This is just a little post, but I thought I’d make the point.
Playing Live is not the same as playing at home. In fact, playing for any sort of audience is not the same as your regular practice, even if it in front of video camera.
The reason this is the case is because of the numerous different factors that have to be taken into account to give a performance that would mirror that which you can pull off in practice. I would like to run through some of these which I have noticed over my very short and haphazard time of playing for live audiences.
Essentially, I think there are only two things that you need to take note of.
First: What Type of Musician are You?
If you are an acoustic guitar player or a solo singer-songwriter, you basically have two factors to consider, the clarity of your amplification equipment (mic and amplifier) and the right balance between the two. This being only two instruments, is pretty easy to do by yourself.
If you have a 4 piece band, this instantly compounds the problem, since you have to make sure that 4 different instruments work together in harmony to sound like you sound in the studio. Not to mention the mic volume, the extra reverb of the venue, the drum dampening, the effect of temperature on the tuning of your instruments, the fact that you need to ensure that every one in the room regardless of where they are needs to hear the same thing, and a multitude of other factors. Oh, and I must mention that if the venue has lousy monitors, then the way you hear yourself will be completely different from what the audience hears.
We know that we need the audience to hear what we want them to hear, but you also need to hear yourself to be able to execute the more complex sections of your music. It’s really a pain to play deaf in front of a large audience.
There were three things I learned:
- Always do a thorough sound check prior to the event
- There are professional sound engineers for a reason, use them if you can, and if you don’t have the luxury, don’t do anything ambitious
- Nothing ever turns out as planned
This is the reason why professional musicians spend years getting their live performances right should tell you something about the complexity of the task and the amount of manpower that goes into a performance. If you’re the type of instrumentalist like myself, look at a performance by Steve Vai (Where the Wild Things Are Video) and be absolutely amazed not just by the musical flair, but also the probably one hundred sound engineers, mixers, costume designers and other people behind the performance.
It’s no wonder why most musicians look like amatuers, simply because of the many other factors that go into a great performance.
It is indeed a humbling thought.
Next: What Does the Audience Think?
Frankly, nobody cares about what kind of work you’ve put into a performance.
As with anything else, be it business, your investments, or your exams, people want to see results. We don’t care what sort of code goes behind Facebook, but the founders and programmers have to know in order to give us the features that we want.
As a musician, this is even harder, since you are being judged on a subjective and more importantly, real-time, stage. Unlike a Facebook which is judged by the User interface and the speed in which new features are pumped out is measured in days, the musician has the task of delivering exactly as promised second for second.
Also don’t forget the horrors of dealing with the critics, especially if your music is not mainstream (whatever that may mean).
In essence, I think what I’ve learned is that I can never be quite good enough, and that gives me motivation to keep on getting better. I also think that you have to be quite shameless, and keep on trying new things, many of which will only be met with the harsh feedback of your audience.
Still, I trust that after another 30 years of musical endeavour, the patterns should start to evolve nicely for me to be able to put together a feast for the senses on stage.
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