out to the crowd.....................

ive been playing guitar for about 5 years, so i know how to play pretty well. not saying im jimmy page haha but i think i would be a good challenge to any crap the new radio stations throw at me haha and im sure most of you guys could too. but big problem i always had was i played a open mic night at a close by bar and was playing johnny b good. solo. got the guitar part perfect but my vocals were weak and terrible at the time of performance. i had practiced vocals for a month and even before, i had always looked up to robert plant and was able to hit a g5 and sounded relistic, to me it sounded great, got the guitar down in a day, but when the moment of thruth came, i choked. can anyone reccomend any tips on how to overcome stage fright? also i try to record myself but same thing happens, any tips? and also any tips for being able to play lead & rythem on guitar WHILE singing. big problem i always had. please help

Just keep doing it over and over every chance you get.

Jack Daniels and Autotune. Nuff said.

Just keep doing it and realize that everyone there is in the same boat as you and probably started out being just as scared. Hang in there.

Everyone chokes more or less...some singers have made it into their trademark to have that trembly, excited sound to their voice (think earlier Pearl Jam for instance)...it's just a matter of doing it a lot to counter it. First dozen or so gigs I ever gave I had a terrible stomach ache afterwards from somehow constricting my stomach muscles excessively due to being so tense, plus like swallowing too much air. Later on, I just need to pee ten times in the last hour before I hit the stage :)

One thing is that when you're home etc. you tend to sing really quietly as opposed to what's required live...it is no use practicing quietly really for live vocals, you have to use enough volume & that's hard to practice maybe. Don't worry so much about words or pronunciation or how exactly the phrasing should be etc, just go for it with enough volume and follow the guitar rhythm...it'll start locking in.

But once you sing loud...I have just one important tip to offer, really...the WORST thing you can do is sing an awkward, insecure note loud. I can belt it out for six hours at full blast as long as I know the notes I'm hitting and am on key...but the thing is, if you hit a wrong note, it just kills the throat like nothing else. One good scream at an off note, and it's done for the day - can't put out no more higher notes. But once you're so sure of the notes you sing - I mean, you have to be able to for instance start a song without any music to hear the key first, you just gotta be able to sing out a clear A for instance without any support. Kind of...you need to develop a partially perfect pitch for certain notes.

I wonder why that is, but it's true, and after a while it's easy...it's like the throat had like grooves in it, and as long as the notes go along the right grooves, all is well, but if some note slips outta its groove, it rips away at the side walls of the grooves, and it actually hurts, and it screws up the entire throat for a good while. Or, like if you're shooting with a bow, and are not properly holding on and really doing it all the way, chances are the bow slips and you end up with a sprained arm muscle and a huge bruise. Yeah, it's much like that.

So it's like the most important thing is, whatever you do, make sure you can do it with conviction in any situation or it'll blow in your face.