Singing For a Bankroll

These days, it’s not uncommon to find karaoke contests sprinkled across your area, and though introducing your un-trained voiced to a crowd of local nay sayers can be nerve racking, I’ve put together some tips that’ll work for anyone looking to sing karaoke for some quick cash and/or other prizes.

1. If you smoke, you’d better stop for at least one day. Smoking tends to dry out your throat, and unless you’re a natural born singer, there isn’t a cough drop in the world thats going to make a bit of difference. Sure, you’ll find those that can smoke, drink, and swallow glass, and still get by fine, but if you want the cash prize, you’ll need to treat your pipes with care!
2. Alcohol tends to dry out the throat as well. If you keep your drinking to a minimum, then you’ll not only help save the throat, but you’ll also be much more alert, which increase your chances of ‘punching it home’ when the timing is just right. Off-key, drunken babbling isn’t good for anyone.
3. Practice, but not how you might think. Some people sing in the shower (good), some people sing in the car (bad). Why? When we sing in our vehicles, we tend to turn the volume up really high. Doing so will not allow you to hear yourself nearly as well, and actually tricking you into thinking that you’re doing a great job (sorry… it’s the actual singer, not you). Singing along to the song is great practice, especially for getting the timing down, but keep the volume down to an extreme minimum.
4. Song selection - Start out with some easily recognizable country tunes, that don’t require much strain on the vocals (which is about all of ‘em anyways). Folsom Prison Blues by Johnny Cash is an excellent example. But going for the win might require you to do a rock song, and everyone loves ’80s rock. Problem is, the lead singers from that generation, more often than not, added much annotation to their voice, which makes it difficult to sing. Practice is the only thing that’ll help in this arena, but if you nail it, you’re a sure fire karaoke winner!

I hope those tips help, and if you like, you can download karaoke tracks with Rhapsody. However, these tracks are just music, and no lyrics. To get the lyrics, simply do a google search.