I haven't performed singing in a very long time. I mean long, as in years. So last night it was my grandfather's big wish to sing with me infront of a big group of people at the retirement home. So my dad was DJing a party there and had all the mics and music set up.
We were singing my way together, it took alot of nerve for me just to get up because I haven't performed in years and I was nervous. We get up there everything is going great until we get to the high part. Then my mic does this high pitch screeching thing and just pops out, as its at it's most dramatic part. It was so embarrasing and everyone was just like looking around. I grab another mic and continue on however, I go slowly off key in some of the parts and my tone just kind of slips off. This was all due to the mic messing up I just felt like shit.

After the performance everyone clapped, but I knew the performance sucked. Anyway yeah that was by far the worst that's ever happened. It basically ruined the performance.

I know the feeling. I had to do a soundcheck in front of probably 300-400 people recently. Had no idea I was going to have to sing so I wasnt warmed up, and it was like 9 in the morning. Needless to say I was cracking, then tried to adjust to a lower harmony part for the chorus but it was still shakey since I had never sung it like that before. Luckily, I got through it, got support because the verses were still fine, and nailed it later that night. Stuff like that is always going to happen live so you just gotta go with it and laugh it off. Good of you to just keep going through it though; i've seen a lot of things like that happen before and the singer will just fall apart and cry or run off stage cussing haha

The best thing to do is just go with the flow. A live show never goes off as planned. If you are not a pro and you keep a good sense of humor about it, the audience will be with you. Most of the time they don't even notice. I was just watching a Kiss video and Paul misses his mic catch and it goes out in to the audience. He just laughed it off and grabbed his mic from the crowd.

A bad performance isn’t always a bad thing, more just a very painful lesson. I once had to do Joe Cocker-With a Little Help from my Friends. And really everything that could of gone wrong with my voice did. No tone; no note; nothing. I still remember in the middle of singing just thinking "God kill me now." But it helped me a lot. I used to have huge stage fright, and after that it showed me that messing up isn’t the end of the world. I made it through the worst day of singing in my life, and I lived to sing another day.

I'm sorry you had such a rough time. Try not to let it get to you too much... try to let it be motivation.

It's worth mentioning, painful as the idea is, that your mistakes often help other people learn. And you can be a good teacher! ;)

I had horrific, absolutely terrible stage fright for singing in front of people who knew me. I couldn't even sing for my parents most of the time. If I thought someone was listening, my voice would start cracking and I'd be useless. When I had to sing for my classmates, I literally almost fell down on stage because my legs were so wobbly and weak that I could barely stand. Nothing helped.



Then I saw a famous baritone live, and he totally screwed up one particular song. In fact, he messed it up so badly that he had to stop the pianist and start over! This guy has sung at the Met, dozens of other opera companies, he's toured the world multiple times, and is in incredibly high demand because he's got an amazing voice. And he totally just screwed up.

But he just laughed off his mistake, apologized with a joke, and started over.

Seeing that, something in my head just clicked, and I thought: Oh my God, it really is okay if I make mistakes.


Doesn't matter how many times you're told that it's okay, you have to actually realize it for yourself.

I still get stage fright sort of bad some times, but that really helped me calm down and I can now control my nerves enough to make them work for me instead of against me.

I had an almost as disappointing event on our New Year's Eve gig. Toward the end of the first set, my voice started to give out. I've been fighting a cold for the last week and I could feel that lump in my throat like "here comes laryngitis you poor bastard - I dare you to sing!"

I skipped over "Rebel Yell" and went into the break for some therapy. I pounded down a bunch of water with lemon, went in the bathroom and did the hot water steam breathing trick and worked on some humming exercises. I pushed up the levels in my in-ear monitor and boosted my microphone. Miraculously, I got through the gig with only a couple of squeaky notes.

NOW, I feel like total crap and have almost no voice. At least I have 10 days to recover! :-)