Performance-Know the Stage!

April 02, 2008 at 10:54 PM

Performance-Know the Stage!
With all of the lessons, practicing and rehearsing, your finally ready for the stage—or are you? Depending on the genre of music, different advice will apply. The Glitz and Glamour will apply more to popular music.
Remember this, from a technique stand point, chances are during alive performance you will never be 100%. Chances are you will be at 75% at best of your capability. Many things play into this. Think of this. Sitting at home in your room, practicing, there isn’t any pressure. When you show up on a gig, you have several things to consider. You need to make sure you are in tune. You need to make sure you are playing together with everyone else. The sound system and monitors will at some point provide a distraction in what you are doing. So chances are 100% is not obtainable.
When you are performing for a crowd, you want to communicate through playing and eye contact and body language. Nobody wants to see you standing with your back to the crowd like a piece of furniture or an angry frown on your face (unless your playing angry music)
If you’re a singer or front person of a pop/rock band, you have a huge responsibility. Aside from singing all the right parts, you want to provide a show. You also want to communicate to the audience. In between song chatter amongst band members is like telling an inside joke that nobody gets. Now this isn’t important if you don’t want people to come back. People like to be included. They like to be recognized. This doesn’t mean the drummer yelling out to his roommate from behind his kit.
Always know your audience. Go out and see the bands doing what your are doing and how they play the crowd. It is always important to play the room.
I used to play in a cover band. We used to play this one room where we had to do 4 45 minutes. Up and Down. The first set and a half, people were eating dinner. Then the bar crowd would come. So for the first set and a half we would play quieter acoustic stuff. Nothing better than hearing silverware dropping in between songs in lieu of applause.
Then the bar crowd would come in and we would get out the electric stuff and play all of the Top 40 they wanted to hear. Play The Room!
When checking out other bands, see what the stage show is like. Do they do a lot of moves? Do they have a light show?
All of these things again will be dictated by genre. If you’re a folk singer who sings deep, quiet songs, you probably don’t want a stage show like KISS! Pretty easy to get the idea-right?
If you’re a nervous fella, this may not be your business. It is called show business for reason. Try to overcome your fear. There is nothing to fear. Nobody will ever remember every clam you made at the show. Even worse, never make a face when you fuck up. Chances are nobody caught your mistake, however if you make a look of disgust, people will say he fucked up! So, practice in front of a mirror or video tapes your performance. Then review the tape. If you find yourself looking down at the floor and not moving during the whole show, you may want to start to look at the crowd and smile to start. Then occasionally move up or down.
You can find a few people to focus on in the crowd and go between them. A smile is usually enough. If you are not that confident, you can always look at an inanimate object in the back of the room. This way people will see you looking straight on, and you wont have to look directly at them
It really is the easiest part. I always look forward to a big crowd. It is easy for me to play in front of thousands, rather than 10 people.
So put your rock face on and get it on!
-Johnny Rodriguez