Music Performance Tips and Techniques

For tips 1-26 proceed to pt. 1 27. Feed Energy as You Can Amongst Your Bandmates This is one of my favorite things and it is one of the things I miss the most about playing in a band. Being in a band is one of the most synergistic experiences that you can have. It can become so intuitive and instinctual and there is nothing that I have experienced that puts a number of people unto the same wavelength as does performing together with band mates onstage. You should explore and cultivate this side of things. It is this energy and the perception of it that can become so fascinating to an audience that they often end up contributing to it in a knowable way. 28. Overcome Stage Fright Now is not the time to cower. Frankly there is no good time for it. I’m not making light of being afraid but I haven’t the luxury to be there to coach you through. So what I can do is remind you that you can give yourself over to logically thinking and that can be something of a help. Either you’re playing the show or running out the door. So logic says if you’re not running out the door than you didn’t cower. So don’t allow the choice of running out the door to be persistent and perpetual. You’ve already made your decision, now ignore all else and play. 29. Lock On to a Group in the Crowd Focus on to those that you read as ready to reciprocate good vibes. Weave them into the same synergistic tapestry that you share with your bandmates. Use eye contact mannerisms and playfulness to wield them into the fold. It’s those folks who will be your anchor point for the rest of the night. Build from there. When the shows over my money says they’ll be some of the first names added to the email list. 30. Always Play to an Arena, Who Cares if There is 1 or 1000 You have to do your best to respect your audience. You can’t be so self involved and aggrieved that a room is not packed with people and use that as a justification for dialing in a performance. If you want a fan make a fan. Play for the few like you are standing onstage in an arena in front of a sea of people and they will tell others that you did. 31. Stretch Out Use the Entire Stage. This is Presence After long-term confinement to an intimate rehearsal space it is easy to feel overwhelmed by an enormous stage to run about on. This will be an act of knowing awareness because you will have to conscientiously push out from center. Otherwise your band will come over as less than enthusiastic. After the last band and their back flipping, guitar-swinging handsprings you’ll have to raise your game up a notch. 32. Slightly Exaggerate Physicality When you’re playing and you’re being expressive, that expressiveness helps to annunciate various parts and portions of the stories and feelings your songs and music convey. Keeping in mind that we play how we practice, remember that we usually practice in a more subdued manner than what is required for stage. So using the level you think is appropriate for onstage expressiveness as a reference point for zero exaggerate your performance up to at least a three of ten. 33. Bridge Songs... Think of Your Set as a Story When you’re putting together your set list organize your songs into some strategic way. Play with their placement in rehearsal and then run with that for a few shows modifying as you go based on the feedback you interpret from live shows. You’ll grow keen to the dynamics of a set list with time continually gaining insight into what it is that goes into organizing a list that elicits a favorable outcome. And then as you advance you’ll progress to competence in designating which list suits which event. As your collection of playable material evolves and expands you’ll be comfortable with understanding how to interchange or substitute one song with another. Having that set list arranged and having an intuitive read on the linear expression of that list of songs will inform you on how to verbally communicate to your audience between them. It is not necessary to introduce each song so formally and that would go over as being entirely too robotic. Work on peppering in a few exchanges that lend to compliment your set in its entirety. 34. Engage the Audience There are and have been countless bands and artists who have engaged their audience in countless ways. Whether it’s having music that is so transcendent that it is entirely riveting without a word said or It is down to earth folksy storytelling interspersed with songs that accentuate the over arching theme. What ever it is, the fastest way to learning how to engage your audience well starts with learning how to read your audience. After which we need to ascertain what we’ve interpreted and adjust ourselves towards a desirable outcome in a purposeful and an exacting way. We all work to our strengths and so we should, the thing we need to develop is the knowing of how to modulate to the room within the parameters of those strengths. 