Singing: Overcome Performance Anxiety by Forming a Game Plan

For every singing performance, make a plan of action for success. Assuming that you’re going to succeed means that you will. Assuming that you’re going to fail is the same as giving in to those voices in your head. Reframe those stupid things people have said to you in the past about your performing abilities. Being critical is human nature, but remember that it’s only one person’s opinion.

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Try these tips to get your game plan in place:

• Make a specific timeline to get yourself ready to sing at the time of your performance. After you develop your practice routine, you’ll know how long it takes for your voice to be ready to sing at your best. You can plan your warm-up time for the day of your performance to get ready. Consider these suggestions:
  • Take time to vocalize or warm up the notes you’ll sing in the performance.
  • Vocalize long enough for your voice to be singing at your peak when you walk on the stage.
  • On the performance day, sing through your song enough times that you feel confident, but not so many times that your voice feels tired.
• Invite someone who helps boost your confidence. Do you know someone who can encourage you as you walk out for the performance? Discuss your fears with this friend or confidant and then discuss your feelings after the performance. You may find that your perception of that awful note isn’t what your friend heard. Having a support system with you helps you quiet negative thoughts that may creep into your head.
• Look at each performance as an opportunity to succeed. You have to expect success before you can achieve it. Success doesn’t just happen, but you can make it happen.
• Practice what you intend to do. If you plan to take a moment and take a breath before you begin to sing your song, practice it that way. Taking that moment to quiet your mind and settle your racing heart is worth it. By practicing and visualizing your success, you can more easily make it happen.

  You can also practice walking across the stage, singing your song, and then bowing. You may have to practice this in your living room, but you want to practice what you’re going to experience in the performance.

• Chart your improvement. Make a list of what you want to accomplish, and, with each performance, shoot to accomplish one more task on the list.

  For example, the first task may be remembering all the words. By practicing with distractions at home, you boost your ability to concentrate. When you remember all the words at your first performance, you may want to try remembering the words and breathing consistently at the second performance.

  Just getting the breath in your body and then using it helps with many other technical problems. Give yourself a gold star when you achieve each goal.

Before singing your song in public, try it in front of some friends. If you give smaller performances a few times before your big one, the song may seem familiar and not so scary.

 

How to Adjust the Truss Rod on a Bass Guitar

As the weather changes from season to season, the wood in the neck of your bass guitar can bend or straighten slightly. If you know how to adjust the truss rod on a bass guitar, you can counteract those changes and keep your bass sounding great.

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Changes in temperature, pressure, and humidity can cause the wood to bend. The change in position can cause the strings to either pull away from the frets or rest against them; this makes playing almost impossible because the strings need space to vibrate freely over the entire length of the neck.

There needs to be a slight gap between the strings and the frets. To determine how much action is enough

1. Press the E string down at the first fret with your left hand and hold it.
2. Press the E string down at the last fret with your right hand.

This should open up a gap between the strings and the 7th and 12th frets (about the thickness of a credit card).

If the curvature of your bass neck is not correct, you need to adjust the truss rod. To adjust the action, turn the screw in the truss rod to change the curvature of the neck.

• If the gap is too large, insert the Allen wrench or Phillips screwdriver into the screw (located either on the headstock or at the other end of the neck) and then tighten the truss rod by turning the screw clockwise.
• If your strings buzz when you play on the first four frets (near the headstock), you need to loosen the truss rod by turning the wrench or screwdriver counterclockwise.

Generally, you’ll want to use the small Allen wrench that comes with your bass. If you lose this wrench, you can get another one from your local music store or the bass manufacturer. On other basses, the screw of the truss rod requires a Phillips screwdriver.

Don’t try to force the truss rod with anything that doesn’t quite fit. If you strip the truss rod, it’ll cost you. Turn the truss rod only between one-quarter and one-half of a turn per day. You need to allow the wood to settle before you do any more adjustments.

On some basses, you have to remove the neck from the body in order to reach the truss rod screw. Don’t attempt to loosen the screws at the back of the bass that hold the neck in place without first loosening the tension of the strings. Otherwise, the neck will snap off, stripping away the wood that holds the screws.

 

Breath Control in Singing

Gaining coordination of the muscles that control breathing takes time and consistent practice, but is essential to improving your singing. Athletes know that they have to train consistently to teach the muscles in their body to respond exactly the way they want, singers are no different.

Over time, the muscles remember how to move and you don’t have to think about it. You want this to happen for breathing and singing: You want to practice the breathing exercises enough that you can rely on them to work efficiently so you can focus on the story you’re telling.

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Athletes also know that working out and doing physical conditioning is crucial to develop the ability to transport oxygen quickly throughout the body. When you’re singing, you’re moving a lot of air and your body needs to be in good shape so you can handle the endurance required to sing for an entire performance.

You don’t have to be thin, but you have to be in good shape. Your workout at the gym also helps your breathing for singing.

Pushing yourself just a little beyond your comfort zone helps you develop stamina and endurance. Your muscles may feel warm or tired after you work on the breathing exercises, which is perfectly normal. Extreme fatigue is a sign that something isn’t right in your practice session, but it’s normal to feel tired and need to rest for a time before you can practice more.

To give yourself an opportunity to work on more advanced breathing exercises, keep reading and working through the exercises. They aren’t too advanced for you, especially if you’ve been exploring other exercises and are comfortable with what moves as you breathe.

If you’re new to singing, moving too quickly to the advanced exercises without practicing the basics doesn’t give you an opportunity to make the movement a habit. It takes some time to make correct breathing a habit, but once done, you won’t have to worry about changing gears when it’s time to sing.