1. Prepare and rehearse. Know everybody else’s lyrics, so that you can fill in and define parts of the song to get or keep the crowd hyped. Rehearsal is important in order to show that your a professional or on the brink of becoming a pro, you’d got to know where the other person should be onstage.

2. The lead vocalist should almost always take center stage, then move from right to left interacting with the crowd. Always, go center stage when your verse starts this brings the attention to you, especially if you have multiple people on stage.

3. When being the leading vocalist of a song whether it’s a hype song or mellow, use apart of your body to keep the beat or rhythm of the music such as; dancing, moving the mic to the beat, move your hips to the beat, etc…. This shows the crowd your into it, and pulls them into your world.

4. Setting up your song- People want to be able to connect with you as a performer. Talk to them, tell them a short story about yourself that leads up to a song. Either, the story can be funny or serious, as long as it leads into a song that emphasizes the feelings of the story, your audience will be able to connect with you.

5. Have fun- the audience knows when your nervous or having a bad day. Being able to perform in front of people should get you amp’d anyways. But most importantly have fun, show the crowd that your enjoying yourself, and they will enjoy right along with you.

TIPS:

A. Rehearsal is the building block of all performances. It can bring you great ideas and x out the bad ones. Rehearsal is important because it makes your shows tight, meaning like a well taught karate move, you do it without thought or thinking. Rehearsal is the only thing that can make your show cohesive and eliminates the stars from the fakers.

B. Mirrors- If you have the means to do it. Mirrors can be great in fine tuning a act. As in step 1 on this “how to”, in a mirror you can see where everybody is and what there doing when your in the middle of your verse.

C. Back to rehearsals- If you ever get pre-stage jitters rehearsal can fix that. Just when you rehearse imagine yourself and how’d you want to feel in front of a audience, even the nervousness. It will help you cope with.

WARNING

DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT turn your back to the audience unless it’s incorporated in your show plans. If you turn your back it may show that your disinterested in the performance and you may loose touch with your audience.

DO NOT try to get the crowd hype and follow you if the crowd is honestly not feeling you yet. You may totally loose touch and you may be faced with a crowd full of blank stares. Or worse, you may loose your mojo totally and get the infamous booooooooooo…

http://www.lokey210.blogspot.com

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To sing backup is much harder than it looks. Backup singing requires a great amount of listening and being very sensitive to the main singer, much as an instrumental accompanist would. You must learn to breathe and begin and end your phrase as the main singer does. You must, in effect be the singers shadow.

Hopefully you have some input or control over where you sit or stand on stage. See to it that you can see the singer at all times. The job of backup singing is much harder if you can’t see the singers face. Watch the singer to learn where they are going. The singer will change course or make a mistake and only if you are aware can you react. Watch the singer intently and always. Be on the lookout for a simple nod of the head or gesture that may indicate a repeat or change of course.

Learn to blend your phrasing to the will of the singer. You can start your phrase just behind the singers phrase if you want to blend properly. If you are not sure of how loud they are going to be, start your phrase quietly and raise your level as the phrase develops. Do not pronounce consonants too hard at the start of a melody. Two consonants sung slightly after each other will sound unpleasant and is largely avoidable.

The end of melodies are just as critical as the beginning. As the singer approaches the end of a line, gradually decrease your volume so you can avoid the embarrassment of ending after they do. Listen, watch, blend melodies and you can be a professional backup singer every band would love to have.

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This can be difficult for several reasons:

• The sound on the stage is very different from the sound throughout the rest of the club.
• The person mixing generally has to stop playing momentarily to adjust the levels.
• Different band members may prefer different mixes; for example the keyboard player may feel that the keyboards need to be higher in the mix.
• The on-stage mixer may have little control over the level of individual instrument amplifiers or drummers.
• In very small venues, or restaurants, the on-stage level may need to be too high (for the band’s comfort and hearing) for the audience, particularly when they are close to the stage.

While these, and other, difficulties may pop up from time to time, many of the problems can be overcome by cooperation between the band members, and by trying these techniques.

When possible, recruit a friend or fan to listen to the house mix and let you know how it sounds. Have them check for you during the sound check, and again latter during the performance.

Let them know that once your mix and level are set to your satisfaction that you won’t need any more reports unless something is very wrong. Otherwise, they may continually interupt you just as you get into the music.

For this to work well, you should have a certain amount of confidence in their opinion. Generally, if the friend is a fellow musician, they will have a better idea of what to listen for and how to tell you what the problems are. For a non-musician fan or audience member, you may only be able to rely on them for a general volume level check.

If you have time before the gig, do a sound check and set your relative levels and tone settings. These will very likely change once there is a mass of bodies in the room, but you will now have a reference level that you can revert to if the mix starts getting out of hand. Make note of the various settings, particularly if you are going to play the same venue again.

If you are a guitarist with a long, long cord (or wireless), or have material where you don’t play much, go into the audience area during the sound check, listen, then go back to the mixer and make adjustments. Repeat this until you are confortable with the balance.

