Wednesday 1st June, 2022
It’s June, & this week we’re getting into live music & performance!
Everything I’m writing is coming from more than a decade of live performing, & more than two of attention seeking. My first time on stage was at a circus convention in Tralee in 2007. The rule at the ‘renegade’ performance is that all new people must get up & perform. Renegade’s are kind of like circus convention after parties… you get up, do a trick, & get off the stage. So, the wee 15 year old Nathan gets up with his beast of a unicycle, places it on his chin, & walks across the stage. Since then I’ve been clawing my way back on stage in any way possible, as any kind of performer. I’ve been a circus artist, storyteller, puppeteer, dancer, presenter, & of course, a musician.
So it’s safe to say that I’ve picked up a few tips, tricks, & skills in stagecraft. Even more so than my songs or my voice, people seem to respond more to the ‘presence’ I have on stage… that’s really just experience. I’m comfortable & confident up there… more than I am in the real world actually. It wasn’t until I studied theatre, that I started analysing & researching stagecraft. In complete honesty, it wasn’t until two months ago that I started doing it for music. This new chapter of stagecraft intention & attention comes from a masterclass I attended at BIMM, with a magical being: Peter-Jack. What I’m going to do today, is hopefully give you some of the insights I’ve accrued over the years through experience & some gems on knowledge that have been handed down to me.
I’m gonna try break them up into paragraphs to make it easier to skim through… one thing to keep in mind through all this, is the idea of communication. Everything we do, is communication. (I’d also like to say that I’ve made every mistake on this list… so no judgement.)
1. We can see you…
When you step up on stage, you suddenly become extremely visible… cause that’s what stages are for. That’s a lot of power… & it’s your job to use it, your way. Personally, I get up on a stage & pull out the jovial Shakespearian character. I’m basically being a caricature of the extrovert. Visually, I’m inviting & I’m in control. I stand up straight, open-chested, & I keep my eyes looking into yours as much as I can. Equally though, I’ve a very talented friend who doesn’t look out, she ‘gazes at her shoes’… hence the shoe-gaze genre. She wears darker clothes, she doesn’t try to look happy, or even sad, she’s up there to ‘do her job’… or at least that’s what she looks like. (or what she’s telling us with her visual.)
Mostly, what we communicate on stage visually comes from our body language. “Where do I put my hands” is a big issue for singers. “How do I walk” is one for actors. While not everyone develops the confidence they need on stage, there are other ways around these issues. Some genres, like shoegaze & punk, can have these ‘work arounds’ baked into them. Afraid of eye contact? Look at your shoes. Don’t know what to do with your hands? Thrash about like a lunatic! Find what works for you, ideally in a way that people want to see.
Do’s (consider colour & fit of clothing, pay attention to your gaze/eye contact, be intentional with your posture)
Don’ts (sacrifice your song/performance to look a certain way, get too comfortable with ignorance, worry too much)
2. We can hear you…
These titles are getting a bit silly… of course we can hear you. (providing the live engineer has a brain.) I don’t just mean your music. I can’t & won’t advise you on how to play your stuff… I love the clarity of Bing Crosby, but I love the ineligibility of Gilla Band too. All I’d say about your music is: ‘communicate your songs in a way that gets the most out of their reasons for existing.’
What I can advise you on is everything else. By ‘hear you’, I don’t just mean your songs. I mean your speech, your movement, your equipment. There are so many things on stage that make noise, & they all play a part in your performance. The most common example of equipment noise is a guitar’s jack… so many times, my ears have been beaten by the ‘thump’ of some goober pulling out their guitar cable. Most of the time, they haven’t checked with the live engineer to see if it’s dead, but sometimes they just step on the cable & pull it out accidentally. In both instances, I will be put off, enjoy myself less, & might not follow up with them. An example of ‘your speech’ that grates my ears (this is kind of personal taste though) is the apology. Artists will get up, & tell me that they ‘have a cold’, that they ‘wrote this yesterday’, or that they ‘normally have a band’. All excuses for why they think the song sucks… or why they think that we’ll think it sucks. Either way, I find it reaaaaallly off putting. You find this mostly with newer artists at open mics… & anything goes at an open mic, so no judgement there. One thing I see a lot of too is, what I call, disrespect. An artist will finish a song in a beautifully quiet way, they’ve lulled us into a nice relaxing place, then suddenly bang a chord on the guitar… like they’re trying to wake us up. Another one that I can’t abide is the ‘joke’ in a very sentimental moment. A song about something serious & beautiful, we’re paying attention to the story, & at an instrumental moment the artist ‘cracks wise’. Even if the joke is a success, it usually pulls us away from the songs reason for existing. Which is what, I think, we’re here to do. To serve the song & the audience. (but that’s just my philosophy… the Dadaist’s might have a problem with me)
Do’s (consider the moment & tone of your speech, know your equipment, learn how to use a microphone)
Don’ts (apologise before or after you’ve played, fiddle with cables, ‘kill the moment’ to remedy an internal tension)
3. You’re surrounded by tools…
We harp on about ‘the craft’, & we use terms like ‘stagecraft’, but we don’t often treat ourselves like craftspeople. They use tools, they use techniques, they take apprenticeships. We could learn a lot, & some do, from treating their art, their work, as a craft. To begin with something familiar: your instrument is a tool. This you may have already considered. You may also see your voice as an instrument, & therefore: a tool. What a lot of people don’t consider, is everything else. The list below is obviously not extensive… & I’d hope that you just take the idea that there are things beyond your current definition of ‘tool’, & get creative with your performances.
