Kiss the Mic: Five Tips for Presenters from Singing! 

(7 Min Read)

 I’ll never forget the first time I stepped up to a microphone in a rehearsal under the direction of a professional singer.  She called out to me, “Sheila!  Kiss that mic!”  What I learned from the director about singing can also be applied to our public speaking.  Here are five tips plus one bonus from our singing friends and coaches that we can use as public speakers to enhance our presentation delivery. 

Kiss that microphone!

If you are using a microphone, hold it really, really close to your mouth.  The mic can only amplify what it hears, and if you hold it too far away - it can hardly hear you.  When the microphone is too far away, what it does amplify will sound distorted and distant.  No, it doesn’t feel natural to hold the mic so close.  You may have heard a singer told to “swallow her mic” meaning when she opens her mouth, the microphone should be right there in the opening and picking up every nuance of her voice.  

I read a microphone technique guide for speakers that said to position the microphone so it is not blocking the face.  The author showed images of singers at live concerts holding the mic directly in front of their faces and explained that while that pose is apparently fine for singers it blocks the lower half of the face.  The author went on to say this is horrible for a public speaker who will lose much of their message with half of their facial expressions not visible to the audience.

The singer certainly does not want to lose any opportunity to connect with the audience.  We often see artists now with headsets that free up their hands and enable more movement and show much more of the singer’s face. If the singer is using a hand-held microphone he usually holds the microphone directly out almost parallel to the floor, from their mouth.  Hand held microphones  either  pick up sound from all directions (omnidirectional) or they listen from a specific programmed pattern or direction (cardioid).  In a live musical performance there is sound all over the stage that could be picked up by the singer’s microphone.  It is imperative that he hold his mic as close to his mouth as possible and point directly to his mouth to prevent the mic from picking up other singers or instruments.  The sound technicians will thank you!

As public speakers, we are much less worried about picking up the sounds around us.  The stage should be relatively quiet while we are speaking.  We don’t have to hold that microphone pointed inward directly to our mouths like the singer.  However, speakers new to using microphones tend to pull the microphone far away from their mouths.  You’ve likely seen speakers who are not used to using a microphone, they will hold it between their chest and their lap when seated or around the chest when standing.  This far-from-the-mouth position,  forces sound technicians to turn up the gain on the microphone to make their voices easier to hear but greatly increases the possibility of feedback and distortion.

Kiss the microphone - if you are singing on a stage with other singers and instruments, go ahead and hold it out pointing directly to your mouth.  People want to hear the nuances in your voice, and the sound techs want to hear only you, not the drummer beside you.  But when you are speaking, hold the microphone directly up and down so that the mic is against your mouth and only blocking a view of your chin.  Unless all of your expressiveness comes from your chin, your audience will be able to see your facial expressions.  At all times, you should be able to tilt your head down and give the microphone a kiss - you are that close to it!

Spanx for your voice!  Support your voice tips.

Breath control is ‘spanx’ for your voice.  If unsupported, your breathing will be shallow, and lack strength to project into the room.  It is not the voice you want to inspire confidence and demonstrate your skills and knowledge to your audience.  Also, something I never knew until I worked with a voice coach.  Guess what helps a singer sing soft and quietly but still with great tone and intensity?  The ability to control their air!  My choir director would remind us to push down on our diaphragm to support the light sound to prevent it from sounding breathy and inconsistent.

Breathe from your diaphragm.  Not your throat (clavicular breathing where your shoulders go up and down), not your chest (thoracic breathing), but your diaphragm.  The best way to know you are doing this right and also a great way to strengthen your diaphragm muscle is to lay on your back and put your hand or a book on your stomach.  When you breathe in, your stomach should push outward and raise your hand or book up toward the ceiling.  As you exhale, allow your hand or book to lower back to its original position.  You can practice this as an exercise to develop your diaphragm muscles by controlling and lengthening the time to exhale.

When standing, and breathing with your diaphragm - my choir director used to say imagine you have a bunch of nozzles all around your stomach sucking in air.  Don’t  think about your chest expanding (thoracic breathing) but rather your abdomen and feel your diaphragm drop to hold that air.  Your shoulders, neck, throat all stay relaxed and do not move.

Now your diaphragm is in control, you actually can push against it for incredible voice control and support.  Do you release a steady constant stream of air to generate a consistent warm sound for your audience?  Do you raise your volume and use more air to project into the space of the room?  If you have the breath support, the ‘spanx’ for your voice, you can make that choice!

Move to engage your audience.

