3 BIG mistakes singers make on stage - advice for singers
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- Опубліковано 9 лют 2025
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In today’s video, we’re going to be talking about 3 really common, really BIG mistakes that beginners make on stage. These mistakes might as well be HUGE signs to the audience that say, “Hey! I don’t know what I’m doing!” But you don’t have to make these mistakes. No you don’t! I’ll give you some pointers that will allow you to be prepared for anything on stage! Here we go!
1. Messy Mix
This mistake is more geared towards bands or folks that play with instruments live. And this mistake is they set the audio levels to favor the instruments, and NOT the singer…Hello! The human voice is not capable of overpowering a full band. Sure! We want to hear the music, and those awesome improving solo’s that the guitarist or drummer‘s can do…. But when the instruments are favored on the house mix instead of balanced with the vocalist all we get is muddied noisy noise. And the singer is freaking out cuz they can’t hear themselves and their screaming trying to overcompensate. (There goes all that preparation and practice!) And we are sitting in the audience feeling embarrassed for everyone.
Solution:
Ok, so what can you do?? Well, take your time with your sound check. If you’re lucky enough to have a good sound engineer through the venue or in your band….Go out of your way to make this person happy! They are making you sound good! But if you’re in a band where everyone does a little bit of everything be sure to set your levels correctly. A great way for everyone to hear their own performance on stage, and make the adjustments that are needed is either a floor monitor, or in ear monitors. Although floor monitors can help. They can also complicate the acoustics on stage. Which can really mess up how everyone is hearing himself or herself on stage. I really recommend some form of in ear monitors. This allows for each performer to hear an individualized blend of their instrument and the mix.
2. Advertising your mistakes.
This mistake literally drives me nuts!!! I’m there, enjoying the performance, feeling the moment…. and then it happens. That face that looks like you just stuck your finger in a light socket. Magic’s over! All I can think about now is that you made a mistake, and you told me all about it. Don’t advertise your mistakes!! Sure, stuff is going to happen on stage. Recover. The funny thing about tension is that it draws attention. When your face contorts, or your body flinches…you can bet your biscuits and gravy that’s all the audience can see.
Solution:
Take command of your body and your experience. As you practice, watch yourself in a mirror. See what your body is doing. Does it move around like it has a mind of it’s own. Do you drop your energy in a performance if things don’t go your way? Another great thing you can do is video record yourself. Watch your performance after each take for any signs that you’re advertising your mistakes. Your performances will mirror your practice. So be aware. Often time’s people will react to something that they experienced as a mistake, but the audience didn’t see it. So if we didn’t see it…It didn’t happen.
3. Lack of endurance.
I’ve noticed this the most with singers who don’t necessarily have good vocal habits. What I mean by that is that they may sound good, but lack the fundamental muscle memory for great support and endurance. They get easily winded and strained by the needs of the music. So by the time they finish a set, their voice is fried like chicken! This is BIG trouble if you are performing consistently from one gig to the next. If you notice that your voice sounds foggy or breathy after a set, or you have to squeeze your chords in order to make any sound you may have swelling on your chords. THIS IS NOT NORMAL! You only have one-voice folks. Treat it well!
Solution:
That will only contribute to those bad habits and could quickly lead to a vocal injury. I mean take the time to train your voice. Break your rehearsals down into technique then performance. Having good vocal technique shouldn’t change or overly polish your sound. Good vocal technique is invisible. It allows you to express yourself freely while remaining safe and supported. You might ask, “Madeleine where would I get started?” Excellent question! On my website, I have many downloadable lessons for you to practice good technique. Please feel free to visit my website at MadeleineHarvey.com or click the link below. On the downloads page, you can select an area of your voice that you would like to work on. I recommend that you concentrate on the area called Endurance and Stamina for singing. There are 6 lessons listed there that will get you well on your way.
Royalty free music for intro and outro from www.audiomicro.com | Copyright: "Sentimental Stories" by Katzy
Please (from a sound eng.) make a video explaining how to hold a microphone, and how to behave with the mic and your monitor wedges and avoid problems like feedback caused so many time by a bad mic holding in your hand. On stage for a singer the mic is part of their instrument and I found myself in so many shows "fighting" with the vocal channel, the singer's wedge or even the PA because of this. Thanks! : )
I don't know if you still have a channel because all the videos that I see are from years ago. I'd love to see current ones also. They are so helpful and I appreciate each one!
Damn thank you for this video. You’re the only singing teacher I’ve come across who respects that bands cannot be louder than vocals. I did a gig a while back with my band (a couple of others performed too), and “professional” sound tech people were mixing the sound. Nobody could hear even the loudest of vocalists. I asked the techies to adjust it for all of the singers, but they just told us to project more. The majority of us (including me) lost our voices for over 3 days. Thank you for addressing this point! At least I know that it’s normal to not exceed the loudness of instruments lol
Last month we had a reopening of the place where I normally go to Jam Sessions since summer of 2015 here in the Netherlands. The musicians and I, the singer, were performing outside and there were quite some people there. Later I was told by the "old" band leader, who usually plays the Saxophone, that he had to turn down the microphone since people complained that my voice was too hard. I did not even notice it to be honest! Then after the 4 songs I was told by two people from the audience that they could not hear what I was singing. And then I talked to our "new group leader, the main guitar player and he told me that as a singer I have to be able to sing without a microphone. True but that to me counts for an acoustic version with one or two guitars or a keyboard/piano. I am not an Opera Singer. In 2010 I started taking singing lessons for 5 1/2 years and specialized myself for old light Jazz music since my voice is authentic then. With the musicians I usually sing Pop, Rock, Soul, a bit of Reggae. And sometimes with the hard drumming I had trouble hearing myself and said it too...
