Anyone who has played out live knows that frustrating a sound engineer is like taking candy from a baby. While I wholeheartedly refuse to condone any such stoppage of purloining delicious treats from infants -- who probably don't have the dental development necessary to savor candy -- there are ways not to anger your sound engineer.

For starters, know what you have and what you want. The more prepared you are, the more prepared your sound engineer can be and the better you'll sound when all is said and done. Old Town School of Folk Music's Technical Director, Rob Fishman, goes into more detail.