Two Secrets To A Great Performance
Monday, February 2, 2009 at 06:54PM Saturday night I performed for a crowd of about 130 people. I told you in an earlier post that I had decided to write out my show and look at it and cut out the dead wood. Which is exactly what I did and the show went amazingly well.
I also did something else that I talked about over a year ago, but I want to stress again, as you can’t imagine what kind of impact it has on your performance, no matter what you are doing, and I discovered this particular thing by accident.
When I first started playing out, I would play bars as the solo guy, singing in some corner on a Shure Vocalmaster sound system (that seemed to be the ubiquitous sound system at the time and was literally in almost all the clubs I played in the 60’s and 70’s). My shift (for that’s what it was) would start around 8 or 8:30 and go until at least 1 am.
When the evening first started, I always felt unmusical and clumsy, both vocally and instrumentally, but after the first hour, I began to loosen up my vocal chords and my fingers. And during the first set, I sang songs that didn’t require a lot of range or power, so that I could ease into the evening. I mean, singing for four or four and a half hours is quite a challenge, but you can do it.
By the end of the second hour I was just having great fun with my guitar and my voice. The third hour was simply fantastic fun. I could do anything with my voice that I wanted. My guitar was fluid; my singing was effortless.
After that third hour, it would depend how rested I was for the remainder of the evening to be fun or effort. More on that in a moment, the first thread is about being properly warmed up, so I want to stay on subject.
So the point here is that after two hours of singing and playing, I was very musical; very into what I do; and very happy to be doing it. This naturally translated itself to the audience. And joy is infectious, they loved seeing me perform because it made them feel good, and because I was good.
Then as I got a recording deal and began to tour, I discovered that it was often in the car on the way from the gig that my voice really opened up and let me use it to its fullest. So I started getting to the gigs early, around 5:30 pm and just sitting in my dressing room and playing til my sound check, then I’d go out, sound check as long as they would let me, to get accustomed to the room and the system.
Then back to my dressing room, where I would sit in the dark and play until showtime. My shows started getting really good. And that became my process for performing.
Then when working with other musicians, most of whom don’t do much warm up at all, I started letting myself slide and it would be the end of the concert before I was as good as I could be up there.
So Saturday night, I made certain that I got to do my routine before the show. I got my private room and I got my two hours in and when I got on stage, I could do anything with my voice or guitar that I wanted. What joy and satisfaction I experienced, and the audience did too, as witnessed by the very brisk CD sales. They liked the music, and they liked the songs.
They liked the songs, because I put myself into the best place personally to present the songs. So I suggest that you make a proper warm up a part of every concert experience you ever have. It never lets me down.
The other point is to bring enough energy to the stage to carry the show. All the focus is on you and if you don’t have enough energy to lift the room, then the room will pull you down to where the crowd seems to be literally drawing the energy out of you and you are getting nothing back from them.
If you are properly rested, you won’t believe how much your energy is reflected back on to you by the crowd.
For me the two main ingredients to a successful concert are a proper warm up and proper rest. Trust me.
Reader Comments (3)
James,
VERY good post!
you've talked about practising guitar every day in other posts...Have you considered practising vocally...just some simple warm ups like humming or singing solfege 15 minutes or so....its kinda like insurance...your voice gets even more conditioned so that it reacts the way you want it to...if you dont get your full preshow warm up in...and more than that your voice goes to new heights when you do get your usual preshow warm up in
Namaste
Pax
Bobby
Ah ha, I got that. Thank you for sharing
mp3leben
I've experienced the same thing. My issue has always been the status of my voice and throat. If I over-prepare my voice, it could sound tired on the day of the show. My cure has always been to sing at least 2 hours the night before the gig. For me, anyhow, my voice is much better the next day (kinda like lasagne). Warming up helps for intonation and accuracy before a show and I warm up at least 30 minutes with exercises I learned 20 years ago. Thanks for these posts. If you want we could put a link up at earBuzz in our resources section under 'artist tips and advice". Let us know. - Don