Increase Your Vocal Ability
If set at proper levels, a mic can enhance your sound with volume, reverb and EQ but how you work with it makes all the difference in whether it increases or inhibits your vocal ability. If you’re going to perform with a mic, it’s important to rehearse correctly with one, or with a similarly weighted object. While you can use a mic in different ways… as a headset or on a stand… this feature will focus on how you use a corded or cordless microphone you hold in your hand.
It may shock you to learn that the way you hold a mic can help or hinder your breathing, open or close your throat and add or detract from your ability to communicate! If you want a mic to make it easier instead of harder for you to sing…
Don’t hold a mic like an ice cream cone. This can limit frequency response, making your voice sound thin.
Don’t hold the butt end of the mic up right in front… if you do this, do it to the side.
Best… Hold a mic at a 45 degree angle… butt end towards the floor.
The slant at which you hold a mic can make a big difference in how wide your ribs are and where your chin is, affecting breath and throat tightness.
More Tips
• Don’t always hold a mic in your hand limply. This can sabotage your breath control. If you are singing easy you can get by with it, but for power do the following:
• Do grasp a mic steady with all your fingers around it. Hold it with energy making it part of your feeling of power.
• Do squeeze a mic in such a way that it expands your ribs and sinuses for extra breath power and control. You can do this with one or both hands around the mic. But
• Don’t squeeze hard all the time…just when you need extra power or control. Keeping a hard grip on the mic without releasing will cause tension to build in your arm, shoulder, neck and voice!
• Don’t cock your wrist severely when you hold a mic. This will cause your arm to squeeze in close to you sides, inhibiting breath.
• Don’t follow the mic with your head forward of your chest. This will cause a tight throat and tight ribcage! If you want to lean forward, do so from the waist.
• Don’t pull the mic so far away from your mouth that it ceases to pick your voice up well. Learn to control your volume by a compression power sensed at the pelvic floor.
• Slightly create a little pull sensation between the mic and your mouth a little to the side on power notes. This can give you more vocal control.