General Music Chat

For any frontmen out there, how do you develop your stage presence? Does it just come with experience? Do you take things from other performers and mold it into your own thing? Do you just be yourself? Take classes on live performance? Or does it just come with experience?

I'm asking this because the one thing I don't really like about some bands is the fact that they are great on a CD but when it comes to a live performance they basically just suck. I don't want that to be me, lol. Thanks for any responses.

Whiskey and qualudes. You'll still suck onstage, but you won't know it.

For any frontmen out there, how do you develop your stage presence? Does it just come with experience? Do you take things from other performers and mold it into your own thing? Do you just be yourself? Take classes on live performance? Or does it just come with experience?

I'm asking this because the one thing I don't really like about some bands is the fact that they are great on a CD but when it comes to a live performance they basically just suck. I don't want that to be me, lol. Thanks for any responses.

You got a lot of questions and Ill try to get them all,
1. I get my presence from myself, naturally im bold and loud and in your face. That makes for a good metal show. And yeah ive done some things to reference oher things, like when alexi laiho plays solos with his guitar sideways sometimes i mimic that. I have my signiture "falling power stance" though. And no i dont think my stuff comes from expereince but the lack there of actually.

2. My bands dont add anything to a CD that we cant do live. Therefore, we have to be able to do quite a bit with our instruments or have jus the right tweak with our pedals to get what we want. I know what your talking about about bad live performances, just look at POD live. You would think that sunny (vox) couldnt ever sing like that in real life. And he might not, with all the digital stuff coming down the tubes nowadays, its easy to take some one with no talent and make them sound pro.

Whiskey and qualudes. You'll still suck onstage, but you won't know it.

Not far from the truth.... but I have played with frontmen who were pretty wasted on almost the same concoction (Vicodin instead of Ludes) and they were actually incredible onstage... I remember a few times when I was on vicodin myself onstage due to and accident and I was pretty much relaxed and nimble on that thar fretboard....

Watch some live vids - something I couldn't do when I was starting out. See what makes a good performance - the energy that just pops out at you - the way the front man moves gracefully like David Bowie, or strangely like David Byrne - the way the singer can emphasize a vocal with an expression or a certain stance or an over-the-top gesture. Then you take everything you learn from these ppl & throw it all out. (No - not really!) Use YOUR best attributes, & apply what you see in others that fits with what & who you are.

If I take a moment before I go on, & just get into that certain zone, I find that I get into the mindset to do what seems natural on a stage. Just expand your normal stuff a teeny bit, your gestures, your vocal volume, your facial expressions, & you'll do fine, as long as you don't waste too much energy THINKING about it all, instead of the next note, etc, cuz that'll trip you up. Or you can just clown it all up like Mick Jagger, which works really well, too!

Watch some live vids - something I couldn't do when I was starting out.

They didn't have television way back then.

I'm not the frontman of my band by choice, but because nobody else seems to want to and the fact that I can remember lyrics well (probably from all the years of remembering and telling jokes). I'm still a bit self conscious when it comes to the vocals because I think of myself as a guitarist. But people still come up and say they love watching me perform. They point out certain aspects of my playing and my singing and fronting and some of it, I don't even recall doing, so I guess that's the times that I just let go and do it naturally. Philby's right about thinking about it before you go on but not while you're out there, because thinking about it will trip you up. When you finally do get started performing with a good band, just be natural, but give all your energy to it. As you progress and get more experience, you'll notice certain things that you did that got a response, and the next time you'll do it more. It'll become part of your show and then, each time you play try to add something else to it. After a while you'll build up your own individual identity that people will look for in each show.

Whiskey and qualudes. You'll still suck onstage, but you won't know it.

Not far from the truth.... but I have played with frontmen who were pretty wasted on almost the same concoction (Vicodin instead of Ludes) and they were actually incredible onstage... I remember a few times when I was on vicodin myself onstage due to and accident and I was pretty much relaxed and nimble on that thar fretboard....

Yep, seen this before.

It's the old "if you can't feel it, it can't bother you" thing..

Whiskey and ludes will only go so far.. If you start drooling etc., you're done before you started.

I have heard of people trying to use Valium to take the edge off. The same can be said for BETA BLOCKERS.

I think the easiest way is to know your material cold and then just have fun. If someone gives you lemons, make lemonade even if you have to piss all over them and apologize for not having ice and sugar.

I think that you need to watch performers that you admire and steal from them, all music is a constant rehashing of someone elses ideas anyway.

Practice in front of a mirror, one of our old rehearsal rooms had a mirror all the way down one wall in front of us so we could see ourselfs practice.

The more you do it the better you will get.

I think at any level its important to have a frontman who can control the room you are playing large or small. The larger the room the larger your movements should be. I would suggest slow and deliberate moves instead of going spastic. To me it just makes a person look more confident, quicker moves make a person look nervous to me.

