A few weeks ago, I was talking with a local musician whose band is regrouping. He was talking to me about the band’s new philosophy. “We used to be basically a studio band,” he said, “but now we aren’t going to record anything we haven’t tested out live first.” I thought that was wisdom, because it adds a measure of objective feedback to their song selection process.
Continuing our “Polishing Your Performance” series…this topic ties in with the articles about stage presence, but interacting with your audience deserves some discussion on its own.
As musicians, we all want our music to be heard and appreciated. That’s one of the big reasons why we play live. But one simple mindset in the live setting can make all the difference between a great show and a mediocre one:
When you perform live, it isn’t just about you. It’s about your audience, too.
I found this article by music business consultant Christopher Knab over at MusicBizAcademy.com, called “10 Tips to Keep You on the Music Career-Building Path.” Each of the points he makes makes a lot of sense and carries a lot of wisdom. Here’s a brief quote from the article:
“If you think your music is ‘good’….then just keep it as a hobby. The music marketplace doesn’t need more ‘good’ music, it needs truly GREAT music, which is a lot easier to get people excited about, and to market.”
And another one:
Today, musician friends, let’s talk about what genre your music falls into. Even though you might not want to. 
Quite often I hear young musicians make one of two critical errors when they are asked to classify their music:
ERROR #1: “We don’t fit into any genre.” “We are original.” “We don’t sound like anybody.” (Usually one of those three sentences.)
or…
ERROR #2: “We sort of cross over (or have a blend of) a lot of genres.” (Usually some derivative of that sentence.)
This post is primarily geared (pun intended) to the gear-heads in the reading audience. That is, those musical techies who have entire rooms and closets full of accessory equipment, and who like to haul all of it to every live performance. You know who you are.
Guitar players are particularly prone to having lots of extra gear–guitar pedals, wires, special amps, and of course the obligatory seven guitars that must be brought along to every gig. (Yes, I’m exaggerating–mostly. But you get the point). And there are plenty of tech-toys for the rest of us, too: keyboard players, string players, even vocalists. (Can anyone say auto-tune?)
From ArtistHouseMusic…the widget below contains a series of video clips of Chris Blackwell, the founder of Island Records (think U2) as he talks about various aspects of the music industry today–including a lot of insight for independent artists. These clips were filmed at a seminar at Loyola University in New Orleans. There are a lot of clips here, but it’s worth taking the time to watch them. See what you think.
In the previous post in this series, we started to talk about what stage presence is, how it makes a difference in a performance, and some things you can do to improve your own stage presence. In this followup post, let’s give some down-to-earth, practical do’s and don’ts about handling and owning the stage when you’re performing live.
Ready?
DON’T…try to hype audience response by constantly coaching them what to do, or demanding a response.
DO… Encourage audience participation once in awhile.
This topic of stage presence actually qualifies as part of the “Polishing Your Performance” series, but is important enough to be a little 2-part series on its own.
Stage presence is one of those concepts that is difficult to describe or measure. Kind of like the wind. You can’t see or touch the wind (unless you’re in LA or Beijing, maybe), but you can certainly see what effect it has on the stuff it blows on. In fact, we tend to describe wind more by what it does than by what it is. (For example, “That wind done plumb blowed over my whole chicken coop!”) Or, as a more scientific example, the Fujita Scale measures tornado winds after the fact, by the damage left behind.
One of my favorite parts of the Underground Music Showcase this past weekend was a series of panel discussions held in the basement of a local church. One of these discussions was a panel of music bloggers talking about their contribution to the music buzz. One of the panelists, Erin Barnes of The Donnybrook Writing Academy, made a point I thought was pretty huge. She said that it is actually possible for a huge buzz created on the Internet to be the undoing of a band if it happens prematurely, because the band is not prepared to live up to all the hype. This is a classic example of the folly of style without substance.
Where normally by this point I’d be saying something brilliant about artist development that would keep you hanging on my every word…this week I’m going to be spending a lot of time watching developing artists.
This Thursday through Sunday, Denver’s biggest indie music shindig is happening–the Underground Music Showcase. I’ll be there, for two reasons: first, because I want to support the local talent; second, because I’ll need to write about it on my other blog and Examiner.com, and I can’t write anything intelligent if I’m not there. Between now and Thursday, I’m busting my tail with some other writing assignments that actually pay money. So please forgive me if things are sparse around here for the next few days. It will only be for the rest of the week. (I might even surprise you and actually post something, if I feel inspired or can’t sleep or something.)
