Practice - singing

While arguably just another exercise in health and safety, practicing your work is actually much more than just ensuring you don’t accidentally overwork your stage presence or hit a bum note and throw out your entire routine – funnily enough even an accidental wrong note can mess your throat up something fierce.

In fact, that’s probably the most important reason why you should practice. Getting those notes right isn’t just pleasing to the ears, but practicing your song over and over will ensure you hit those notes just right and don’t accidentally overdo it. That, and accidentally going flat just sucks – you don’t want to be caught short mid-song.

Of course it’s not always just about staying in key and keeping your voice steady. Practicing a song also helps you learn when to breathe. Sometimes it’s incredibly easy to forget to get a quick lungful when there’s a brief pause in a song, and that can cost you a lot of strain. As well as messing your throat up, it just doesn’t sound very nice as the notes you’re singing are much, much harder to uphold if you’ve got nothing in your lungs to push out.

Then there are the words, of course. Everybody’s the victim of getting the words wrong, but if you’ve got a heavy restriction on how many takes you have or – even worse – you’re doing it live, then you don’t want to be forgetting those lyrics. Get it wrong in front of a camera, you can redeem yourself in another take. Get it wrong in front of a crowd, and you lose it.

Timing is everything, too. It’s alright knowing the words, but even if you’re just singing to a backing track, you need to know WHEN to sing. If you break out in to the chorus mid-verse, that just sounds wrong, no matter how right you think it is.

In general, practicing can also strengthen your vocal range merely through pushing yourself a little every time and learning new singing techniques. Watching videos or reading guides on how to get the most out of your voice is a fast track to getting it right – although nothing can fix a bad voice. As long as you have the voice, though, practice and rehearse away.

Health and safety - singing

It might look solely like the fun police came in to ruin the day, but health and safety is kind of a big thing. Without adhering to strict rules in your chosen art form or chosen job, you’ll end up hurting things. Usually people. Including yourself.

As I’m doing a singing related thing for a bit of a recording project in college, this particular health and safety post will be about using your voice to sing things. Should you be one of those rap or R&B singers, I’d recommend you instead learn on how to package small knives in your CD cases. It’s cheaper and gives the same effect as listening to your music when applied to the ear.

Which brings us to a blaringly obvious health and safety violation – sharp objects being swung around or even placed haphazardly around. I’m not sure why you would even need a sharp object when singing, but if, for any reason, it becomes a necessity (maybe you’re doing a gig in a rough area) then make sure you keep an eye on it. If there’s some sort of protective covering, use it. Otherwise, be sure you and your cohorts know where it is – in somebody’s leg is not a valid place.

Keeping your posture is also weirdly important. You might think that singing is all about the lungs and throat, and while that is true, the ability to push the air out is affected by your stance. Standing nice and straight and ensuring you can get a bunch of oxygen through those airways ensures a powerful voice and ensures you’re not straining yourself too much.

Straining yourself is a nasty one, and it’s so easy to do. Just overextending past your vocal range will strain your voice – it’s recommended that you train yourself very carefully. A little bit at a time. If you want to do a high note, I’d save it for a few albums or performances along, when you know you can actually do it.

Every singer worth their salt will do a brief warm-up exercise before they sing. Once more, it helps in the battle against vocal strain – having loosened the old vocal chords by singing the scale a few times will ensure that you both have an easier time singing and won’t mess your throat up quite as easily.

Stress is, oddly, a factor too. Under cases of stress you’re more likely to mess up or go a bit too powerful with your voice and hurt yourself somehow. That, or you could get angry with somebody and violate the sharp object health and safety rules – singing is pretty stressful in a group situation, as is any part of the musical group. Doing a spot of yoga, or listening to some ambient music (or both) can really help you chill out and forget all your fears. Don’t do drugs, kids.

The next one falls more in to the category of live gigs and performances – volume. This is really an all-round thing – I know the kids are going to want to hear some pumping tunes so loud they can hear it a few blocks over, but making those speakers too loud will not only wreck your ears, but also theirs. If not that, then you might end up with a minor case of tinnitus, which can often keep you up with its incessant ringing.

Be careful of trailing wires on the ground, especially with your microphone. We all know the wireless ones aren’t great, and nothing beats a wired bit of gear, just make sure you hold the wire away from yourself if you’re walking around and singing. It’s easy to lose yourself in the music and then have a fight with a wire, which usually ends up in you losing, and whatever (and whoever) you fall in to also getting themselves hurt.

Water is another one of those big things. It’s widely recommended you use a screw-top container of water for various reasons. For one, you’re going to want water. Singing brings the thirst very easily, and singing on a dry throat will strain your throat. The reason it’s recommended you use a screw-top is simple – you’re wandering around electrical equipment here. Nobody wants that stuff wrecked, and nobody wants fires to happen.

If you’re a singer, it’s also widely recommended that you don’t drink or smoke. Now, everybody likes a good drink, but that good drink can often mess your throat up. After all, why do you think some of the cheaper vodkas burn on the way down? Smoking is a no-brainer really, too; your lungs won’t thank you.

Ensure that your microphone is in a comfortable position, even if it’s in your hands. You don’t want to be stooping for the thing all day, and you don’t want to be on your tip-toes. You’ll do your back in, and then have to spend your entire career sitting down.

Learning techniques for singing is essential. Do a few google or youtube searches – better yet, take a few courses in singing. It isn’t a personal insult or a lack of skill on your part if you resort to doing this. It’s the smart thing, and you’re less likely to do yourself in. Proper throat discipline is key.

Lastly but not leastly is the universal rule of work. Take regular breaks. If you overwork your throat, then you’re going to do yourself some damage, and more often than not you won’t be able to talk right for a couple of days. Or sing, for that matter.

So all in all, health and safety takes a pretty broad scope over the job at hand. Singing is in no way as easy as picking up a mic and singing to the tune – it’s as dangerous as any other job, and it’s most definitely not as simple as it looks.

Arbitrary introduction post

(title redacted. Forgot there was a title section)

 

This is exactly why I hate making new blogs - I have to introduce myself for the thousandth time over to a bunch of people I'll probably never even speak to, let alone know the names of. Well, let's get this over with.

 

My name, on the internet, is Sparky Summers. Otherwise, for those that don't know me on the internet and would prefer to stalk me through the medium over the internet, I'm Adam Somerville, a 19 year old autistic writer who studies media full-time at college.

 

I'm currently part of the 'Right Tracks' course, which bridges the gap between the level 2 and 3 courses. It's generally quite pracitcal and I've learned a lot already about what I'd enjoy most in the media business. Unfortunately it's come tagged with the job of keeping a blog of certain things. Much as I like writing off the top of my head, I'm not fully sure they'll appreciate how light hearted I'm running this. Shame, really. I might have to put in some decent effort beyond this post.

 

When I'm not working my media stuff for college, I'm writing. Stories, specifically, of which I've already published one. This already puts me in the publishing sector of media, so I've kind of got a bit of a head start, haven't I?

 

As I write I have a poorly index finger. I sort of gouged it accidentally with a cheese knife. It's got a plaster. I kind of feel special.

 

Welp, on with the actual posts. Onwards to work!