Performance session
Andrew had me going through my set, firstly making sure my mic positioning was correct. As I’m suffering from a bit of back trouble (the benefits of getting on a bit….!) I’ve had to modify my footing, so I needed a bit of instruction before this came right.I don’t know why, but I’m having a touch of block somewhere during the opening song. I don’t know if this is just nerves, or lack of concentration or something, but it’s always somewhere during Chasing it Down that I am forgetting a word or a phrase somewhere, and it’s not that I […]
Second Singing Lesson
Firstly, I made sure I’d remembered as much as possible before going across to Leeds. I went through my notes again fully, and had a little practice of the exercises that Matthew had covered with me a few weeks before. I have been practicing Ng warm ups and stretching exercises anyway prior to singing, and ended up doing these driving across there in the car.Again I think this has been an enlightening session. We went through an exercise where I was asked to sing a minor or major third above the note played. Last session I couldn’t manage it, this […]
Performance Session 3
I’m now into session 3 of performance coaching. Andrew has been giving me tips on how to make my songs more dynamic on stage, and today he introduced mic technique as well. I have been practicing at home over the last week or so with an unplugged mic on stand, to learn to be comfortable with it there, but Andrew has even covered where to put your feet, and how to move to and from the mic during the performance.I was sure once I saw the mics at The Hop, that they were Shure SM58’s, and today confirmed it. They […]
Preparation
One of the first things I’m finding with this whole process, is that I’m having to spend more and more time documenting the songs. For the older stuff (Daytime and Slow Down for example) I’m going to have to write down the chords and the lyrics, something I just memorised over the years and didn’t ever contemplate having to communicate to other musicians…Now I have a basic rudimentary knowledge of chord shapes and over time I have learned by ear what seems to go together well and what suits my voice. Now I’m finding that the chords I use are […]