[Harp-L] Re: Learning to Sing

[Jonathan Metts <prairiedogpr@xxxxxxxxx>]

I may not be the best person to answer this question, as both of my 
parents sing, and I've been singing my whole life. But I never sang in 
public until college, and then it took several beers to loosen me up. 
The #1 issue for singing on stage is confidence. If you think you're 
bad, or if you're too scared to sing out fully, it's not going to sound 
good. If you know what you're doing and show some confidence, the 
audience will be along for the ride. Now, that's all apart from the 
musicality, but you can put on a great vocal performance even if the 
singing is pretty bad.

If you want to become a better singer (not just a better vocal 
performer), you have to work on actual technique. And I do have some 
experience with this process. On the three-hour drive between home and 
college, I used to put in my favorite vocalists and sing along with them 
the whole way. For one thing, that builds endurance and develops the 
muscles in your throat and mouth needed to sing well. As with playing 
harp, emulation of the masters is always a good starting point. Choose 
the singers you most admire, who sound like you want to sound, and go 
along with them. (My favorite sing-alongs were with The Beatles, Jeff 
Buckley, Pink Floyd, and Frankie Valli.)

Most importantly, LISTEN to yourself. You don't need perfect pitch to 
nail a melody; you just have to hear when you are too flat or too sharp, 
and adjust accordingly. It comes with practice and studious awareness of 
the music. Record yourself and listen back to it, if you have trouble 
doing this in real-time. Actually, there are some video games that might 
be helpful in teaching you to sing on pitch. Look into Karaoke 
Revolution, Rock Band, or one of the newer Guitar Hero games, which all 
support vocals through a microphone. They all have the same idea: the 
pitch is shown on your TV as a line curving up and down; when you sing 
into the mic, it puts an arrow at your actual pitch. Make it line up 
with the song chart, and you score points. It's great audio/visual 
feedback and doesn't involve any abstract plastic controllers.

One last thing: when singing on stage, do not stress your voice. Ask the 
sound guy to bring up your monitor so that you can hear yourself over 
the band, or ask the band to bring it down a notch during the vocal 
stanzas; otherwise, you'll naturally sing extra-loud, which sounds worse 
to the audience and can injure your voice. Practice singing very softly 
up to medium volume; if that's not enough on stage, have the mix 
adjusted until it suffices. This allows you to sing in control and with 
comfort, the same way you do during practice. (Thanks to Michael Rubin 
for helping me learn this lesson.) Also make sure to drink plenty of 
water if you are singing multiple songs, which keeps your throat lubed 
up in the presence of stage lights, hot equipment, and possibly smoke 
from the patrons.

Jonathan Metts
Prairie Dog PR
Ph: 205.435.0991
pr@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx / prairiedogpr@xxxxxxxxx