[Scott Dorsey]

Jeff Henig wrote:

I was a voice major, and never once was any kind of mic technique taught.
That had to come from experimentation, watching and listening to the advice
of more experienced singers, and my own failures in practical application.

And this is common, and it's how so many people wind up developing bizarre
mike techniques that sound guys have to work around.

But on the other hand we have folks who deliberately use what would otherwise
be bad technique, to good effect. There are folks who eat the microphone to
good effect, and those people have learned how to do a lot of other things
like not breathe directly into the mike.

Then we have stuff like beatboxing, which is sort of a microphone technique
and sort of a performance technique at the same time.

What worries me that I see so few singers coming out of non-classical vocal
programs today who can project. When I was a kid, broadway shows were all
done live and acoustic. Today they have a million channels of wireless and
some of that is because the overall levels are much higher but some of it
is just because few performers are capable of projecting. And of course this
results in stylistic changes (which you could argue are improvements if you
want).

I'd have killed to have had a proper commercial music program available
where I could've learned in a non-public environment rather than learning
by public embarrassment.

I will say, however, that embarrassment is a seriously effective tutor...

Just go to Youtube and look at the number of people just sitting down and
singing. Most of them, I look at them and I wonder why in the hell they
have put this thing up there. On the other hand we also get:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBqfahqq7jM
--scott


--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."