Avoiding Disasters When Singing Live

Are you interested in becoming a singer? I consider myself a songwriter at heart. However, I discovered it was pretty challenging to work with a vocalist who could not convey my songs as I had conceived them. Unfortunately, this is a common problem for many songwriters. It became evident that the only way I could get my songs to sound like I envisioned them was to find a way to sing them myself.

Songwriting came naturally to me, and I believed that singing would not be much more difficult, but it was. Singing requires a great deal of skill. You must understand style, pitch, key, melody, inflection, and breathing. There is so much to master.

It was not until I was presented with the first real opportunity that I realized how difficult singing could be. At 21 years old, I found myself in my second band. Although I enjoyed writing music, I had no luck finding someone to sing my songs. With a concert scheduled, I decided to perform all the songs myself, despite never having attempted to do so before.

Unfortunately, it did not go well. After the event, I was told that I should stick with only playing the keyboard. Several things occurred at that event that was within and outside my control. Firstly, I needed to do the work to prepare myself. Secondly, the venue was outside, and the monitoring system was apparently for decoration only (with some sarcasm). One of the most significant issues was that I had never learned to listen to myself singing live or in public. Until then, I had only practiced my vocals in a perfectly isolated environment, using the highest quality EQ and mixing with my most expensive headphones. However, singing outside is different from singing in a well-calibrated studio.

Despite this setback, I learned several valuable lessons from that event. First, I learned the importance of listening. In fact, listening is more critical than anything else. Once you understand your environment, you can better grasp what you need to do to be effective.

Secondly, do not rely solely on technology. While I respect technology and own all the latest and most advanced gadgets, they can work against you. You should be able to condition yourself to perform without a monitor mix on stage or, at the very least, be able to handle a poor monitoring system. It may sound harsh, but if you show up to a gig and the monitor system is not working, you should not blame your monitors or sound guy. You must be in control. Control equals power. If you are prepared for anything, you will not be the one left freaking out if the sound system you thought you were promised fails. Instead, you will be confident that you have already prepared for such a situation. If, on the other hand, you show up and there is a p