Sound advice for the stage - Take care of your voice

1. Exercise your abdominals. Yep! Your voice (really your breathing) is supported by that 6-pack. The better your abs, the stronger your voice.

2. Warm up. Google “Vocal warm-ups” and you’ll have more syllables to sing than Taylor Swift. Warm up your mouth and lips, too. Sing scales while pretending you are on the Arctic Tundra. Brrrrrr!

3. Warm tea – honey – lemon. Tried and true. Make it herbal tea (Isn’t all tea herbal?) Throat Coat seems to work for many. Honey has some medicinal qualities. The citric acid in lemons seems to cut through the mucus. Take it on stage with you.

4. Use a Neti-pot to get rid of nasal snot. I used to know a guy who would snort salt water out of a glass using two straws and spit it out his mouth. The Neti saline solution is a much better liquid to use. Google Neti-pot. Do this at least 60 minutes before you sing. Sometimes, the water collects in a distant sinus and decides to release at the most inopportune time.

5. Eat Lay’s Potato Chips or Fritos Corn Chips. The salt, the grease, the crunch. For some reason it all works together to make things just right in your throat. Don’t make it a meal. Just a few right before you sing.

©2013 Doug Hanks. All rights reserved. Use with permission by contacting me.

Sound Advice for the Stage -- Vocal Sound Check

The stage is my home away from home. I feel comfortable there. No nerves, no butterflies, no worries. When I walk up the steps and get ready to perform, I’m where I should be. And I’ve been doing it since I was twelve… 48 years ago. 

But this is not true for every performer. All you have you do to see this clearly is watch any Hollywood-week episode of American Idol. Some of these people have never sung in front of people (And they want to sing in front of thousands of people?) So for all you newbies, rookies, wannabes, dreamers, talent-show winners, and performers that still get rattled when you step onto the platform of adulation, I offer some simple advice in the next few blogs. 

Sound check can be a great experience -- or it can be infuriating and frustrating. Some performers actually give a pre-concert concert for sound check. But most of us are there to allow the sound engineer to set levels for the house and sound levels for the stage monitors. If you are using an in-ear monitor system, he or she will set these levels during this time. 

Follow these simple guidelines to make the time efficient and useful. 
 1. Be on stage when it’s time for sound check. Don’t be late! Nothing makes a sound engineer annoyed like a performer who is not professional enough to get ready for the concert at sound check. Get there and stay there. 

 2. When it’s your turn to check a microphone say this at your normal singing volume: “Check – One – Two – Three – Four.” This is what a sound engineer prefers. Don’t sing. Don’t count to a hundred. Don’t recite “The Pledge of Allegiance.” And don’t stop until the sound engineer says to stop. If the sound engineer wants you to sing, he or she will ask. 

Audrey Dukes checking her levels before a Silverados performance.

 3. Don’t say, “I need more monitor” until the sound engineer asks how monitor levels are. (This is the sure sign that you are a rookie who’s never played in the big leagues.) The sound engineer sets levels for the house and equalizes (EQ’s) your voice in the first couple of minutes. He or she may be programming digital pages on the board as well with your settings. He or she will ask you if you have enough monitor when they are ready to ask. If the sound engineer never asks and goes on to the next performer, then you may ask for more monitor at that point. 

 4. When the sound engineer asks you about monitor level, Thumbs up! means louder, Thumbs down! means softer, A-OK! (thumb and forefinger together) means Perfect! At that point you can give additional instructions to the sound engineer. 

 5. When the sound engineer goes to the next vocalist, stay there. He or she may need you to sing as an ensemble or may need to hear your voice compared to the other vocalists. Nothing is worse during sound check than not being able to find someone. 

 6. When the sound engineer wants you to sing, be prepared to sing. How annoying it is when someone on stage Does the Diva and wonders aloud, “What would you like me to sing?” Divas are idiots! Any professional performer will be prepared to sing something that’s indicative of what you will be singing at the concert. 

 Follow these simple guidelines and, more times than not, sound check will be a pleasurable experience.

©2013 Doug Hanks. All rights reserved. Use by permission only. www.doughanksmusic.com