datamusicata

Last night I finished the last of three dates in a row.  And my goal was to sing great for all three dates.   I don't usually book three nights in a row, but that's how it worked out.  The first two dates were house concerts with no sound systems, so I had to play a little harder and sing a little harder to project, but I also knew that I had to make certain that my voice lasted for all three dates.

With a sound system, this is never a problem as I evidently sing correctly, or at least in such a way that I don’t shred my voice by the end of a gig. I do tend to give myself plenty of water, plenty of air in my lungs and plenty of open mouth notes. The more you open your mouth and relax your throat, the easier it is to sing.

Last night’s show at the Cutting Room in NYC (www.thecuttingroomnyc.com ) on 24^th street was actually the best show of the three.  I think that I sang and played the best of the three nights, which were all very successful shows.  Very gratifying to work hard and deliver the goods. 

Now the Cutting Room is one of those rooms that has several acts each night and they all to load in and load out before the next act can load in and do their show, so I wanted to make certain that I had everything, including me, equipment and merchandise, ready to go exactly at showtime.

I was scheduled to play at 9:45 pm, so I got to the Cutting Room at 6 pm only to find that there were no dressing rooms and no place really safe to put my equipment, merchandise and instrument. Howard, the bartender, showed me to a hallway and indicated that I could warm up there.

So I sat in this pink cinderblock hallway right next to the kitchen and the kitchen heat and played my guitar for several hours. Just playing easy and singing easy and loosening up the stiff vocal chords. When you sing a lot, the vocal chords actually get sore. This is the same as when you take along run or play a sport. And you know from that experience that if you stretch and go easy, the muscles loosen up and you can do everything with them after a bit. That’s what I was doing with my voice. Easing into singing.

Then the other band showed up and because they were on before me, I deferred to them and let them warm up in the hallway. I went upstairs, where the lovely Kate brought me some dinner, which I ate while I waited to have access to a warm up area again.

I bring up the dinner because I have always heard that you should not eat for hours and hours before you sing, but for me that doesn’t seem to be true. Whenever I notice that my voice is a little stiff and the high notes somewhat brittle, I know that if I sing for a while and then have a little bite to eat, the notes smooth out. Don’t know why and don’t know if that would work for everyone, but it works for me and it might work for you.

In the showroom, the opening act finished up and the act before me took the stage. WFUV was sponsoring the set and they were broadcasting live, so there were lots of people there prepared to cheer their brains out.

The show went a bit longer than the hour that they were scheduled and then the show ended. Instead of breaking down their equipment and making the stage available for the next act, the band mates went out into the street for cigarettes and the string player and the lead singer stood on the stage and schmoozed folks. I bumped into the guitar player who asked when I was going on. I told him that I would as soon as they got their stuff off the stage. O man, he said, sorry, I guess I better get cracking. And he proceeded to gather his gear.

However, the stage wasn’t cleared and the room set up for me for almost an hour. Consequently, my 9:45 show didn’t start until 10:35, almost an hour later than scheduled. So I am suggesting that when you play a venue that requires you to share the stage, that you get your equipment set up as fast as possible for your show, and when the show is over, get everything off the stage as quickly as possible.

This is simple courtesy to the other acts and to the people that came to see them. There is also the added plus that you don’t have to be thinking about anything else when you finally wander out to the bar or to the street for a cigarette. You can relax. You’ve done your bit and you’ve packed up your tent. You are free to enjoy the rest of the evening, maybe even the next act that you helped get onto the stage on time.