Category: Stagecraft

Be a better performer onstage.

Hal Leonard Gig Guide Book With CD – The Performance Guide For Bands

Hal Leonard Gig Guide

   I’m always checking out new and interesting products to help make my life in a band easier. I was looking at some guitar tablature books and stumbled onto the Gig Guide series published by Hal Leonard. The Gig Guide series is designed to provide musicians with a blueprint for building bands.

   What Hal Leonard has done in the Gig Guide series is to pick a musical genre, say Classic Rock, and compile a 12-song setlist. It’s the same thing I’ve done for you with the Live Musician Central Set List series. You get several tools to use to learn the songs with the Hal Leonard Gig Guide series. Along with the list of songs are a Lead Sheet with the basic essential parts you’ll need to know to play the songs. This could be as simple as chords and melody. You also get a demo CD with a full band playing the song so you can hear how you should sound. Continue reading “Hal Leonard Gig Guide Book With CD – The Performance Guide For Bands”

A Good Show Is A Collective Effort

   I always figured if I practiced long and hard enough that I would become a good enough musician that my skills would guarantee a successful show every time I played. So I practiced and I became a good musician but I found that a good show doesn’t just depend on musical skill. A good show is a collective effort between several different factors.

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Take Care Of Your Hearing With Musicians Earplugs

Pete Townshend - Rock Induced Deafness

   One of the most important pieces of advice I can give to young musicians is simply to take good care of your hearing. I was diagnosed with a hearing loss when I was 16 years old and had only been playing in a band a couple of years. I was still pretty careless with my hearing for much of my early career. Finally the hearing specialists started telling me I needed hearing aids. That got my attention and I’ve been very careful with my hearing the last 15 years or so.

   The best thing I’ve done for my hearing is to get a pair of custom molded, sonic filter type earplugs made specially for musicians. I have the Westone ES49 Custom Fit Earplugs. Mine are a light tan color and are barely visible from the audience. They sound fantastic and because they are custom molded to my ear they’re extremely comfortable.

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Settle Your Nerves – Dealing With Stage Fright

Elvis - Dancing or just nervous?

   I’ve had my bouts of stage fright over the course of my career although I’ve never had it really bad. I’ve played with other musicians who were just overwhelmed with stage fright. I’ve played with guys that were throwing up before every gig because they got so nervous.

   Let me start off with a little quote from The King himself, Mr. Elvis Presley: “I’ve never gotten over what they call stage–fright. I go through it every show. I’m pretty concerned, I’m pretty much thinking about the show. I never get completely comfortable with it, and I don’t let the people around me get comfortable with it, in that I remind them that it’s a new crowd out there, it’s a new audience, and they haven’t seen us before. So it’s got to be like the first time we go on.” – taken from http://quotations.about.com

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Can I Play Your Guitar?

No you can't use my microphone!

Man if I had $5 for every time I’ve been asked “Can I Play Your Guitar?” I’d be rich! I’ve had people stumble up to me at gigs drunk out of their mind and ask if they can sit in with the band, and of course play my guitar to do it. I once had a guy grab my 2nd guitar off the stage while I was playing and play air guitar with it. Lucky for that guy he was a visiting Japanese dignitary at a marketing convention that didn’t speak any english. I think he knew enough from my reaction to quickly put my guitar back. I guess some words are universal. So when somebody asks me “Can I Play Your Guitar?” my policy is to simply say “No”. There are several reasons I’ve learned to just say no over the years.

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A Happy Crowd Means A Happy Band

One Happy Fan!

   The greatest thing about playing live music is the interaction you have with the audience. There is no better feeling than to see the audience completely taken by what you’re doing onstage. It’s a very symbiotic relationship in the fact that the audience feeds off the bands energy and stage presence and the band feeds off the energy and appreciation they feel from the audience.

   I remember at one particular gig, we had a fan that was completely into the music we were playing. I mean the guy was completely lost in the music. We’re talking borderline out of control.

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How To Handle Jerks, Be Professional

Bottle Smashes Against Jacks Helmet

    One thing that you will have to deal with constantly as a live musician is obnoxious audience members. It seems like no matter how good you are you still have jerks in the crowd. There’s a funny scene in the Jack Black movie “Tenacious D And The Pick Of Destiny” where he’s training to play his first gig. He’s all decked out in a football helmet and his guitar. They’ve set up chairs with paper plates attached to them as peoples heads. Each plate has a mean face drawn on it to simulate an angry crowd. As Jack prepares to play his song, Kyle Gass plays heckles from a cassette tape. They say things like “Boooo!” and “Play something douche bag!!”. Needless to say this flusters Jack as he prepares to play. As he starts to play, beer bottles smash against his helmet. It’s hilarious and frightening in it’s honesty.     Continue reading “How To Handle Jerks, Be Professional”

Stage Banter, Speak To The Crowd!

This is just a quick tip on Stage Banter. When you’re up there onstage and you’re not playing, don’t forget to talk to the crowd! You’ll lose them quick if you’re up onstage having a discussion amongst yourselves. The crowd will see you as either confused or simply uncaring that there’s a crowd of people there to watch you.
If you’re not sure what song you’re going to play next make sure you have somebody on the microphone talking to the crowd while the rest of the band decides what song is going to be played next. That’s why you want to make a set list at the beginning of the set so you don’t have to fill too much airtime with stage banter.    Continue reading “Stage Banter, Speak To The Crowd!”

Dressing For The Stage

   I like being comfortable. I’m the most comfortable in a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. I have to tell you that I don’t like wearing costumes and I hate dressing up. So for a long time I just wore jeans and a t-shirt onstage. Then I started opening for other bands and I really began to notice how cool they looked creating a look for when they played onstage.  I remember thinking once at a gig that the band that opened for us just looked cooler than we did. They just seemed a lot more hip even though musically we blew them away. The real bummer was, the crowd was louder for that band than for us.   Continue reading “Dressing For The Stage”

The Importance Of Recording Yourself

    I still remember the first time I heard a live recording of a gig. I was horrified! There I was thinking I was a rock star and then I heard the recording and I couldn’t believe people had stayed through the whole show. My singing was off in places, my stage banter and interaction with the crowd was aweful and the mix left a lot to be desired. After I listened to that recording a few times,  I did start to hear some things I liked. I was able to pinpoint the things I had done well and also the things I had done badly. Now after all these years that recording is a precious posession because I have a record of how I sounded at 15 years old. And I’ve grown to really love it. Warts and all.        Continue reading “The Importance Of Recording Yourself”

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