What Makes a Performer Great?

Notes From The Playground: What Makes a Performer Great?

As I get ready for our upcoming 8 city tour to support the latest disc "Domesticated" I am excited to get up in front of audiences and deliver these songs that we spent the better part of a year perfecting on disc.

Its made me think about what components go into making a performance great as opposed to simply good. I think it's in the "need" of the performer. How much need we have to be loved.

Whether you enjoy their music one has to concede that Billie Holiday, Elvis Presley, Kurt Cobain, Judy Garland and Janis Joplin all had something in common.. performers who needed to play out their need for love on stage..and thats at least part of why they have become legendary.

Its as if they wouldn't exist if they weren't playing out their deepest drama's and appetite's and passions for the masses. They all became undeniable. Completely original..because their need to be loved and accepted was so great.

The basic insecurities we all have seem to have existed in these personalities, but in larger amounts, seeking greater and greater acknowledgment from the crowd that they are indeed worthwhile.

Sure we need great material, a decent singing voice, a career direction, a clear marketing path and a whole lot of luck to reach a public.

But to maintain and deepen our relationship with an audience over the years and grow a worldwide fan base one must possess something more, a magical X factor which makes us hungry for the love of strangers in a darkened club or theatre or concert hall.

Some piece of our soul has to be satisfied by that..twisted? Perhaps.

Normal? Definatly not.Audiences don't pay to see normal.

The more I think about what makes performers great, it seems that it may be the lack of self love that makes us reach for acceptance, a desire to be loved, powered by a deep fear that we are unlovable, which keeps us reaching for the audiences approval.

Turning my thoughts back to our upcoming spring tour...

It's not that I believe myself to be a "great" performer..but certainly something unknown seems to power me on stage that is beyond my understanding. I have a hunger to meet our audience. To entertain them, to reach them, to make them feel something. And it's because I get back so much when I do. Some kind of magical relationship bong is forged for me that makes me feel safe and strong and invincible up there.

I'm getting better at feeling peaceful and safe in life, but back when I was younger I can try say I was more comfortable on stage than off. Not sure what that says about my mental or emotional health, clearly a deep insecurity was driving me to seek acceptance from my audiences.

I believe that we shouldn't be interested in giving my audience an average experience. They can get that from TV and movies and boring chat with coworkers etc. We want to deliver a punch in the gut, a joyful high, a romantic jump start of the heart. Thats something they take away from our show and remember for the rest of their lives..and why a performer like Tina Turner was able to tour for decades without a hit. She gave us joy and a sense of liberation, plain and simple, we didn't care what song she was singing.

As a coach I am always asking my clients "What gift do you have to give your audience"? Its worth thinking about what that it is.. so it can be nurtured!

I'd be interested in hearing from folks about whose performance has moved you the most over the years and why?

Songwriting For Singers (Part 1)

Notes From The Playground: Songwriting For Singers Part 1

I have been doing a lot of thinking about how creating the "right" material is essential in establishing an artist in the publics mind. Think of any of your favorite singers or bands and how you first heard of them and it will in fact be the song they are performing that brought them to your attention. The artist always needs an outstanding piece of material that catches the interest of the industry and the public (not always in that order these days)!

Sometimes an artist is a self contained writing unit, able to create words and music together that express all the lyrical, melodic and harmonic elements that make a top notch song. This is, however, rare. Usually a singer is co-creating their material with another musician, often a producer, who will help shape and craft the material into something that is closer to finished product. There is also the artist who does not participate in the writing of their own material, but in truth that is a rare situation. An artist who writes presents a larger and more varied money stream to the industry and that is why singers who write their own songs find themselves with greater professional opportunities.

Singers at the beginning of their careers often feel like they have songs inside them that they have yet to express. Usually they are letting a lack of musical knowledge or an inability to play an instrument stop them from exploring this potential goldmine. My job usually entails creating a safe environment for these fledgling songwriters to discover where their impulses and instincts might lead them.

Developing a sense of confidence about our own instincts also makes it more possible to jump into creative writing situations with other songwriters, thereby increasing our skill set and our chances of coming up with usable material. The idea isn't always to have complete mastery of the craft of songwriting, but a knowledge of what we do have already working for us and a willingness to commit to collaboration with other more experienced songwriters.

IF we are honest with ourselves we will be giving the creation of material top priority, whether we are learning to develop as writers on our own, learning how to co-write with other composers or becoming really good at finding extraordinary material to perform....

Stay Tuned for Songwriting Part 2 ..a look at the more practical aspects of getting started for the fledgling songwriter.

Micah Barnes coaches singers in Toronto, Los Angeles and New York and his popular Singers Playground workshops have helped thousands of singers to a new freedom in performance and liberation in their voice. His blog "Notes From The Playground" can be found at singersplayground.com

Stage Fright Part 2

Our goal as performing artists is much like that of a top athlete or dancer, to be completely relaxed at the same time as being alive and energized. Like an athlete or dancer, our brain must hold a lot of information and be able to fire quickly without overwhelming the singer with unhelpful self judgment. Being this "available" to the moment usually entails a very thorough warm-up. Sometimes a quick vocal warm up before soundcheck isn't enough and we need to physicalize with a series of mind and body focusing and relaxing exercises in order to be really present and ready for anything that might come our way on stage. A solid vocal warm up also not only prepared the voice for the demands we are about to place upon it but allows us a kind of phycological calm knowing we've done everything in our power to make this experience easier.

