“Why is it I always sound better in my bedroom than I do onstage?”

There can be several reasons for this, nerves, acoustics, background noise … but one of the main explanations lies in the dark and oft forgotten art of microphone technique. All too often great singers become good singers and good singers become OK singers … all because of what they’re doing or not doing with the mic.

1. Eye Contact. Look at the audience – it’s easy to get distracted watching your hands on the guitar or looking at the floor – the audience are more likely to ‘connect’ with you if you look at them. Try looking at the back of the room above people’s heads instead of the floor, if you really can’t eye-ball anyone; it can give the impression you are looking at people even if you are not (sneaky!).

What are monitors?

Monitors are wedge shaped speakers that sit in front of performers on the stage. The job of these speakers is to allow the performers to hear what they are performing. Therefore it is important that you know how to make use of the monitor(s)

Song and Set Selection

We’re not going to try and tell you how to write songs: there’re 1,000,001 ways to do that, and one of OOTB’s strengths is that it encourages all of them. Therefore, as far as song/set selection is concerned, the only rules we’ll ever impose are that you only play three songs (in 15 minutes), and that you don’t play any covers!

Selling CDs and Downloads by Norman Lamont

Ever thought you might get rich from your music? No, I didn’t think so, but you might still want to offer CDs and downloads for sale.

Practice Makes Perfect

If you’re planning on playing a set at OOTB or anywhere else, the importance of having rehearsed can’t be over stated.

The Last of Barratt’s Privateers are the featured act in this week’s Out of the Bedroom, in The Tron on Thursday at 8pm. It’s free, and to be frank, they’re awesome. They’re like modern Scottish bluegrass, and you may recognise one or two of the band members too. There’s no musical reason these guys shouldn’t be charging several quid to get into one of their gigs, see them now while you can for free.

I arrived early to the basement bar of The Tron. There were already a few musicians kicking back in the corner and the event organisers were busy setting up the stage and recruiting the nights entertainment. I feel at this point that a brief introduction is necessary. Out of the Bedroom (OOTB) is one of [...]

Jim Igoe – History of OOTB

Edinburgh 1992; acoustic music meant folk music played in folk pubs, talented musicians were writing songs in their bedrooms hoping somehow to meet like-minded musicians to work with and local bands competed against each other in the ever-increasing number of pay-to-play venues…

Having Confidence on Stage

There are times in life when you will be nervous about performing. That’s just a simple, unchangeable fact of life. There’s nothing you can do about that. What you can do, however, is to think about how you handle the nerves when you are onstage.