35. Eye Contact Some artists maybe cool enough to keep their eyes closed for the duration of their set but to be honest I have serious doubts that they are. So as a practice come up from under in regular intervals. Open your eyes and make eye contact with the strangers that want to perceive you more intimately. Eye contact is important as it connects us together with others so employ it. In addition to gratifying an innate desire to perform, the function of playing shows is to satisfy those who indulge you doing so. And it behooves you to add people to the group whom do it. Allow them to feel connected in any reasonable way you can. 36. Make Acknowledgements Take time to shout out the members of the band. Try to intersperse these acknowledgements throughout the set rather than making one great big giant introduction. As an up and comer keep things stream lined, tidy and organic. Also be sure to thank the house for having you there. Acknowledge this night as being great and acknowledge the other bands that are also taking part, “What a great night, what cool bands to be playing along with…” then and perhaps most importantly thank your audience for making the night possible. These platitudes buy so much favor you can’t afford not making them. But do it as organically as possible. Don’t make it feel contrived. 37. Mitigate Mistakes by Playing Through Them Don’t be surprised shocked or rattled by a technical mistake. Plow through like a bulldozer and build ineptitude for running with and jumping back onto the horse at stride. The more seasoned performer you become the more your growing capacity for mitigating these occurrences will camouflage them. It’s like the adage that “People see what you want them to”, instead of having them focus on you falling off the path leave them astounded by your quick recovery and composure. 38. Don’t allow for Uncomfortable Dead-space Keep things moving at all times through out the show. Rehearse your set in the same way. Sometimes songs will move directly into the next and others you’ll steal moments to convey some thoughts that contribute to and enhance your show. Do your level best to keep it concise and to the point and get on to the next song. Long dallies and delays will not produce a desirable outcome. If some unforeseeable mistake produces an unwanted stop, improvise through it as nimbly as possible. 39. Promote Your "Merch" Stage to Connect with New Fans At some point invite the crowd to visit you at the merchandise table after the set to say hello. Giving them the call to action and the invitation will make them feel more comfortable with the icebreaking that goes into making introductions. That said, if you have done your job on stage and the audience has appreciated it, then your next responsibility in regard to building your following is to define specific steps for the new interested and engaged fan to take to better acquaint and integrate themselves with your band and what it is doing going forward. The Merchandise table is great home base for you to meet and know as many willing people as you can. 40. Organic Encore Only Don’t force it. This should be a given but you never no. So, let me be clear… Do not run back onto the stage stepping overtop of the next band with both arms outstretched into the air like a winner if the applaud was not persistent. You don’t want to be that person. Should the event arise that the audience in a relentless unified roar demands one more song, then and only then should it even remotely be a consideration. Make note of the events scale if you are the headliner and you are a well-established act and it will close the night with a bang then perhaps its ok. However be conscientious of the fact that you are consuming more than your allotted time allowance designated to you by the house, and if the event is small scale and the staff wants to get home to their loved ones than it may not be in your interest to consume more time than you were allotted only to indulge four or five of your drunken friends. 41. Say Thank You and Goodnight At the end of a well-managed night, you will be elated with having traversed to this side of the show. The audience will be reveling in merriment, pleased to have made the effort out to enjoy themselves. The house will also be satisfied and ready to invite you back in no small part to the overflowing coffers and well-tipped staff. Your band was the catalyst for bringing all of these parts together all of which would have otherwise been missed. Now with humility and gratitude this is exactly when you remember to say “Thank you and Good night.” 42. Get Band and Gear Off Stage Stored It’s a good look to get your things off the stage quickly. The next band is waiting their turn to take stage and there is no time to celebrate how fantastic all of that just was. Instead allow for a few nods signifying a job well done. Then knuckle down to the task of getting those guitars, amps and other things off stage and out of the way as quickly as possible. The house should have a designated space for you to store your gear until load out. If you are staying to close out the night, it is not recommended to stow anything outside in an unattended vehicle. Doing so could result in having your heart ripped out. 43. Find Your Beverage of Choice Come Back Down to Earth With the heavy lift behind you, you’ve earned your beverage of choice. So have to that while doing your best to come back down to earth. This transition takes a lot to process but you need to regain your composure in order to be approachable for others. There should be any number of well wishers who intend on making their presence known to you. And as you have just defined yourself as something of an anomaly, they will either want to celebrate that or unravel it. Regardless of whichever, to navigate that you’ll need both feet firmly planted on the ground. 