Audiences want to connect with you.  Sometimes singers deliver their performance from one spot on the platform, for example standing beside a piano or an orchestra.  In a presentation, you may be expected to remain standing at a podium or lectern. In which case, your ‘movement’ will be focused on your gestures and directing your gaze and attention around the room.  As much as you can, plan to deliver your message from edge to edge of the room.  Remember if you are speaking in a large venue you also want to look up towards balconies or the backs of rooms to include audience members there.  

If you are not required to stay at a podium, you should plan to move about on the stage or in the area designated for the presentation.  But don’t walk just to walk.  Have you seen beginning presenters do this?  Perhaps they believe that the action of walking is the outward expression of a ‘confident speaker’ and they are imitating someone they’ve seen.  But what the audience sees is a person delivering a few sentences of a speech, and then taking a trip across the floor to a predetermined destination and then continuing the speech.  It looks stilted and puzzles the audience rather than engages them.  How do you fix this?

There are a couple of choices:

1. Most obvious choice is don’t walk if you aren’t ready.  Move, yes.  Shift your focus and turn your body  from one side of the room to the other.  Concentrate on employing natural arm and hand gestures.  You don’t want nervous movement distracting your audience.  This is especially important if you are at a podium or lectern.  But when you can, you want to move away from the podium.  Movement is engaging.

2. Walk while talking, think of it as taking your audience with you on the stroll rather than performing a stroll for them.  Singers do this too - walk across the performance space, while singing.   Make sure you stop walking when you are delivering a key piece of information.  The movement halting will highlight the importance of the point you are making.  I do not recommend looking away from your audience or turning your back to walk “upstage”.  A singer can do this in an interlude, because he is performing - when speaking I think it looks a bit rude.

3. Walk during a strategic pause.  Now before you say, ‘wait a minute’ I thought you just said not to do this.  What I refer to here is a deep transition pause where you would normally give the audience time to absorb the words you just said or ponder a question you’ve just posed.  Only do this after you have delivered a key point of your presentation or asked a thoughtful question.  BONUS/POWER tip - I’ve seen  excellent speakers who make these movements on the stage, and they pause while walking as if something just occurred to them and effortlessly deliver an aside, or supporting evidence to the key point they just made.  It’s riveting and highly impactful.  Do you see the difference?

Also, if you are carrying a microphone - don’t worry about raising it to speak and lowering it to walk.  If you don’t put it down, it gives the impression that you might start talking again at any moment.  

Loosen up - move - enjoy yourself.  The audience enjoys a singer and a presenter who is also having a great time.

Taking care of your instrument - your vocal cords.

1.  Vocal warm ups to loosen up your vocal cords and strengthen your voice.  Warmth for your tone.

Exercise 1 - the ‘yawn and sigh’

Sit or stand with your shoulders relaxed and posture upright.

Open your jaw wide and inhale slowly like you are yawning.

Exhale slowly while you close your mouth and bring your lips together.

After several breaths in and out, try humming while you exhale. 

Exercise 2 - Use tongue twisters to loosen up and practice articulation.  A few classic twisters to repeat are:

She sells seashells by the seashore.

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.

How can a clam cram in a clean cream can?

Red leather, yellow leather.  

Exercise 3 - Become a siren.  

Making a continuous “ng”  or “oo” sound.

Start with the lowest sound you can comfortably make.  

Glide up to the highest sound you can comfortably make.  

Continue gliding up and down, imitating an emergency vehicle siren.

2. Drink plenty of water.  

3. Avoid salty and spicy foods.

Stand your ground

When you stand, plant yourself firmly over both feet.  Don’t lean on one leg.  This has a tendency to cause your posture to sag, your diaphragm tilts and you are not fully supporting your voice.  When you take a breath, and you're ‘tilted’ you don’t get a deep supportive breath.

Also to encourage diaphragmatic breathing it’s helpful to have your posture ‘grounded’, imagine you are breathing down to your feet.  Its a posture that is fully present and energizing for your delivery.

BONUS:  SOUND CHECK…Check, Check, Check!

A singer always has a soundcheck to set the levels of the audio before the concert.  Have you ever seen a concert where the singer comes out, starts her song, and then stops mid intro - to call out to the back of the room, “Can everyone hear me alright there in the back?”  No.  That would be crazy unprofessional.  Yet I have lost count of the number of times I’ve heard speakers do exactly that.  They walk up front, tap the microphone like it's the first time they’ve seen it or fiddle with a switch to turn it on, and then ask if everyone can hear them.  As professional speakers, our technology should be tested and set up before the event, don’t wait and ask the audience to be your sound check.

Ready, Set, Go!

Remember:  

                   Kiss the mic.

  Give your voice spanx.

        Move and have fun.

   Take care of your instrument.

          Stay grounded!  

All the best to you!