Loud Enough! Please!

Please let me hear your story – Use a microphone!

Too often storytellers think they “don’t need a mic.” Believe you me, I understand:

• not liking to be tied to a mic-on-a-stand while storytelling
• not liking holding a mic in your hand while storytelling
• not liking wearing wires while storytelling
• not being comfortable with unfamiliar equipment
• fill-in-your-own-discomfort here.

However…would you like your listeners to actually hear your story?!

“Oh, but I can project.” “Oh, but I don’t like mics.” “Oh, but this space is small enough, and I think the acoustics are all right.” “Oh, but it’s so much more intimate, and real, and better if I don’t use equipment or that amplified sound.” – Better for whom?

If nothing else, it is your responsibility to your audience to enable them to at least hear your stories – Get used to using a microphone!

We also need to learn about ourselves, our inclinations, strengths and limitations, and to be honest with ourselves…

One of the things I have learned about myself as a storyteller: I have voice training, and I can project…and I do like to drop the volume of my voice – with emotion, for effect, for drama, to create tensions, etc. This is all well and good – as long as people can actually hear me! That’s a basic responsibility.

All of your skill with story shaping, with expression, with clever plots and characters, with profound messages and experiences – none of that GETS experienced, if the audience cannot hear you, or is uncomfortable (consciously or unconsciously) with straining to do so.

Learn how to use a mic.

Find someone who knows, who can teach you about: equipment options, how to use it/them, and really, how to take advantage of a mic – You can make really good sound effects with a mic! You can get really quiet for effect and really really be heard!

You owe it to yourself, to your audiences, and to your stories [that equilateral triangle of storytelling] – to be loud enough for people to hear you. That could involve serious training in voice projection, OR limiting yourself to only certain kinds of venues and events with small (and non-senior!) audiences – OR it may involve getting acquainted with equipment and techniques of sound amplification. The microphone is your friend!

Please be loud enough – you, and your listeners, and your story all deserve it!

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I have a great little system [a Portable Wireless P A System Version 2 by Florida Magic] that I purchased “pre-owned” from another storyteller. Here’s Connie Regan-Blake using my mic when she performed in Boulder, CO in September 2013 for Rocky Mountain Storytelling event – the Boulder Public Library auditorium is a relatively “intimate” performance space…but without the mic, it would have likely been a less-satisfying experience for all!

[And by the way, the 2014 Rocky Mountain Storytelling Conference, “Storytelling: Craft & Connection” is coming soon: May 2 & 3 in Denver, CO, with featured storyteller Elizabeth Ellis, and valuable workshops led by experienced tellers & teachers.  Check it out here.]

Thanks for reading – Pam