Friday, May 6, 2011

How do i prepare

If  the Head Chef at the best Restaurant in a big city wandered in a couple of hours before dinner service and scratched his head wandering what the heck he should put on the menu for the night do you think there would be happy diners at the end of the evening.  No!!, if that were the case it would be a shocking night for staff and diners because there was no forethought, no plan and no preparation.  As a performer, without preparation, the results would be the same. There would be no connections, no special moments and people leaving the venue wandering who you were. Not very memorable.

We need to make it memorable, that’s our job.  Prepare physically and emotionally.

Physically we need to know our songs and the musicality of each. Inside out and back the front.  We need to choose the songs, learn the lyric, learn how to play the music, design and apply the dynamics of the delivery.  Remember it’s a live performance and a lack of preparation will show.  We need to be sure.  We need to prepare our equipment, there is so much to do and we have to be diligent and dedicated in our preparation.  We need to establish a spontaneous reaction that activates when we hear or play the intro to each song. There are no shortcuts.  We need to be extremely disciplined.  The preparation is the foundation of what we do, without it the show will be a flop.

Practice, Rehearse and Perform. Repetion, that’s how it happens.  In a performers life new songs are always being written or sourced and because we have chosen them we are eager to perform them.  Leave the new ones on the back burner until you have established their foundations. Without the foundation of practice you will never deliver the song to it’s full potential.

We need to learn to speak to our audience.  We need to be able to connect through conversation.  Conversing with the audience establishes the artist to audience relationship.  It generates a feeling of warmth and familiarity, like they know you.  That’s what they want to do, they want to know you! They want to feel a part of what you are doing. Choosing to speak of things from your own day to day experiences is advantageous as it’s real.  It’s real to you therefore that reality extends to the audience.  They love that, that’s why being you and all you are is so important.  Relating to people about your experiences is easier than a scripted piece that you know nothing about.  Real experiences roll off your tongue because you recall it happening.  Audiences don’t expect that you are super human and have none of the experiences that ordinary day to day life brings.

Emotional Preparation…….

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