Singing Sick

Subject: RE: Singing Sick
From: Anglo
Date: 13 Jan 09 - 03:04 PM

Many years ago I broke my wrist (yeah, yeah, morris leapfrog after too much cognac). My singing partner and I sing many 2-part a capella songs, but when we accompany I play the instruments. We had a number of gigs coming up. We offered everyone the opportunity to cancel - a few did. Most said, come along and do it anyway. We did, had a great time, so did the audiences. Nobody complained about not getting their money's worth.

Another time I had laryngitis, and was forbidden to speak. My partner does most of the lead singing, I generally do the harmony. I played the instruments and sat there. Communication was fun. The audience was mostly in hysterics. Again nobody complained.

And another time my partner was in hospital. Rather than a solo show (which I have offered in similar circumstances, again giving the organizer the option to cancel), I brought an available friend, a recognized performer, as my "partner," and we alternated songs, accompanying and singing with each other when it was appropriate. Of course I cleared this with the organizer. The audience had a great time.

You do what you've gotta do, and folk music should be flexible enough to adapt. If you really can't perform, cancel. But especially in the States, where "coffeehouse" concert series usually do one a month and book the whole year in advance, it's not easy to reschedule. Villan and Breezy would probably have cancelled me, but they would have missed something different. It's not necessarily the performer's job to reproduce his recordings.

Subject: RE: Singing Sick
From: Rasener
Date: 13 Jan 09 - 03:37 PM

Hi Anglo
I don't think that I would necessarily have cancelled in your case, becuase you had the decency to get in touch with the organiser and discuss it. You did the right thing and recognised that you had a contract with the organiser.
It has to do with the performer who thinks that they can do just what they like and ride rough shod over the organiser. They think that it doesn't matter if they put in a poor performance, they are more concerned about getting their money. In such cases the organiser can lose his/her credibilty with their audience and this can result in people not coming any more.
I pay good money and I expect a performance that goes with that.
I have only once cancelled a group. They were a trio and one of them couldn't make it. They asked if 2 of them could do the gig instead. I said that I booked the trio and thats what I wanted. They understood and I put somebody else on.

Incidentally these are our artist booking policies that we expect when we book an artist. So before we book somebody we tell them to look at our contract as well as send us their contract terms. if we are in agreement we book.
http://www.faldingworthlive.co.uk/artist_bookings.htm

We owe it to our audience to apply our policies. They pay the money. Without them, we don't have a concert.

Cheers
Les

Subject: RE: Singing Sick
From: GUEST,TJ in San Diego
Date: 13 Jan 09 - 03:57 PM

Take heart. By some accounts, the best I ever sang was while navigating through a Darvon haze the afternoon after having two wisdom teeth removed. Total lack of inhibitions? Dunno, but my singing partners seemed to agree. I never took up serious drinking or drugs, though, despite their suggestions that it might help the group.

Subject: RE: Singing Sick
From: GUEST,Jed at the Library
Date: 13 Jan 09 - 05:21 PM

As a performer, it is my job to deliver the music. There is always some sort of compromise, the room, the gear, the weather, the crowd - but it is still my job to deliver the music. So I've learned to do just that, no matter what distractions there may be. Singing with a cold is one of those distractions.

I was feeling like sh*t but managed to do a good show and had a very enjoyable time, even though I was sick.

Subject: RE: Singing Sick
From: GUEST,Jed at the Library
Date: 13 Jan 09 - 05:28 PM

les - I read through your policy and it looks like it's based on common sense and reasonable expectations. I don;t know that I'd have told you I was feeling poorly, if I was working your club - to be quite honest - because I'm sure I'd have done OK anyway and I was the only one who was going to suffer. And because as I said I make a living at music - at performing fokl music - and I cannot afford to stay home just becasue my sinus is stuffed! To be fair, most people go tow or at the office or the school or the factory when they have a cold ... but at those places they often have sick pay.

Subject: RE: Singing Sick
From: Don Firth
Date: 13 Jan 09 - 05:49 PM

Not a case where I was sick, but I tend to think I might have been a bit "impaired" at the time. Good thing I didn't have to drive that night. But it worked out quite well, apparently.

I was singing at "The Place Next Door," one of Seattle's nicer coffeehouses. While I was holding forth out front, Bob Clark, owner of the place was back in the kitchen, experimenting with various kinds of fruit drinks that he thought he might add to the menu. He came up with something fairly tasty, and between sets, he brought me a glass of it for my assessment and approval. But—he added a little something to it that he thought I might enjoy, but since "The Place" didn't have a liquor license, he wouldn't be adding the extra ingredient to the customer's drinks. One helluva belt of vodka! The drink was so smooth and tasty, the booze went down the pipe very nicely, but there must have been a lot of it.

Anyway, for the rest of the evening, I sang a whole bunch, was thoroughly enjoying myself, and getting round after round of enthusiastic applause from the audience. I knew it was going well, but as far as I could tell, I wasn't doing anything that I didn't usually do.

But song-wise and entertainment-wise, it was a great evening. The next evening when I came in to sing, Bob Clark said, "Boy, you were really on last Saturday! I think I want to keep you a little bombed all the time!"

Like I say, I don't know what I was doing that was any different. I really wished I'd been there. . . .

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Singing Sick
From: JedMarum
Date: 15 Jan 09 - 12:38 AM

Ha Don!

Good story. I don't even drink - but at this point, I don;t suppose it would actually enhance my abilities!

still, ya never know...

Subject: RE: Singing Sick
From: PoppaGator
Date: 15 Jan 09 - 03:18 PM

Jed ~ still here?