Being well prepared in advance of the show is also another way to help us get through Stage Fright. Having the songs memorized is a very comforting feeling coming up to a gig. Even if we find we forget the lyrics or arrangement details of the material while on stage, being well rehearsed and knowing we've done the best preparation we can do can lower the stress before and during the show.

GET OUT OF ANXIETY AND INTO THE MOMENT!

It also helps us to stay in a close relationship with the other musicians on stage. A lot of times closing our eyes makes us think we can concentrate better on the task at hand but many times that shuts out the other players We become isolated and sometimes find we cant find our spot when we get lost. It also helps us to stay in a close relationship with our audience.

Make friends with them and engage them in a real relationship of give and take. A lot of times closing our eyes in fear doesn't allow the audience in to the emotional life of the songs. We become isolated and cant connect to the crowd in any meaningful way. That doesn't serve our performance, the material or our goal to get out of our anxiety and into the moment.

Over time, working step by step there is almost no case of stage fright that cannot be improved. Make sure you acknowledge the issue and build in the time for a solid warm up on show days, keep your lyrics with you on stage if you have to… …but most of all STAY CENTERED IN YOUR BREATH!!

Thats the key to a strong performance and the secret to overcoming Stage Fright in my experience.

Micah Barnes coaches singers in Toronto, Los Angeles and New York and his popular Singers Playground workshops have helped thousands of singers to a new freedom in performance. This blog "Notes From The Playground", Micah's Bio and the upcoming workshop info can be found at singersplayground.com

Notes on "Perfectionism"

Notes From The Playground: "Perfectionism".

Almost every "successful" artist that I have worked with as a coach has suffered from the terrible affliction of perfectionism. It drives us in negative ways that almost always make us crazy and difficult to work with. But what is it exactly?

The drive to "get it right" married to an insecurity about ourselves?

The inability to accept anything less than the best from ourselves and others combined with a dread that we will never get it "right".

What a horrible conflicted place to sing and perform from!

Sure we all want to do the best we can, BUT (and this is a really big BUT), how do you rehearse in new material if you don't allow the songs to take shape, How do you allow a new player to find his place in he arrangements if you cant accept that it will take time…

and how will you allow yourself the trial and error of discovery so you can grow as an artist if you won't let yourself explore new territories free of the need to "be perfect".

Sadly there is never a feeling of having "arrived" with perfectionism. Although many perfectionists are big achievers, in truth the main feeling associated with perfectionism is that of constantly failing. A lack of patience for ourselves and others.

And we are awful to work with. You can see us coming. We're desperate to achieve the results we desire, so we learn how to manipulate those around us. But we don't listen well, we cant slow down. we have no patience and no real generosity to others..

Perfectionist don't feel how unreasonable their demands are upon themselves or others.

We are driven by the vision in our head but we cant live easily in the real world.

Next Post: How to release the strangle hold that perfectionism has on your life and your work.

NOTES FROM THE PLAYGROUND: Stage Fright (part one)

After almost 3 decades of coaching singers of all kinds I still find stage fright to be the single most challenging problem we face as performers.

The physical manifestations of stage fright, shortness of breath, shakiness in the limbs, uncontrollable pitch and a kind of sudden brain drain,(which can include an inability to remember lyrics), can steal our confidence and fill us full of dread about upcoming gigs and their becoming a potential disaster.

While instrumentalists use a separate instrument from themselves to make music, we singers use our actual bodies to create the sound so if the physical manifestations of fear and anxiety associated with stage fright are present then we can't control our bodies and all confidence that we can do a good job flies out the window. Horrible indeed.

But singers need to sing and music is meant to be shared and in my experience as both a coach and a performer even debilitating stage fright can be possible over time. In fact I started my career with a pretty acute case of stage fright,(born of a lack of belief in my abilities), and have ended up a relaxed and confident performer.

When I am coaching the Singers Playground Performance Workshops it's easy to spot the manifestations and work towards solutions that will lesson them. The key is to solving stage fright is to identify what the anxiety and fear is about. Usually it's simply an artist worrying about doing a good job. In most cases Stage Fright is a result of our perfectionist selves seeking to do the very best we can.

Artists seek to shape and mold, exercising a kind of control over our craft in order to create the desired results. This in itself is not a bad thing.

The challenge for us singers is that performing live is the least controllable of all singing situations. The jam at a party, the band rehearsal, even the recording studio are all situations where we can adjust details as we go to create the optimum support for our ears and our voices.

But performing live we have almost no control over the circumstances, usually jumping into a quick soundcheck exhausted from promoting the engagement, unfamiliar with the venue, working with a sound man that doesn't know our sound, using monitors that make us sound different from what we are used to, singing with a band that may be unrehearsed etc.

We end up feeling rushed and unsure, hyper aware of our perceived mistakes and unable to gage what the audience is actually experiencing.

No wonder we feel out of control and unable to do anything near our best in live performance!

I have found the single most important way to counteract perfectionism

and the ensuing anxiety is to use a vocal and physical warm up that is calming at a core level and allows us to get comfortable with the idea of just "doing our best" and letting go of trying to achieve the "perfect" performance.

For my clients this always starts and ends with the breath. The breath is the first place that stage fright shows itself with shallow breathing or a frozen diaphragm which leaves us unable to create the sound we know how to create.

Taking the time to breath through a warm up will help remind us to breath during the show and plant the idea that we will do the best we can under the circumstances, while acknowledging that the circumstances are indeed beyond our control.

The best rescue for a song going wrong is a big deep breath. Your brain has a chance to function, your pitch will start to correct and suddenly you will be able to hold notes again. Yahoo!!