OK, time for some truth in the industry. Any open mics on stage pick up everything that makes live audio sound bad, such as distant cymbals, amps etc. This tends to make the mix sound “washy” and “unclear”. The trick to a clean mix is to keep as few vocal mics open as possible.

So, if you don’t really sing, then don’t ask for a mic! (for the sake of the mix). If you sing infrequently then when you do sing, do it loud and belt it out because an engineer is going to inherently drop the volume of your mic if you don’t sing much.

If you think you are off key, you are.

A good cheater trick is to put one foam plug in one ear. This is somewhat like sticking a finger in there but less silly.