Microphone Technique
When using a uni-directional microphone, there are some important fundamentals to remember:
- 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 (articulating consonants lightly can also help avoid this problem).
- 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.