On guitar I wear my guitar lower than is comfortable, (Page, Slash), I play behind my head and with my teeth (Hendrix, Stevie Ray), I do the windmill deal (Townsend), Ive learned when playing a really high on the neck solo on my LP to get down and rest it on my leg to get the guitar in the proper position (Wylde). Ive picked up all these moves and more from emulating folks I look up to. They are all just classic moves, just like the music itself. To me music is way more than just the music, its the whole package. Lets face most of us on here are not playing very difficult music.

Work on your look and presence, this may even include the clothes you wear.

Good Luck

I didn't really look through the responses, but here's what I do:

Videotape a gig

Watch tape

Be critical of "performance", not just musical, but physical

Compare to famous ppl

Realize I suck and try to improve (usually in my case, need to move around more, smile more, make more eye contact, and dance around more)..

repeat all steps for next gig.

I would videotape myself on stage so I could see what I look like from the perspective of the crowd. When reviewing the videotape, try to forget it's you on stage, and ask the critical questions - what would have made this performance better - what was wrong with this performance and what was right with it.

Also, energy is a plus. I saw a few bands live the other night, and the front-men who were the fun ones to watch always had something to say when others were tuning between sets - engaged the audience with humor - were relaxed and looked like they were having fun. Contrarily, the front-men who looked uneasy or nervous had me feeling uncomfortable because I felt for them - I was embarrassed for them or whatever - what you project is what the audience feeds on. So project confidence and fun.

Well that's a bloody tough question make no mistake.

To me this sounds more like.....
"How do I develop my image on stage?"

After all you on it and the rest springs from you being on it.

People look at people. Judge people by looking at people and often times can be fooled by a good image. I think this harks back to one of the most important things as regards playing live.

Don't be you! You are an artist and its not just about your chord progressions, your singing ability. your para-diddles. I'm going to have to face this myself sometime soon I hope but I'm going at it as a production versus personality.

I think you'll find that if you nail your set, nail what happens in it and when most other things will fall into place once that is sorted out but you must plan this campaign and since you asked that question this would be my personal best answer. I could be wrong but I frankly don't think so.

Best.

Chippy.

Chippy may be on to something you could think about. Everybody on here, myself included, has made suggestions about turning yourself into what you want to be on stage, while maintaining your own individuality. But, some performers will tell you that they are completely different people up on stage than off. You might follow that example by still watching other performers, making note of what you like about their show, and then creating this persona of what you'd like to see as far as your band and it's music is concerned, and then developing yourself to be this "artist" onstage. Some of my best showmanship has been on some Halloween gigs, where we all dressed up in costume. I have been Colonel Sanders, Beetlejuice, a pirate, and a big tittied woman at some of these shows, and each time, I felt like I was someone else up there and was really able to let go and do lots of things that I never do as myself. Get a stage name for this persona so that you will look at yourself differently as a performer. Call yourself "Coyote" (that's what I thought your bandmix name was at first glance) or something and create that image around it. I could see a vocalist named Coyote getting wild on stage, and running around howling a bit during lead solos, and maybe getting the crowd in on it.

Damn are you my lost Brother? I was thinking about this Rat with reference to kiss and many, nay an epiphany of bands.

Image is EVERYTHING, the set is EVERYTHING. If you are going SOLO then you don't need to worry. Band times however will screw you up. You need to talk to people about what the band does, wants, and where it leads. All things will come from this, including your original question.

Of that I am certain.

Chippy.

Some of my best showmanship has been on some Halloween gigs, where we all dressed up in costume. I have been Colonel Sanders, Beetlejuice, a pirate, and a big tittied woman.....................

My current band is a hard rock party band. The way I look at is that people come to see us to make them feel good and have fun. If you look bored then I feel like the crowd will get bored.

We play a lot of higher energy music so I feel we have to make the audience feel that. Whats the sayin all the guys want to be you and all the women want to be with you.

There is another name for bands its called a musical act. Act out what the music puts across.

I naturally smile a lot. I have people comment all the time your band just looks like its having fun, well Im like that in real life so its not a stretch for me.

I guess you need to decide what musical image you want to portray.

As I said before most of us arent playing anything thats really that hard to play. I feel you should have your chops down cold to the point when you play its automatic, thats probably the first thing to do is practice your music til you know it backwards and forwards, then work on the image that you project. I feel like the more you play in front of people, in otherwords the more gigs you do you will develop your own style.

Good Luck

For new guys, like myself gaining experience and having someone do photo's and film is very important. The film lets you know how you look on stage, if you look cold scared and stiff you audence will be cold and stiff as well.
The video / audio quality does not have to be great. Some friends or family doing short film clips with their camera or phones.
I still work on the "oh sh*t face" ya know the one you make when you screw up. Now I just smile big, laugh and move on.
It's funny after the show as the band winds down and laugh at our little glitches, people who hear us say, Wow I did not see any mistakes.
Our response is GOOD!!. LOL