Once you are in the actual performance, you will find that certain instruments or vocals may be too loud or don’t stand out enough. Make minimal adjustments and listen again.

Be careful that you don’t keep raising everybody’s level when they can’t be heard. Sometimes when the lead singer is motioning for more volume, you’ll find that perhaps the overall level needs to drop, with the vocal mike staying the same. This will take some experimentation and experience. Like everything else, it will get easier and more intuitive with practice.

Another common problem, particularly in small clubs, is gradually increasing the volume level until you are too loud for the room. Sometimes you will actually need to reduce the level to sound louder and clearer.

Once you have a good performing mix, make note of your control settings, as well as the “no crowd” settings you already have. As conditions change, you will likely need to make adjustment again. If you are repeatedly playing the same club, these settings will save you time in finding the perfect mix for the situation.

If you think that you can just play in whatever manner you feel like playing, and the sound engineer’s job is to make everyone sound good in the mix, you’ll fall short of your optimal sound. The mix can’t fix busy keyboards or guitar fills that walk all over the vocals.

While thinking about these things may seem distracting at first, but it becomes second nature after a while. Once you can do this unconsciously, you’ll get into your own part naturally.

You’ll hear where your part fits in the overall sound, and will pick up on the other band member’s cues. Then you’ll be be really playing as a band.

Practice being aware of these things until they are part of you and your playing:

• Don’t overplay. More notes don’t equal more music.
• Be aware of your stage volume. Can the other players hear themselves clearly?
• Are you leaving space for the rest of the band to play?
• Is your playing appropriate for the meaning of the song?
• Do your solos and backup contribute to the overall feeling and mood of the song?
• How are your tones meshing with the rest of the band? Is the texture of the song improved? All highs or lows, or is there a good balance?

Not only do you need to get along with each other, but there are (generally) more than two people, and multiple interactions that all have to work. Is it any wonder that many bands break up with the result that members may not speak to each other for years?

In order to have an enduring band, it is important to work as a team. It’s not enough to say “leave your ego at the door” … it’s impossible, almost by definition, to be in a band without at least a certain amount of ego. But that ego doesn’t need to get in the way, in fact it almost essential to providing an exciting and entertaining performance.

Within the confines of the band, however, teamwork is important. Band members need to work and play together, and present a consistent image to their fans.

While being a good player, or even a better player than others in the band, is great, unless you’re so fantastic that the demand for your services is unending, it’s vitally important that you know how to work as a team with the other band members.

While some performers may think that being tempermental is cool, there is no need to put up with this attitude in your band. This will just make it harder to do all the things that a band needs to do in addition to making music. If you’re the tempermental one, it’s even worse.

There are always going to be members who have strengths and weaknesses different from your own. By working as a team you can maximize those strengths and keep the weaknesses from showing in your performances.

Naturally, the best situation is if all the band members are in the same general range of abilities. However, by working as a team, nobody needs to know (outside of the band) that the rhythm guitartist actually is terrible at lead guitar, or that the lead guitarist plays drums almost as well as the drummer.

But that’s where the teamwork comes in. A good team leaves room for the band members to grow, but to still put the needs of the team first.

There’s nothing like the feeling when the band really comes together for a successful gig, proving that the end results is greater than the sum of the parts.

So now you’ve decided to record your songs. Good for you, except that you will need people to play the instruments for which your music calls for. If you can play all the instruments on your own, then all the better. You will have less people to argue with!

Other wise, you will have to hire (read: bribe with beer/food/hockey tickets) session musicians and vocalists to play and sing for you, putting you in the producer’s chair.

Your songs are only as emotional as the performers who play them. It goes without saying that you should hire the best performers your budget will allow. But if $100/hour for a professional vocalist is a little steep, here are a few ways to help encourage the best from your session players.

1.) Always praise, never criticize.

The is THE most important rule in my book. The only way any session musician could ever get comfortable at your studio is if YOU put them at ease. That’s one of your jobs as a producer.

When trying different versions of a take, tell them how you would like it to sound, instead of what they did wrong ie: “That was great, but let’s try to hit the high note a little stronger” instead of “you know, you were a little off on the high note, it didn’t sound that good.”

Always start with praise, then with a correction. Keep your vocabulary positive. The best producers make the artist feel as if they can do nothing wrong.

2) They Can Do Nothing Wrong

Remember this rule while you are writing or recording. There is no “wrong way,” there is only “a different way.” Don’t tell people that their way is wrong. Remember that music is an art, and there are no rules in art. When a performer is playing something you don’t like, correct them by saying “let’s try it this way, too.” Don’t start off by saying “nope, you were wrong, do it the right way.”

3) Let Them See The Light

Ambiance, atmosphere, vibe: whatever you call it, they need it. I guarantee that you will get a much better performance if you have water on the table, comfortable chairs, maybe a few candles, a towel, mints, and candy. Have you ever tried recording in an office with harsh florescent lights and hard wood chairs?

