Tomorrow night is gonna be cold and i'm singing an open air gig.

UncleGoatLips

Tomorrow night is gonna be cold and i'm singing an open air gig. And I struggle with my voice as is in the cold/dry winter months. Anyone found any tips regarding voice care/warming up for such a situation?

I sing gruffy voiced Hard/Classic rock:

http://www.juggernaughtmanrock.co.za/personaluseherman/02%20One%20of%20them%20Days.mp3
http://www.juggernaughtmanrock.co.za/personaluseherman/03%20The%20Storm.mp3

I'm sure stressing about it isn't helping me much either ?

Bob-Dubery

I can't advise about warming up, but I'd avoid anything cold before the gig (summer would be different, but not a cold winter's night) and certainly no dairy. I find black rooibos tea with honey is a good pre-gig lubricator. That may be in the head BUT it is warm and there is no dairy.

singemonkey

Jack Daniels is time-honoured classic ?

Keep a scarf on. Keep warm. Warm up the voice.

Ray

Jack

Averatu

Hum your songs for 30 min before you go on, but dont push, and the scarf is very good advice. Alcohol in moderation, it numbs you to possible damage caused by pushing too hard.

UncleGoatLips

Good advice, I also keep sucking on lozengers before the show.

Averatu

UncleGoatLips wrote: Good advice, I also keep sucking on lozengers before the show.

Careful with those, peppermint is good, it opens the blood vessels, as does cayenne pepper. You get special lozenges, but lacking those humming would serve you better. The vocalist of the band I played in previously went thru the whole list of tricks, flask of green/mint/rooibos tea, lozenges, no talking, lots of talking etc, and mild vocal exercises/humming did the trick.

I was at a open air night gig a few weeks ago, it was so freaking cold, I was so glad we weren't playing.

AlanRatcliffe

I always used to use Sen-Sen or Fisherman's Friends. Haven't bothered for years though...

I'm playing an open air gig at lunchtime. Fortunately the weather seems like it's gonna be warm enough...

Averatu

So did you try any of the tricks provided? I shall call you 'Guinea Gig'.

Fingerpicker

Old Brown Sherry works for me.

You may find that keeping your guitar in tune is also a problem.

UncleGoatLips

I sang like an angel!

Well, I got a bit tired toward the end there but I pitched allright and had good tone etc.

I actually sucked some halls (yes, the spelling is correct) AND hummed to myself about 40 minutes before the gig, drank lots of water all day because of the dry air an' all but it worked out fine for me, I have another open air gig on 30 July, i'm going to do exactly the same things in the name of science!

Averatu

Brilliant!

VellaJ

UncleGoatLips wrote: I actually sucked some halls (yes, the spelling is correct)

Ah, us immature teenagers could have so much fun with that ?

Nitebob

Got a tip from a performer once (keep it a family secret) apparently works well when doing gigs 2 nights in a row. Cortosone...not sure about the spelling, but you get the idea. Me, I stick to Honey and Lemon Rooibos the week going into a gig...