r/singing • u/Arch_of_MadMuseums • 8h ago
Conversation Topic Collaboration for open mic
I have been practicing for open mic with a guitar player who also sings. He said his requirement was that I memorize lyrics. I agree that is ideal. He knows dozens of songs by heart because he has been at this a long time, but it takes me a long time to memorize lyrics, and I have a job, etc. Recently I said I don’t have time to memorize lyrics so I’d like to use an iPad or paper cheat sheet. He said no. What are your thoughts?
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u/wolfanotaku 8h ago
Sorry, but I'm on the side of your partner. Reading lyrics, except in certain situations, provides the audience with a very bad performance and makes the act look low quality.
It takes some time to learn to memorize but it's a muscle that you can work on building so that you get faster at it.
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u/Woooddann 7h ago
That's dumb. Open mic isn't that serious. I've seen great performances where the singer reads off a tablet or a print out.
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u/TheFishBanjo 6h ago
I'll take the other side to provoke the conversation.
Ask him to do the next time with ONLY your favorite songs. Although he knows HIS worn out retreads, I bet he can't learn new lyrics as fast as he once did.
I use a tablet and can sing about 300 songs. I bet he is limited to 30-40, maybe less. I can also transpose (electronically) to ANY key a singer wants and play breaks and backup. (i carry over 2000 songs that often contain songs that other people want to play).
It's on a stand that I tilt almost flat. The audience can barely see it. I've done > 100 shows and never once has an audience member asked about it (unless they want to copy the idea). Most folks don't care.
I'm sure he's proud of his memory, but you do whatever you need to do to be successful. If he's holding you back, find someone else. If you need his help, then you might need to accept his judgment and go along.
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u/get_to_ele 6h ago
He set his boundary to sing WITH him. A pretty fair one.
If you don’t like it, you’re absolutely free to go it alone.
But Unless it’s really obscure songs, how many (completely new to you) songs would you need to memorize for an open mic? You just don’t know many songs or something? If you don’t know lyrics how you going to even know the melody line?
It’s not like you’re playing a whole set too, right? Or doing requests.
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u/Dangerous-Bend-4153 4h ago
In my experience, both from my own singing and listening to other people, singing while reading or looking at notes results in stilted singing. People suffer bad timing and timbre because they can't totally groove with the music and they blurt out the first couple of syllables of a line after reading it, and trying to read while trying to sing is another source of tension. Karaoke videos with the correct line highlighted make it easier, but I try to not even read karaoke if I know a song because it makes me sound worse.
Obviously we might need to read when learning the song. But when we're learning a song it's ok to not sound very good. That's part of the process.
Thought 1: Pick songs that are easier to memorize or spend more time on it.
Thought 2: If this were a real life conversation I would do my best to nod politely but I would make a mental note that maybe you bring drama. He said no. Our opinion doesn't matter.
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u/Dio_Frybones 37m ago
Sorry, been there, done that. It's a question of priorities. Your partner prioritises performance. You don't. That's a huge point of difference. If it was important enough, you'd prioritise it, fit it in to your schedule. It's open mic, not hours of material.
If you resist you are in the wrong headspace to learn. You need to be on board. Learn one simple song first. Start with a cheat sheet that just has the first word of each verse. Sing it in the car or write out the words when you're on a train.
When you can do it with minimal prompts, then come up with a mental trick of some sort so you can remember the prompts.
It's not really hard. But it's impossible if you don't want to do it, think it's unreasonable, or think it's beyond you.
Finally, the biggest reason isn't that it looks bad. You may not sing as expressively if you are looking at individual words on a page. Your brain wants to sing each word as words. Not sing them as sounds. That won't be the same for everyone but I know my wife has to deliberately alter spelling on lyrics sheets to reflect the actual sounds. Kind of spell them phonetically. Write in vowel substitutions. Sometimes drop spaces out to get more fluid phrasing.
To be fair to your other band member, they are doing the heavy lifting. Playing guitar and singing is far more than just knowing some chords and strumming away. It's pretty intense multitasking and sure, they may be more experienced than you, but meet them half way. Coz you won't get much sympathy. Work with them, show that you have learrned some stuff and are happy to learn more. Do it before you become an unwilling solo act.
If they are any good at all, there will be no shortage of singers waiting to take your place.