44. Network Mingle With Audience For the inner narcissist or for those of us who have built these incredible pseudonyms to compensate for something else this is the cream. All kidding aside though, this next step is just as important as anything else so far. Only it could not have been reached without all that predicated it. It is here where you cement all of the good will showering in your direction into countable gains. This opportunity allows you to intermingle with people who have tirelessly supported you or who have just had the inkling to do so. Take the time to allow each person to take what they need to from saying hello, it will be the added pizzazz that keeps them interested and brings them back the next time. 45. Man Merchandise Table After saying all of your hellos find your way to the merchandise table. For the rest of the night this should be your base of operations. Do your best to remain visible within its proximity so that you can easily be found should anyone need to. There is always someone who comes along that knows someone else you need to or knows about something going on that you need to be involved in. In addition to those networking opportunity you owe it to yourself to see to it that you’ve sold all of the merchandise you can. 46. Collect Social Contacts From Audience In between selling out all of your merchandise. Be prepared to collect and exchange social contact information with anyone that walks up to the table interested in being informed of upcoming shows. Having a mailing list to which you can push notifications about upcoming events, music releases and the like is an essential part of managing your turnout growth. It’s all about being able to produce for the clubs. From one standpoint a band or an artist is all about expression. It’s all about the music. But no matter how wonderfully fantastic that music is if you can not draw an audience you will not be booked to play shows. 47. Collect Contact Information From Other Bands Making the acquaintance of the other bands is a great way to find out about other things going on in both your local community and those surrounding. By having working relationships with people from the other bands on occasion you might be thought of to fill in an opening in a line up and thusly be invited to take part in an event that you would otherwise have not been. If the band is from another city it can be particularly useful to get your foot in the door. In some instances certain booking managers can become trusting enough of a bands ability to turn out an audience that they will allow that band to produce the event. So maybe all three slots can be filled by whomever that band wants. So if the counterpart band has that level of sway in their city and you have that level of sway in yours, you can both do in turn for the other. 48. Thank the Sound Person and Exchange Contact Information This individual has a thankless job and yet they have so much impact on how you’re perceived. Try showering them with appreciation and see how much that matters. Being thoughtful and appreciative are traits that are memorable. Everybody appreciates the dignity, which comes from feeling appreciated. That doesn’t mean that you should be disingenuous, you shouldn’t be. Only give a compliment if it is warranted but you can be appreciative of someone’s effort regardless of anything else. Try being a bit more grateful of people and watch what doors open for you and what yield friendliness lends. The next time you play in that club that Soundperson will be pleased to see you and happy to do their best to make sure you sound great. This time more then first time, they are invested in your success. 49. Confirm Booking Manager is Pleased and Collect Pay At this point the night will have all but wound down and one of the last things you’ll need to do before checking out is to touch base with either the clubs booking manager or whomever it is on staff that is dealing with the bands. Of course you’ll want to be super polite and grateful for having been included in what was undoubtedly a great night. What you can do now is let whomever it is know that you are getting ready to leave and mention that you just wanted to check in and make sure that everything went well for them. If they had any concerns they’ll address them at this point. Unless your turn out was terrible and so long as no one started a fight it is unlikely that they’ll have anything to discuss. If they were collecting a cover at the door, and it was agreed to in advance, your band will be entitled to its share. 50. Gear Double Check and Load Out After bidding farewell to your contact at the club put your towing vehicle in cue for load out. You’ll have already broken down the merchandise table and everything should already be packed and ready to go. Take these last few moments to identify that everything you’d brought is accounted for. Before leaving have one last walk through to be certain nothing has been left behind. 51. Load Out and Go Home Grab your things,d load your van and trailer, say good-bye and then make your way home. Tomorrow you’ll want to push a thank you to everyone on your mailing list that was able to make it out for the show. You’ll also want to post all of your photos and videos taken at the show to your online accounts. A few days later send a thanks-again note to the booking manger from the club and reach out to the other bands that were on the line up. To those bands you’ll want to say something about it being great to have gotten to play the show together and how it was a good time. Then make a mention about doing it again sometime soon. Real classy, like! Now go and get to it. Good luck!