JPF Home Page Forums Musician Gear and Techniques Microphone and Vocalist Forum Beating a bad head cold

Thanks, all. Steve, my gig is at Tanya and Matt's... thanks for the tip! Not expecting a big crowd, because it's Sunday night and NFL playoffs are on, but it's good to get out and play. If I do a decent job, perhaps I'll be asked to come back. And it's also why I'm blowing off the JPF showcase - I don't need to be sitting in a smoky bar for 5 hours and getting up and singing there.

I'm bumming, though, because I don't know how my voice will hold up. On Friday, just to see where I was at, I set up my gear and ran through my first set (of three.) I can hit all the notes, my voice sounds OK but not great, but by the last song I started to get a bit of gravel. If I had been performing Friday night, I think I would have done OK on the first set, gotten through the second set, and had a real problem with the third.

But that was two days ago. I've been pumping up on vitamin C, getting lots of rest, drinking lots of water, taking some of the supplements suggested here, and doing a little bit of vocal warmup exercises.

I would have to guess that I'll be struggling in the third set tonight. But I could be wrong. If I totally had no voice, I'd obviously cancel, but I think I can do it. You HATE to cancel a gig, any gig, especially at a place you've never played. But I'm thinking the third set might end up having a lot more solo piano music than the first two.

Funny thing - I just went out and bought a better piano stand, as well as a gig bag for my keyboard. My wife hasn't seen it on the Visa yet. Mwa ha ha ha!

Anyway, gig is tonight. I will post how it went either when I get home or sometime tomorrow. I appreciate all the advice in this thread, and if the gig goes well, it will be partially because of your help, so thanks in advance! But I won't blame you folks if I tank.