4) Take Your Time

If you’re recording at your own studio, you have all the time in the world (which is an evil thing in my opinion). Let the artist relax, “get into the groove,” talk a little and get comfortable with the other people in the control room. A tense artist’s performance will always sound ‘artificial’ in the final song.

Don’t be worried if it takes another 10 minutes to finish the take. Each performer works at their own pace, and the best thing you can do as the producer is to respect that and adjust your pace to theirs. Unless you have a record company breathing down your neck. Then everyone has to work at THEIR pace!

5) Ask For Help

Artists love to be listened to. It’s always good to ask them for their opinion. Whether you actually listen is up to you. But once in a while, a simple question like “What do you think? Do you want to keep that take?” can do wonders for their performance. It helps keep them involved in the project and make them feel less like a “hired hand.”

Obviously, if it was the worse singing you’ve ever heard and they want to keep it, just mention that you will do “one more take as a safety.” And then, when they’re not looking, use the better take instead and auto-tune it to no end. This is a little producer’s secret, but don’t let the artists know!

6) Know The Words

Make sure that you, the engineer, the assistant engineer and everyone else in the control room has lyrics to all the songs. The best way for your studio team to find their way around the songs is with the lyric sheets.

Another good idea is to USE THE WHITEBOARD! That’s why it’s there. If you don’t have one, get one. Write down the chord progressions, lyric ideas, timing marks, track listings, McDonald’s lunch orders, everything.

7) It’s MOSTLY About The Music

I’ve heard people say “it’s ALL about the music.” Well, in my books, that’s not the truth. I’d rather say “it’s mostly about the music.” Because you have to remember, it’s also about having fun, having a good time, writing and performing the best you can and above all, sharing your talent and gift with others. Try to make it less of a job, and more of a passion and you’ll find yourself doing it for the rest of your life!

© Richard Dolmat (Digital Sound Magic) – Richard Dolmat is owner, engineer and producer for the Vancouver based recording studio Digital Sound Magic.

Generally when I have a strong emotion towards a specific person it’s either because that person represents something about me that I can’t tolerate yet or because that person embodies something that I wish I could do or have.

I remember being in a high school arts program and being incredibly envious of a fellow singer. What I was so painfully aware of (though I couldn’t have articulated it at that time) was that this person was able to fully express herself and her talents, and I couldn’t. I was a better singer at home in my bedroom than I was in front of other people, and THAT’S what I couldn’t stand about the situation.

By doing what I couldn’t do, she shone a spotlight on my biggest challenge. It made it virtually impossible to have a good relationship with her.

2. How can I identify with this person as a fellow musician, instead of comparing our work?

What opportunities are there for collaboration, mutual support and the exchange of ideas? Can I open myself to receiving gifts from this person’s feedback, support and love? What can I, in turn, give to this person?

Even the most famous, the most successful musician is a human being just like you. Find the connection. What can I give to a musician who’s newer than I am?

3. How can I develop confidence in my unique message and express this authentically?

I will never sound like this other musician, or anyone else for that matter. Influences may be heard, comparisons will inevitably be made, but my words will never come out exactly like theirs, because my “story,” my life, my experiences, my collection of qualities, strengths and challenges are completely unique to me.

When I honor my uniqueness my confidence grows, and it becomes pointless to compare myself to others – there’s no comparison. This quote by Martha Graham further explains what I mean.

“There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening, that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open.”

- Martha Graham, quoted by Agnes DeMille, Martha: The Life and Work of Martha Graham

4. How can I turn my attention away from this other person and back to what I can do to further my own success and creative fulfillment?

If I’m jealous of someone winning a songwriting contest, I can ask myself: how many songwriting contests have I entered?

If I’m jealous of the size of their fan base, I can ask myself: how am I attracting new fans and how I am deepening my relationship with the ones I have now?

If I’m jealous of the number of songs they’ve written, I can ask myself: what am I choosing to do with my time instead of writing songs?

5. Now that I’ve learned from it, how can I let go of my jealousy?

Often in life we hang on to emotions long after they’ve served their usefulness. They become comfortable, familiar and safer than doing the work to get to the other side of them. And yet they can also weigh us down and block our creativity.

Try the analogy FEEL.

Feel your feeling – don’t suppress it, actually let yourself feel it.

Express the feeling – write about it, sing about, talk about it with someone you trust, play it on an instrument or express it in art.

Explore the feeling – what is it trying to teach you, etc. as discussed above.

Let it Go. This can be as simple as saying a short prayer or affirmation (“I have let go of my jealousy,” or “I have valuable and unique gifts to offer”), or writing the feeling on a piece of paper and tearing it up.

Jealousy has a lot to teach us. So when it shows up in your life, pay attention. If you notice jealousy in others, put yourself in their shoes and help them to identify with you. Reveal your humanity. Let them know that they’ve got something to offer you.

This article was originally published on the Muses Muse Songwriter’s Resource website (December 2004).

(c) Copyright 2005-2009, Genuine Coaching Services. Linda Dessau, the Self-Care Coach, helps artists enhance their creativity by addressing their unique self-care issues.