Good video! #2 is really good advice. An adequate soundcheck is essential to a confidant and relaxed performance! I like that you pointed out the fact that the human voice is the quietest source on stage and should be focused on during the soundcheck. A quality sound engineer can really make a difference there. Cheers!
+Dan mesnard I'm so glad you liked it! Yes, I learned that lesson a couple of times the hard way! And one simply can not sing over a drum set!
you should do a video on how to sing the national anthem that would really help me when i preform
You are a great teacher! Very helpful ideas for the stage :)
Thank You for your videos. You explain Very well what singing is about and particularly for me who is 64 and a complete aotodidacte and beginner. It is Funny that i have not lost my voice at my age! And i have a high pitch voice, soprano type but as You say i can hurt my vocal cords. It seems that when i started in september with opera songs, it was really crazy but now i keep to easier songs. You aré a life saver with your videos for autodidactes like me. Looking forward to discover more of your classes.
OMG! thanks for the info Madeleine.
you are so smart thank you for the tips I'm making a song so you will be very helpful : )
Very Well Put--Good Info For All.
I wish ...I had a sister like you♥Stay blessed!!
Unfortunately, opera singers must be able to cover a full orchestra without using the mic, which is something I haven’t still achieved 😢😢😢
I Am completely new to singing and for practice i have sang karaoke three times in a noisy bar in Andalusia. The noise really annoys me because i cannot hear my voice. But ti is less nerveracking. So that is how i am practicing with noise.
Very nice
Mam ....please do more videos♥
we are a jamaican boy band and we enjoys watching your videos love your channel
+4 EFEK Big hugs from the states! Thank you for your kind words! I'm so glad you enjoy these videos!
great video :)
Please make more videos! You are a life saver
how do i develop a very good vocal technique
oh tell me about it! I don't sing with a band because I get totally drowned out and the sound engineer never did anything to fix it. The worst thing is that everyone else said they could hear me but I couldn't hear myself sing so it sounded awful. No one else ever seems to have this problem though-they all manage to sing perfectly with a band
your voice may just not carry very well, the mic your using is inappropriate, your mic handling skills need work, the engineer may have reached a point where their is no more gain before feeding or you may have some how annoyed or pissed off the engineer (that dose happen and you many not even know).
In the first case their not much you can do - the engineer needs to compress the signal hard and use a lot of make up gain (in the analogue would that means extra out bound gear) or you need to sing up or move the mic closes to your mouth (thus engineer has more gain before feedback = the ability to make you louder in the wedge). If your already doing the later two solutions then their isn't much you can do. Their is also only so much an engineer can compress a signal before it sound distorted.
The most common mic out their for vocals is the SM58 (or clones) which isn't grate for female vocals. So try an BETA58 (or clone or equivalent) as its frequency response is boosted in the top end. Remember SM stands for Studio Mic and Shure originally designed it for general studio work however it just also happens to be a well regarded for live use.
And lest not forget be nice to the sound guy/s - he is their to help you but he is also probably doing 3+ jobs that have been historically handled by separate people. FOH and Monitoring on larger sound crews is normally handled by two or more people. Their will be an monitoring engineer on stage that is their to mix your monitors from a dedicated mixer (he is also their to prevent feedback through the use of several graphic equalisers).
But on smaller crews FOH and monitoring is handled by one person and the FOH mixer which probably doesn't half half the correct external hardware to do monitoring. Like wise the engineer is also doing some stage management and a lot of engineers don't exactly have the best social skills to do that as well.
You also have to remember that an engineer is interacting with ~8+ people on and off stage and he has to figure out which stakeholders to listen to, what is expectable to ignore and then the they also have to manage a complex system which has thousands of things to manage.
Thanks for the advice ( : Im totally OK when its karaoke cause I can still hear myself but the whole band thing is tough. I think its probably cause my voice is too quiet anyway because Ive done a bit of amatuer dramatics and people said they couldnt hear me very well
How about when you singing and your walk around on stage is that a mistake ?🤔
Number 2- 3:20
Hi, I'm Sabrina. I love and appreciate your videos! Just a quick question. When I am singing, my biggest problem is a disconnect (between the lyrics, the song, and the crowd) that even I can feel although just prior to being in front of the crowd I FELT the connection while alone. I believe that if I could just figure out where to direct my emotions and voice the performance would be better. I sing gospel and can never figure out if I am singing to and for the audience, to and for myself, or to and for God. I just can't seem to connect with anything! Please let me know in your opinion what you think! Thanks so much!
+Sabrina Mckinney Thanks so much for sharing your experience! It can be a bit crazy and confusing as to where to direct your energy. I say, It always depends. It's so specific to each person. For me, it's always about getting over myself, and being as honest as I can through the performance. Gospel is so great, because there is such an intent to connect. You never have to wonder with Gospel or worship music..."Who are they talking to?" So, surrender as deeply as you can. Allow yourself to move others by being moved yourself. Let the music sing you....with that type of vulnerability, you are sure to feel connected to every person in the room. I really hope this helps. I just finished another video that is similar to this topic, here's the link...
madeleineharvey.com/voice-lessons/how-to-sing-with-confidence/
+Madeleine Harvey okay thanks so much!
Your videos helped me a lot. by the way you're so beautiful:-)
hehehe! Thank you so much! I'm really glad the videos are helping you! ; )
oh my gosh!!! you replied!!! I'm so happy:-):-)
Of course! Thank you for commenting! Welcome to my musical family!
The Muffin man...lol Good Video.
+weerobot LOL! I totally forgot about the Muffin man!! ; ) So glad you liked this video!
For the love of the muffin man? You're crazy, you're wild, you're out there.
Now I know why artists are the poorest profession in general speaking. They can not get straight to the point. People don't have time to hear one point useful with other rubbish wrapped around.
Number 3- 7:18