I'm curious about that very nice "Annie Laurie" video, specifically in how the guitar was recorded. I know that you have some expertise (or, at least, some opinions) about pickups, and I thought about refreshing the recent "Acoustic Guitar Pickups" thread for my question, rather than thread-drifting this discussion, but here goes anyway:

Did you play though your Laravee's pickup for that video? If so, please identify the equipment.

The sound is absolutely lovely, and basically "acoustic-sounding," but there seems to be way too much sustain or echo for it to be purely "natural." (I don't really know which term to use, which just shows how audio-tech illiterate I am.) If there's no electronic amplification or enhancement involved, what other explanation can there be? (May you recorded in a tiled bathroom?)

I read people's opinions that "no pickup can possibly deliver a pure acoustic sound," but I am not such a purist that such comments really worry me. I'm interested in amplification that can enhance my guitar's sound while adding volume, and without making my finely crafted spruce-and-mahogany box sound like a slab of oak with a couple of humbuckers screwed onto it. I do not not expect, or even wish, that a high-quality acoustic guitar with a pickup sound exactly like that same guitar played "straight," but I am interested in learning which rig allows the listener to hear the difference between a good instrument and a lesser one, and for the sound to be more closely akin to the intrument's natural sound than to a generic fuzzy electrified tone.

Subject: RE: Singing Sick
From: Bellestarr
Date: 15 Jan 09 - 05:34 PM

Alcohol is poison and helps absolutely nothing but your disposition. If you want to use being sick as an excuse to drink something fun, fine, but don't convince yourself that it's medicine.

Milk does NOT make mucus -- that's an old wive's tale. Check for yourself on reputable medical websites.

Try a NETTIE POT to sluice out your sinuses -- you won't ever be without one again (particularly this time of year). They sell them online and at health stores. Use 1 cup of water in the Nettie pot to 1 tsp sea salt (not Morton's-type) twice a day and you'll sing like a bird.

It also really helps chest congestion, which comes from post-nasal drips out of sinuses -- lungs do not manufacture mucus themselves.

I got all of this from a dear friend who is in the Kingston Trio, tours all over the world all the time and doesn't have the option of not being able to sing.

Good luck.

Belle

Subject: RE: Singing Sick
From: dwditty
Date: 15 Jan 09 - 05:48 PM

Get a sinus rinse (Netti Pot, etc. - I like the Ayr product better). Available at most pharmnaciis, supermarkets, etc.

Subject: RE: Singing Sick
From: GUEST,Jed on a borrowed PC
Date: 15 Jan 09 - 06:36 PM

Poppa Gator - that video is simply natural. The room was NOT sonic reflective -it was open, carpeted and high ceilinged.

That guitar accounts for the sustain. If you scroll back through the comments you'll more then one about the guitar's ring! I beleive if I strummed a chord on it and let, it would ring until next week!

As for pickups - I love the L R Baggs products, in particular their iBeam blender. It has a standard, under saddle pickup blended with an iBeam mic. It has a beautiful, complex sound and it is quite natural.

Subject: RE: Singing Sick
From: PoppaGator
Date: 18 Jan 09 - 09:31 PM

Jed, I'm impressed.

Still, the recording mic and rig get a bit of credit, and of couyrse the room, non-sound-reflective though it may have been, certainly had to be quiet.

Thanks for the answer(s)! And here's hoping you're completely over that cold.

Subject: RE: Singing Sick
From: Ref
Date: 19 Jan 09 - 09:02 PM

Sinus rinse:

Take a small measuring cup (Half cup is best)

1 level measure KOSHER salt (any other salt has bad additives in it)
1 rounded measure baking soda

mix thoroughly in a container

mix one teaspoon in two cups of Medium hot (Whatever's comfortable) water and apply to your sinuses. I use a squirt container and do it in the shower every morning. Alternate nostrils until your container is empty. I used to get sinus infections 4-5 times a year with ear infections and bronchial problems. Now I get 1-2 per winter without complications. It has also reduced my susceptibility to allergies.

Subject: RE: Singing Sick
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 20 Jan 09 - 03:19 AM

Kosher salt - I never heard of that.

do they ritually kill the sodium or the chlorine?

Its not a bad idea, snorting stuff to clean out the sinuses. I don't think I'd trust myself to get the quatities or the concentration right. Supposing you sniffed the wrong way and got brain damage. Do they make a propietary brand to do that with.

My father used to use TCP. But then again - he did many strange things in the bathroom.

Subject: RE: Singing Sick
From: treewind
Date: 20 Jan 09 - 03:58 AM

You can't sniff the wrong way!
I do this when a cold threatens, and I'm sure I have fewer sinus headaches and clearer breathing as a result. I didn't know about pure salt though - I wonder if that would make a difference?

***

We've just done a folk club gig where Mary had almost lost her voice. We contacted the organiser a few days before (at which point she could hardly speak, let alone sing) to see what they thought - choices included playing tunes all night (we do a lot of instrumentals anyway) or cancelling. We've played the club many times before and they know us: they said come anyway. As it turned out, Mary managed four songs and we played lots of tunes and it all went down very well, and it's reassuring to know we can do that if we have to.

Anahata

Subject: RE: Singing Sick
From: Rasener
Date: 20 Jan 09 - 04:37 AM

Blimey

Do you do that 365 days of the year Ref?

How big is the squirter?

Imagine two cup fulls of water with salt up your nostrils every day.

Is there a risk of drowning or choking?

The biggest risk I see is the salt, which is not good for high blood pressure.

Subject: RE: Singing Sick
From: JedMarum
Date: 20 Jan 09 - 06:44 PM

PoppaGator - the recording mic as simply the little thing in he camera. It was a low cost Sony (if that's not an oxymoron) and had no special mic attached. The guitar is simply that beautiful!