The stage itself, is a tool. You can use your positioning in the space to great effect. This has an impact on a sub-conscious level though. For instance, centre stage is the ‘important’ place, or where the ‘important person’ stands/sits. The far corners, however, can be used for ‘dramatic moments’ in a show, or even for an intimate, private soliloquy. You can also get a great sound from stomping on a stage too, depending on the venue. (I once put my foot through a stage from stomping the beat during a performance)
The stands, & other ‘helpful’ furniture on stage are definitely tools. Anyone in the theatre world knows that an empty chair can mean a million things… that moving this chair to the back of the stage can symbolise almost anything given the context. The musicians of the world haven’t yet fully grasped this concept. They can move mic stands, chairs, music stands, anything that’s on stage & not even consider it. That masterclass we did with Peter-Jack primarily focused on the use of the microphone stand as a tool. You can’t ‘hide’ behind objects, you might hold on to them for a subconscious safety that we will all read as a fear in you… that sounded sinister. To bring it back to the actor’s best friend: the chair, a lot of actors will hold on to the chair, or lean on it, for no reason other than comfort, some kind of anchoring point. Like I said before with people who ‘kill the moment’ to remedy an internal tension… this ‘anchoring’ to an object is also used to remedy this internal tension. Usually a fear, or a lack of experience. It’s the old “don’t know where to put my hands” problem. In general, the advice for dealing with furniture on stage is to command them. The mic stand is your hammer, if you’re afraid of it then you’ll likely miss the nail.
The audience is full of tools…. not to objectify the wonderful people listening to you, but from a utilitarian angle, the audience is like a bunch of tools that you can use. With this I do mean sing along… call & response… clapping… etc. But also talking to a crowd can have an effect. Why do you think artists ask the audience “how are we doing tonight”? That’s them using the audience to build excitement in the moment, which ultimately serves the audience. Comedians are brilliant at using the audience as a tool. Bo Burnham in particular is great with this in his ‘prolonged eye contact’ bit, or in his ‘all the fellas say yeah’ bit. This could easily become it’s own journal entry… but I’m starting to sink way too much time into this weeks journal… so I’ll do an audience one specifically if anyone asks…
Do’s (practice with these tools as much as you can, use everything at your disposal, bring unique tools from other worlds with you)
Don’ts (get bored by the practical stuff, hide behind your tools, rely on them too much)
4. Your time is a resource
I’m writing this one because I’m running out of time, & that gave me the idea to mention it. The stage is your place, your performance is what you do with/in that space, for a period of time. You can go to a venue & be bored out of your mind… a bare stage is not usually interesting to look at. It’s what we performers fill it with that matters, & we usually have very little time to fill it. A music performance can range from one song, to a two hour headline show. Chances are you’re closer to the ‘one song’ end of that spectrum, so let’s talk ‘dating’.
The idea of ‘dating’ an audience came to me through Peter-Jack too. When an audience doesn’t know you, treat them like you’re speed-dating. An established artist playing in front of long time fans have a relationship built over time that they can play with. Certain inside jokes, references, or intimacies are possible with an audience you’ve been ‘married’ to. ‘Dating’ on the other hand, quite often your first date, is what you use to show them your personality, understand theirs, & hopefully form some kind of bond going forward. ‘Speed-dating’ is when you have a single song, or a support slot of 10-15 minutes. In this case, you need to show off ‘you’ as fast & effectively as possible. This doesn’t always mean ‘cram as many songs into my set as possible’. Sometimes it can mean: ‘the story about this song really works… maybe even a story about a song you won’t play them, but they’ll have to go & listen to afterwards.’ Showing the audience a ‘bite-sized’ version of you can be really powerful.
When building a ‘speed-dating’ setlist, you’ll need to trim the fat. Only the best (most appropriate) songs will make it in. Also, you’re not just going to let the songs do all the work, you’re a performer… not a jukebox. You might have a particularly great voice, with a huge range like Mariah Carey, work that in. You might have a bestial lung-capacity like Freddie Mercury, work that in. You might be a circus performer who can balance an instrument on his face, work that in… Work in the best parts of you… even the parts that seem old & repetitive. An old song that you hear for the first time is new to you. A new audience feels the same.
Do’s (plan a set almost like a scripted play, have at least two variations of your set, tell your story fast)
Don’ts (spend too long chatting away with people who don’t know you, focus only on the songs, go overtime… less is more)
Okay, phew… I was not expecting that to fall out of me.
I want to just wrap all of this up with a little disclaimer, without which I feel the above points could apply an unhealthy pressure on your mental state. Ultimately, you need to get things wrong…. again, & again, & again. Ideally you’ll experiment in a creatively safe space like a college or an open mic night. It takes time to find your feet on stage. You might intellectually understand these concepts. The brain learns fast, but it forgets. It takes time & repetition for the body to learn… but it won’t forget. No matter what you do, be sure to make it ‘true to you’, or who you want us to think you are. (knowing who you are/want to be would help here)
There’s a whole lot more of performing considerations to make… but sure, we’ll get there one day.
Have an abundant day!
N
