I wish I could offer you instant, brilliant singing by reading a page of text; unfortunately, I can't. Like most skills, it takes a lot of the right kind of practice. What I can offer you are some basic common-sense tips, which will make a big difference to you on stage — things I wish someone had told me when I first started!

These tips should help everyone from the performer who just sings the odd bit of backing vocals to the Michaels, Bon Jovis, Mariahs, and Tinas amongst you.

• Don't have a large meal in the couple of hours before a gig — your breathing will be affected since your lungs won't be able to expand fully with a stomach full of food in the way.

• Try to have a relaxing time and don't overdo things on the day of your performance — tiredness and stress play havoc with the vocal cords. Keep up to date with your sleep. If you're really tired before a gig, have a nap.

• Do drink on stage to keep your larynx moist, but avoid alcohol, also citrus-based soft drinks as the acid irritates your cords. Have small, regular sips of water or a watery, syrupy drink such as blackcurrant and soda. Don't have ice — the cold will give your vocal cords a bit of a shock. If you can't drink on stage, suck blackcurrant and glycerine pastilles, or 'imps' — those black liquorice sweeties which blow your head off — before you go on.

• If you have a break, don't spend it shouting to punters above the music — be antisocial and have another sweet.

• Avoid milk and milk products before singing (so, no chocolate, I'm afraid!) as they stick to your vocal cords, which means clearing your throat all the time. They can also induce catarrh.

• Smoky environments will irritate your vocal cords and lungs. Get the venue management to turn on the ventilation system or open a window near you, if possible. Sipping a drink can also help.

• Avoid feedback problems. This is usually a question of carefully positioning the PA and balancing the vocal with the rest of the band — by turning down the rest of the band if necessary. Stand as far away from the noisiest members of the band as possible. Set the level of your voice so that you can sing with your lips touching the microphone most of the time, only backing off for really loud yells. Arrange the PA speakers so they are as far in front of you as possible.

• Always use a unidirectional cardioid or hypercardioid microphone and get into the habit of keeping it pointing away from the PA and foldback speakers. If you hold your mic, hold it as far away from the end you sing into as you can; don't cup your hands around the pop shield as this actually contributes to feedback rather than shielding the mic from it.

• Be kind to your voice when you have a cold. Cancel the gig if you can afford to. If you must do the gig, bear in mind you are taking a risk. Don't attempt those high notes with full force, wimp out. If they do notice, the audience won't judge you harshly, and you'll have a voice the next day instead of next month. This is the only time when I will recommend a cold, icy drink, as you'll find this reduces the swelling in your throat a little. However, if your throat is that bad, you shouldn't really be singing.

• If you always end up with a hoarse or sore throat at the end of a gig, there are two possible reasons. Can you hear yourself properly? Are you shouting to compensate? If you can hear yourself and you're not shouting, then hoarseness is a sure sign that you need to get your technique looked at. Get some training, in the style you want to sing.

• Make sure you can hear yourself and the instrument you usually pitch to. Some people recommend pitching to the bass instrument since it is the one with the least effects on, but I find, because I have a feminine high voice, that I have to pitch to something close in frequency to the notes I sing such as the guitar or keyboards.

• Instead of spending all night shouting on stage, make sure you can hear yourself. Insist that the other band members turn down to a sensible level if you are having trouble. As the vocalist and front person, your voice carries the show, so you've got to put your singing first, whether the rest of the band like it or not. Don't be too arrogant about it, though, otherwise you'll find yourself with no band and the microphone shoved where your larynx used to be!

• If you share the vocals within the band, don't assume that everyone's voice is the same volume when setting up mic levels. Quieter voices will need to be boosted more by the PA, while the loud voices will need less level. It is surprising how many people ignore this rather obvious point!

• Use the best gear you can afford. Cheap PA systems often sound just that: cheap, with too much middle and no top. Do your best to persuade the rest of the band to chip in towards the PA so that you can have something decent. Impress upon them that the band will sound better for it.

• Make sure that the PA equipment is powerful enough to cope with the size of venue. It's very easy to distort a small PA in a large venue, because it's not powerful enough. Borrow or hire something bigger for larger venues if your PA isn't up to it.

• Different microphones have different frequency characteristics, therefore they will enhance different aspects of your vocal tone. Go to the music shop with a trusty muso friend and try out several to find out what make and model of microphone best suits your voice. If you can, try the mics in a recording situation so that you can listen to the tonal effect on your voice more objectively. If possible, buy your own microphone and don't loan it to people. Hire PA microphones have usually been dropped at some time and can't be relied upon to be working at their best. Bear in mind that you will want something that doesn't 'pop' when you sing up close, and something robust for live use, so check the chosen mic's reputation out with other singers and magazine reviews.

• Use a foam pop shield to reduce popping on 'p's and 'b's. Practice saying 'Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled pepper' into your hand to develop the technique of singing without popping — instead of forcing out the air when you pronounce 'p' sounds, try sounding your 'p's a bit like 'm's — it sounds crazy if overdone, but there is a happy in-between point where they turn into unexplosive 'b's. When pronounced correctly, they will still sound like 'p's over the mic, but without that annoying pop.

• Don't blow into or hit your mic to test it on stage unless you want to wreck it. Sing something relevant during the soundcheck so that the sound engineer has a chance of getting your level right — many an inexperienced singer mumbles their way through a song during the soundcheck and then shouts their head off, distorting the PA, when they are performing.

• Make sure the songs you're doing are transposed into the right key for you, not the singer who sang it originally, or your guitarist. If the guitarist insists on a certain key, because (s)he is using some specific chord shapes which won't transpose, then persuade them to use a capo (I can see a million rock guitarists recoiling in horror at this suggestion) or modify the melody to dip out of the notes which give you trouble.

• Warm up your voice before you go on stage. Use a progressive exercise routine, for at least 20 minutes. If you can't manage that because there's nowhere to do it or you're late, hum scales or tunes while you're setting up and sing the first few songs in a gentler voice than you normally would. You wouldn't expect an athlete to run a 100 metre dash without a warm-up, would you? When you're on stage, you're often running flat out. The adrenaline rush may make you think you're doing fine, but if your voice isn't warm, you risk pulling a larynx muscle in the first few minutes. If you keep damaging the same muscle, it can become permanently weakened, giving you a vocal distortion problem whenever you get tired.

• Practise singing between gigs! It's amazing how many singers who also play an instrument will spend hours practising the instrument but not their voice, and then wonder why they can play brilliantly, but their singing is still crap. 'You are either a born singer or you're not' is a myth. Provided you have the necessary equipment and time, you can learn! Some people have a particularly rich tone naturally, which is to do with the shape of their head, chest, and throat so they do have an advantage in that area, but don't let that put you off. Work towards getting your technique to be second nature.

• If you are inexperienced, make sure that the songs you do are fairly comfortable for you off-stage, so that you don't risk straining yourself on stage.

• Once you are on stage, forget about technique and concentrate totally on putting across the songs; performing them. Enjoy yourself. That's what the audience have come to see and is the main aspect of the gig, which will bring them back next time.