You are right Genie, I was talking about people singing in informal or at least unpaid settings, not professional gigs.
I am just a lowly folkie layman who enjoys a sing in fairly informal sessions, often on the 'fringe' of folk festivals in a more informal setting of a pub or a club room etc. So I guess the key word here is 'informal'!

I've only started to do a song or few myself in the past two years so I am still very much a novice at it.
But having said that I am fascinated by the view point and sage comments of all the professional and semi-professional performers here on this thread.
They have a lot of wisdom and years of hard fought experience which is invaluable and I think that even some of the old hands themselves are learning something from each other here in the many suggestions and techniques that have been discussed.

Hey, it's all good stuff folks!

And Genie, - who is SongBob ?