[For Student Vocalists] Pre-Show Accessory Checklist

Last updated:2016/9/1

[For Student Vocalists] Pre-Show Accessory Checklist

Vocal coachdensuke
A vocal coach based in Osaka. I’m currently training aspiring professionals. I also update a blog about vocal training, so please check it out along with this article. Recently, I’ve started doing DTM (desktop music production) and have gradually begun creating tracks. I’m uploading some practice, instrumental-style pieces to SoundCloud, so I’d be happy if you took an interest. SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/densuke_osaka

Hey everyone, are you enjoying your vocal life?

This time, I’d like to introduce some things you should have ready—especially for student vocalists who are about to perform at a school festival or cultural festival but feel unsure about their preparations.

Of course, this isn’t just for students; anyone planning to perform live as a vocalist can use this as a reference.

Things that are good to have prepared

Bottled water
towel
Change of clothes, antiperspirant, and deodorant items
throat lozenge
cheat sheet
digital camera, audio recorder, batteries
How to relieve tension

Bottled water

Staying hydrated is important.

In particular, since vocalists often move around the stage, be sure to stay hydrated by drinking water frequently.

I’ve written on my blog before that staying hydrated is important as part of your preparation.

Reference:Preparation before singing

Personally, I recommend water.

Partly because it’s gentle on the throat and helps with hydration, and also because if I were to spill it on stage, unlike juice, it wouldn’t stain as easily.

Of course, not spilling it is the basic premise.

Be careful, as the equipment may get wet.

Also, this is just my personal opinion, but bringing juice or tea on stage doesn’t look very cool, so I think water is the safest choice.

If you’re going to drink in the dressing room, I think it’d be fine for you to choose whatever you like.

towel

It's for wiping sweat.

You work up a sweat when you play music, you know.

You can take it out on stage, or you can leave it to use in the dressing room.

It's reassuring for people who sweat a lot to keep a few spares on hand.

Also, from a performance standpoint, it's possible to swing towels around.

At lots of artists’ shows, there’s that moment where everyone swings their towels together with the crowd—that’s it!

It would be nice if we could hand out towels to customers in advance, but since that’s quite difficult, let’s have any customers who already have towels wave them together with us.

Change of clothes, antiperspirant, and deodorant items

If you plan to change clothes after the main event when you’ve worked up a sweat, make sure to bring a change of clothes.

Also, if you’re worried about body odor from sweat—something many girls might be especially concerned about—it could be a good idea to carry antiperspirant or other deodorant products.

If you don’t care, your luggage will be bulky anyway, so it’s not really necessary.

throat lozenge

Vocals live or die by the throat! So, throat lozenges it is.

We obviously can’t eat on stage during the actual performance, so let’s eat before it starts and after it’s over.

There are lots of throat lozenges out there, but which one should I pick? Or if you just want to take care of your throat in general, not limited to lozenges, then...7 ways to deal with a sore throat when you can’t speakI hope you’ll also find my blog post on this topic helpful.

cheat sheet

At live shows, the vocalist often takes on the role of the MC who keeps things moving.

Therefore, you need to grasp the overall flow, including the order of songs, after which songs to insert the MC, and whether you need to wait for the band to tune their instruments.

So it’s useful to prepare a cheat sheet that outlines the flow around that area.

Also, if you just can't memorize the lyrics, I think it's better to have a cheat sheet than to forget the lyrics in the middle of singing.

It’d be good to place it somewhere unobtrusive, like on the stage floor.

One thing to keep in mind is that if you don’t write in letters larger than you think, it won’t be visible.

You’ll need to take measures like weighing down the cue cards with something heavy so they don’t get blown away by the wind.

While it’s ideal to be able to perform without a cue card, many people will be doing a live show for the first time, so I think these kinds of detailed preparations can be useful.

Camera, recording equipment, batteries

I'll prepare it if necessary.

It’s possible that you won’t be able to record video or audio if there isn’t enough storage space, so be sure to keep an eye on it.

Also, batteries are surprisingly easy to forget. Make sure you don’t forget to buy them or to charge them.

How to relieve tension

This isn’t a “thing,” but as prior knowledge, it’s about knowing how to face the real event as relaxed as possible without getting too nervous!

I think an article I previously contributed to Studio Rag’s Okoshiyasu might be helpful.

Reference:How to ease nerves for your first live performance: Vocal edition

Lastly

So, with that, I introduced some useful things to prepare as we head into the live show.

We want to make sure we’re fully prepared, down to the small accessories, so that we can bring out everything we practiced when it counts.

Now then, enjoy a fun vocal life!