harpoet...
Adjusting a song's key in layman's terms means simply making it easier to sing. If a song's high notes are a struggle for you, you lower the key or 'take it down,' if it's the low notes that are the problem, 'take it up.' If it's a little bit of a struggle but you can still hit the note, just not very well, adjust it by 1 up or down respectively. If it's a note you usually can't hit without the voice cracking, try taking it up or down 2 respectively. I steer clear of adjusting the song by 3 or more because the quality of the backing music seems to suffer but to each their own.

Barri Tone...
I love the idea. World broadcast would be a buzz though, personally, I'd need some live audience as well to really get into it. As for microphone technique, just don't cover the mic and be sure to point it AT your mouth - not your chin or nose, not the ceiling, not the floor nor the walls but AT your MOUTH. Pull it away for louder notes and bring it in closer for softer ones. Keep it a few inches away for normal volume, that is, the volume at which you are neither powering nor almost whispering.

Rovics...
Valid points on the mic technique there. Personally, I think the whole treble and low sound problem ought to be a thing of the past now. I know in the 1950s the whole pulling away for treble/highs and closer for bass/lows was all there was to it but with current EQ technology, if a KJ knows what they are doing sound wise, they can eliminate that muddy sound up close with proper mixing - dependent on the gear they have not being hopelessly out of date of course.
I'm no stranger to that muddy sound as I am a deep voiced singer naturally though I do keep picking all these testicularly challenged singers' songs lol. Anyway, I'm not sure but I assume the mix for me would have to be the opposite from most singers in that I need less bass, not more. I must be a nightmare for KJs though as I keep picking different songs with different ranges and attack these songs with different approaches (soft, loud, screeching or growling, mellow crooning, etc) dependent on the artistic requirements of the song so I can't be too upset when I hear myself for one song sounding crisp and clear and then the next sounding like the bass has dropped completely from my voice, I guess...
Just to get back to that whole repertoire vs quality question, I'll often just 'have a go' with a song and if it's a crowd pleaser, I may do it the following week or so (as well as trying new stuff with my other picks). There are some old faithfuls but when I've done them to death already, there's little motivation to do them again save for requests or lots of eye candy to motivate onto the dance floor with a boppy number. Heheheheh. It's all about the eye candy. If I turned up to a joint and there was not one woman to sing to, I'd probably not bother. It's so annoying when I choose songs especially for the ladies' benefit only to see they've all disappeared by the time I get to sing! I don't know what Freud or Jung would make of that. lol Just a personal preference, really. Anyone else have similar sentiments about audience preference (assuming they're a well behaved lot)?
Submitted by Johnny B on 10-06-2006

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