Microphone Technique
When using a uni-directional microphone, there are some important fundamentals to learn, as detailed here.
- Hold the microphone in the palm of your hand with your fingers curled loosely around it, just tightly enough to avoid dropping the microphone but not tightly enough to cause tension.
- Sing directly into the microphone. Many beginning performers unintentionally move sideways away from the mic as they are singing. This means that the sound is lost to the audience and they can’t understand what is being sung. Practice moving around and singing into the microphone. Make sure that when you move sideways your hand keeps the mic in relatively the same position so that your voice goes directly into it at all times. The best position for the mic is just below your mouth at about a 45 degree angle so that the center of the head of the mic is aimed directly at your mouth.
- Depending on the natural volume of your voice along with the sensitivity of the equipment being used, the distance between your mouth and the microphone should vary between one and ten centimeters. During loud passages the microphone should be pulled back slightly in order to balance the overall volume. This will also reduce the chances of "PEE POP", which is the term used to describe the effect created by "hard" consonants such as b, d, g and particularly p exploding out of the singer’s mouth and onto the microphone (this can be overcome by articulating consonants lightly, along with moving the microphone slightly away from the mouth when accenting words or sounds).
- Avoid touching the microphone with your mouth, as the sound will distort and unwanted sounds produced by the contact will be amplified along with your singing.
- If you are moving around while you are singing, stay away from the "front of house" speakers or you may experience feedback problems. As long as you are somewhere behind or at the most, level with the front of house speakers, but a reasonable distance from them, you shouldn’t have any feedback problems.
Class Sessions
1- Understanding Music
2- The Major Scale
3- Voice Types and Ranges
4- Sharps (<span class="symbolA">#</span>) and Flats (<span class="symbolA">b</span>)
5- The Tie
6- Rests
7- The Triplet
8- Sixteenth Notes
9- Dynamics
10- Intervals
11- Minor Keys and Scales
12- Transposing
13- Performing In Public
14- How We Sing
15- Slurs
16- Interval Distances
17- Breathing
18- The Sixteenth Note Triplet
19- Swing Rhythms
20- Cut Common Time (<span class="symbolA">W</span>)
21- The Chromatic Scale
22- Harmony and Chords
23- Octave Displacement
24- Overcoming Nerves
25- How to Find Your Voice Range
26- Syncopation
27- The Importance of Timing
28- How to Read Music
29- Call and Response
30- Simple and Compound Time
31- Identifying Intervals by Ear
32- Chord Progressions
33- The Keyboard
34- Phrasing and Expression
35- Interpretation and Improvisation
36- When to Breathe
37- Posture
38- Eye Contact
39- The Lead-In
40- Sol-Fa Syllables
41- Practical Use of Enharmonic Notes
42- Instinct and Training
43- Matching Pitches
44- Keys
45- Moving Between Registers
46- Chord Symbols
47- Arpeggios
48- Repetition and Variation
49- Stage Presence and Stage Craft
50- Accidentals
51- Blues Singing
52- Rhythm Training
53- Harmonizing Melodies
54- The Language of Rock
55- Developing Your Own Style
56- Vibrato
57- Relative Minor Keys
58- The Octave
59- The Key of C Major
60- The Blues Scale
61- A Word About Pitch
62- Matching Pitches and Rhythms
63- Warming Up
64- Common Progressions
65- Singing Scale Degrees
66- Vocal Range
67- Looking After Your Voice
68- Timbre
69- Microphones
70- Pre-Hearing Notes
71- Microphones for Performing Live
72- Common Problems
73- Studio Microphones
74- Registers
75- Microphone Technique
76- Working With A Teacher
77- Recording