the best simple thing you can do, gently running slides through your entire vocal range)
- Hydrate with room temperature water — no ice! — and clear liquids (not soda) throughout the day
- Watch your food intake, make sure you get protein.
- Warm up your voice thoroughly.
- At the gig– get some room temperature water for the stage, stretch again (you’ve just lugged in your equipment), vocalize again a little so your voice gets used to the microclimate you’ll be in.
- Enjoy yourself! Try to sing with as little stress in your body as possible and don’t concentrate on your vocal technique at a gig…that’s for your home studio…concentrate on the emotional meaning of your songs.
Resolved: The next song circle meeting will begin with 15 minutes of yoga. Or not.
Not. :-)
ReplyDeleteMy appraoch is to make sure I'm loud enough and then deliver the words/story with conviction. This isn't opera. Songwriters (should) have something to say and the important thing is to be heard clearly.
Really, a nice voice is nice, but a great song is great. I don;t go for the whole, "It's the singer, not the song." thing. It has got to be a good song. Then a great singer is icing on the cake.
Tom Waits? Bob Dylan? They aren't going to win American Idol. But they have amazing stories to tell.
2 cents. :-)