How to use a microphone and develop a microphone technique of your own
Although it sounds strange to you, to listen to your own voice the P.A, actually it doesn’t sound any different to the audience than if you were lecture them in normal conversation.
The trick here is to be Yourself, if you haven’t got the skill to project a warm friendly personality at the functions where ice breaking is required then being an entertainer isn’t for you. The trick is to seek out a balance, most of the people would simply hire the gear – saving around 50% of a D.J’s booking fee and throw a NOW Cd on – if human input and personality wasn’t important to them. At some functions, if they buy an entertainer and obtain a person’s jukebox who doesn’t own a mic and just sits there playing music then they occasionally feel cheated!.
I can’t stress the “BE YOURSELF”, advice enough, don’t placed on a radio style zany DJ voice – which will sound false and doesn’t fool anybody. If you’re lucky enough to possess a D.J training you, or are a youth helping an older mentor D.J then DON’T be tempted to become a just like him or her. Adopt your own mic style (not a false voice), use your own tag lines but don’t believe an equivalent cliche’s 20 or 30 times an evening – this becomes boring and predictable.
Don’t believe “that was”, “This is” introductions all night. At some functions going out with a Radio Mic and creating banter together with your audience may be a good way to interrupt the ice at the start of inauspicious , non formal functions – and an honest way of enouraging them onto the dancefloor early . you’ll relax the mic work and therefore the frquency of them – once the dancefloor is filling.
Of course there are always getting to be functions where you would like more mic work than the last, and other functions where it’s getting to be little mic use, but the key’s to develop a method and strength and confidence in your mic working ability and to not believe non stop music alone to try to to the work for you.
Just be yourself, and talk normally into the microphone. The thing to figure on is to talk confidentally and clearly and check out to pace yourself. Speaking too fast will make what you’re saying sound garbled, speaking too slow will cause you to sound such as you are addressing a bunch of village idiots . Pretty soon, with a touch time and practice you’ll develop your own individual skill and elegance which is that the most vital aspect, don’t attempt to copy anybody else or placed on a special voice, it’ll sound false and make learning and maintaining the technique tons harder .
If being a comedian isn’t you, then avoid the jokes unless you’re good at this type of thing , forced comedy can sound false and you’ll end up laughing alone, in any case the Client has booked a Mobile Disco and not a get up comedian!. one among the simplest pieces of recommendation i used to be given my the D.J who trained me, was to “Stick at doing what you’re good at and are booked for, and if in any doubt then leave it out”.
Spontaneous one liners are another matter, if something amusing happens, then share it – use the mic to urge requests, make a fuss over people celebrating birthdays / anniversaries – people wish to have their 30 seconds of glory and hearing their name mentioned, over the mic
My advice to those nervous about speechmaking for the primary time, isn’t to be scared of the mic or avoid using one – its your closest and most useful ally, in the least functions. Don’t talk everywhere the track, learn to pace yourself over the outro of the previous track and any intro of subsequent track – don’t gabble – talk clearly into the microphone as if you were lecture a lover . With time you ought to be ready to familiarise yourself with how themore popular tracks end and finish, this manner you’ll talk upto the vocal, almost like how they are doing on the radio – stopping your banter at the instant the vocal on subsequent track starts. Don’t rush to perfect this or gabble to try to to so, it all comes with time and practice. Keep it simple to start out off with.
Start with the straightforward stuff first, just introducing tracks, and buffet announcements. Once you’ve built up a touch of confidence, you’ll advance from the ‘That was….. this is….’ routine. attempt to include your audience, invite requests, make them feel welcome. albeit you’re having a difficult gig don’t take it out on the audience and check out and appearance such as you are enjoying yourself, albeit it’s not getting to plan. Don’t worry about making mistakes on the Mic, we all do from time to time, but don’t draw attention thereto , or linger over it it’ll just make it worse – besides making mistakes shows that you simply are human and not a pre-programmed jukebox
Keep key information on the gig, like the Bride & Grooms’ names, groomsman Name etc on a bit of paper on the mixer, in order that you’ll casually glance down if you’ve got a sudden memory blank, but don’t write your links down as a speech, otherwise it’ll sound such as you are reading from a script and fewer natural.
Remember that when the dancefloor is full, you’ll ease off the mic a touch , but keep doing the requests and don’t forget that it exists. Learn to seek out the balance, an excessive amount of talking can bore the pants of your audience, insufficient mic work can make people think that you simply aren’t earning your keep!. There are functions where you’ve got a full Dancefloor and it might be obtrusive to talk everywhere the music when people want to bop , equally there are more formal functions where there isn’t the space or inclination to bop , then a touch of sunshine hearted banter to interrupt the ice and therefore the empathsis on the entertainment side of being a DJ is required instead of just continuous music
All of this may take a while , don’t expect to develop a mic technique overnight just take it one gig at a time.
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