Weszt

Last Saturday I performed two sets at the Deland Original Music Festival – one solo and one with the band. Throughout it all, I was worried about my voice, though none seemed to notice. You see, I’d been pushing things pretty hard during the week and some old habits returned, vocal habits that tend to tire me and put me off key. I’d like to kick off a new category on Weszt.com’s diary with this as the inspiration; the category is “Surviving Musician”.

One of the most challenging hurdles at this level of music is performing through poor or poorly managed PA systems. One doesn’t realize how dependent we are on our ears until we can no longer hear and never is this most instantly recognizable than when one hits the stage to discover that their voice is nowhere to be found. What I propose as a solution is to end your reliance on your ears.

OK, I admit that this kind of sucks. What joy can there be to sing without hearing oneself? Well, not as much, I assure you, as hearing one’s own voice with crystal clarity, but you sometimes don’t have a choice. I couldn’t possibly recall how many times I’d done shows without hearing myself, or at least hearing myself enough to be useful. Many times I abandon even trying to get more sound of my monitors, which isn’t necessarily helpful either; I just can’t stand to hold up a show for the “comforts” of the lead singer. Perhaps this is a little too gung ho, but let’s talk a little about what I’ve learned really works.

Being prepared

While there may be no single perfect solution to singing without hearing, being on top of your game is by far the best defense. If you don’t know the notes in your head, hearing yourself can only take you so far anyway, so get the notes down till you sing them pitch-perfect in your sleep. Admittedly, I don’t always practice as much as I’d like to, but in the stretches where I do, I can do damn near no wrong on stage. No matter how practiced and ready you might feel, you probably could always do a little more. What you practice is what you perform, so if you’re not practicing, your lack of skills will show.

Not Singing Too Loud

In case you aren’t already doing it, practice your vocal scales and exercises and practice them slow and evenly. Watch your volume and remember that part of your preparation is to condition yourself to avoid one of the most common mistakes: singing too loud.

Bars are loud places. So are rehearsal rooms. Naturally when speaking in a loud situation, we tend to talk louder to compensate. Singers must learn to avoid this as much as possible. Regular, well-paced personal rehearsals can get you conditioned to singing properly and warming up (and I cannot emphasize this enough) before you take the stage is vital.

Having Faith In The Notes

This is one of the most valuable lessons I’ve ever picked up as a singer: have faith in the notes. Believe the notes will be there, don’t force them into existence. Yes, sometimes your voice will crack, sometimes you won’t have that beautiful in-ear monitor to tell you how close you are, but through practice and diligence, you can reach a level where you know you’ll be singing it correctly and more effortlessly than before.

When you can’t hear yourself, keep in mind that the audience might and feel what you’re singing. Singing on faith isn’t easy, but you’re most likely to be singing correctly and with minimum effort than pushing your voice above the music and wrecking your throat.

Avoiding The Booze

I really hate this one, I confess. I love drinking and having at least a few drinks at shows is damn near a ritual. Unfortunately, this often does me more harm than good. Alcohol not only numbs the throat, which can disguise any harm we might be doing, it also lowers your inhibitions and therefore our willingness to keep control.

For me, the more I drink, the more I talk, and putting all these together can add up to what happened to me at our last CD release party: I almost completely lost my voice. How embarrassing! What made this even worse was the fact we had two more shows the same weekend and I had to pull out all my little tricks and crutches just to get through.

End of Part I

I have lots more to say in regards to Survival Singing – tune in next week!