Stage Presence

I have learned to never assume anything. I would think that musicians would intrinsically learn about stage presence. But as I work with more and more musicians, at every age level, I find that often they have never been coached on stage presence. Believe it or not, I learned most of my stage presence skills by being on a church worship team. One time the worship leader video taped us and made us watch ourselves. UUGGgghhhhh!!! "But I was focused and concentrating!" Was my excuse. Ok, good, making mistakes is definitely going to hurt matters more than help them but the challenge is to get to the place where you know the music so well you can relax and have fun and convey that to your audience. So here are a few tips that may be helpful.

First off, stage presence is important! But it is not as important as being prepared for your performance. The two go hand in hand. The ones that are prepared to perform have more confidence and that comes through in your performance and helps your audience to relax and listen to you. I'll never forget (though I'm trying really hard to) going to a school musical, and one of the students performing had asthma so bad that he looked and sounded like he was going to pass out at anytime. Though I praise him for his "The show must go on!" attitude, what he put the audience through was excruciating!! If you are nervous, you make your audience nervous, and it is hard for them to relax and enjoy your performance. A topic for another blog may be ways to overcome your nervousness but I've found these things work best.

1) Be well practiced and be well prepared. Cheat if you have too! My biggest mess ups are always remembering lyrics. If you look at my keyboard you'll see the key words to each verse of "If I had A Million Dollars" taped to it. (And Mike was so impressed that I remembered all the lyrics! Lol!) Being well prepared gives you confidence. Another thing that gives you confidence is . . .

2) Perform your performance many times. Nothing gets you more comfortable than being able to say to yourself, "I've done this a million times, lets just go on stage and have fun!" Perform for your family, perform at open mics, perform at Musicians Connect Group shows, at your school, at your church, whoever will have you, perform for your dog if you need too! (not your cat, it won't appreciate you)

3) SMILE. Stage presence is Body Language. Your smile says more than anything! Look like your having fun and your audience will too. Make eye contact with your audience, this makes them smile back at you : ) How are you holding your body? What is your posture saying? Arms crossed not only restricts the singers breathing and phrasing capability but it tells the audience "Stay away, I'm here in my own little bubble and you stay out there in yours"

Try to have a relaxed, open stance if your standing and relaxed head up posture when sitting.

4) Feel free to introduce your song to set the mood. With an up tempo opener you may want a little hype and encourage people to sing, dance or clap along. A slower more intimate song you may want to say something about the song or dedicate it to someone in the audience. Set The Mood!

5) It's ok to lose yourself in the music! Check out the YouTube video of Yo-yo Ma playing the Swan on the cello. He is totally into it!! And it draws the listener in as well. There is nothing cooler being a musician than closing your eyes, and letting the world and all its cares and problems drift away and you find yourself with just you and your music and you can just pour your heart and soul into it. Man!! It's hard to come back from reality after an experience like that. There literally is nothing else like it and not every musician can accomplish that until they have achieved enough mastery on their instrument that they have the skills and confidence to take us there.

If its an uptempo song and you're digging the groove, it's ok to dance a little bit as long as you keep the audience attention to were it should be and not distracting. But don't be stiff as a board as this communicates NERVOUSNESS!!

Again stage presence is something to work on after you have the musicality of your performance down. Then video tape and watch yourself, or ask for feedback from one of the Musicians Connect Group regulars. They will gladly give you feedback and encouragement.

Now get in your practice room and get at it!

And maybe add a mirror ; )