5 easy ways to improve your Singer/Songwriter Performance Skills
Transform your show performance skills with these five easy tips that most singer/songwriters overlook. Larry Butler unlocks the secrets to captivating any audience and making every performances unforgettable.
5 easy ways to improve your Singer/Songwriter Performance Skills
by Larry Butler from his book The Updated Singer/Songwriter Rule Book
Being a solo singer/songwriter is THE most difficult job in music. Think about it. First, you need to write the melody and lyrics to a great song. Then you need to learn how sing and play it at the same time, but not just until you get it right, but until you can’t get it wrong. Then you need to perform it in an entertaining manner over and over again until you find the way to consistently convey the emotion behind the song to audiences every time. How to do that?
You could start with what I call the FIVE EASY FIXES – five things that I can pretty much guarantee that you are not doing already and yet would improve your connection with every audience.
EASY FIX #5: WHAT’S YOUR NAME?
How many times has someone told you about a great act they saw the night before but had no idea as to the artist’s name? Why not? They HEARD IT, but they DID NOT SEE IT!
How to fix that? Have your name put on your guitar strap. Or go online and order one of those banners in a canister that rolls up six feet high and has your name and logo and socials on it that can be seen and read by the back row.
Then once you’ve SAID it, and they’ve READ it, they’re not going to FORGET it.
EASY FIX #4: VISUAL DISTRACTIONS AND ATTRACTIONS
There are the two kinds of Visuals: Distractions and Attractions.
In order to avoid Distractions, you need to eliminate anything on stage that may divert their attention away from your mouth, your eyes, and your hands. That means no flowered shirts or pants, no red boots, no white or pink guitars, no instrument logos, no Ramones T-shirts, and above all, little to no skin. Unless that’s what you’re selling – SKIN. But if you’re actually selling your songs and your talent and your artistry, back off the skin. Skin is a major visual distraction.
For the second kind – Attractions – you need to keep your show visually interesting so that the audience isn’t drawn away to other things. First, if all of your songs are sung into a mic standing at center stage, the audience will be bored by song three. You can easily fix that by moving the mic stand to different places on the stage, or sitting on the front of the stage, or going into the crowd, or using a bar stool for ballads, or singing something a cappella away from the mic.
Every song must be presented with a different visual; otherwise all of your songs “sound alike” to your audience because they all “look alike.”
EASY FIX #3: TOO MANY MID-TEMPO SONGS
Most singer/songwriters compose their songs sitting on a bed or a sofa in an apartment or house where invariably there’s someone in the next room they don’t want to disturb. Since they can’t do anything loud, or rowdy, or up-tempo, they end up writing all mid-tempo songs with lovely melodies and heartfelt poignant lyrics that sound great when they record them but LIVE are boring, boring, boring.
The first and best way to get to an audience to respond to you right away is by the FEEL of the songs of your set. Up-tempo songs (preferably a shuffle) get their heads nodding and their feet tapping. And you should throw in a slow, heart-wrenching ballad in the middle of your set in order to show the audience your serious side.
If you MUST do a mid-tempo song, make it a well-known cover song so that the audience can at least sing along (preferably to themselves) while they’re waiting for another up-tempo shuffle.
So, Easy Fix #3? Cut out the boring mid-tempo songs!
EASY FIX #2: STORY TELLING
You think that the audience has come to hear you sing and play your songs, but they haven’t. They’ve come to be ENTERTAINED! You may think you’re songs are entertaining, and maybe they are, but the audience isn’t going to listen to them until YOU are entertaining. That doesn’t mean dancing and telling jokes. It means that you have to establish an emotional connection with your audience. And the very best way to do that is by telling them a story. A story about you, about a common problem you and the audience may be having, and how you figured out how to deal with that problem and the answer is in your song. THAT’S how you get them to listen. And then rehearse your stories as many times as you rehearse your songs.
The story only needs to be a few sentences. Tell your story SLOWLY, DISTINCTLY, and LOUDLY. Say the name of the song last and say it even SLOWER, LOUDER, and MORE DISTINCTLY than your story. AND PLEASE DO NOT LEAD WITH, “THIS NEXT SONG IS…” AND DO NOT END WITH “I HOPE YOU LIKE IT.”
Just start with your story, like you’re sitting across the table from your audience on a first date and you’re telling them something personal, but short and sweet, and with a beginning, middle, and end. Then step back, away from the mic, and start the instrumental intro. You now have their attention.
EASY #1 FIX: STOP EATING THE MIC
You have three ways to visually communicate your emotions to your audience – your hands, your eyes, and your mouth. If you eat the mic, no one can see your mouth.
There is no reason to eat the mic in this day and age where feedback is non-existent.
Oh, I know, I know. You sound so good in your monitors. But your audience doesn’t have monitors! They can’t hear what you’re hearing. Their “monitors” are 30 feet up in the air aimed at the bar behind you! Give up on the audio and go with the visual.
Get a Shure Beta 58-A mic, it has a great mid-range boost and you can SING OVER IT AND AROUND IT. Position the mic at a 45-degree angle beneath your chin and FINALLY – the audience can see your mouth.
Stop this bad habit of eating the mic now! You’re only doing it because everyone else is.
If you do nothing else I’ve suggested, do this one thing and STOP EATING THE MIC! Thank you.
Now, pull up my website: www.larry-butler.com. Go to the Contact page send me a note: “Hey, Larry, I want to become a great entertainer. Now what?” or words to that effect. Next thing you know, Bingo! A FREE pdf of my book – The UPDATED Singer/Songwriter Rule Book: 101 Ways to Help You Improve Your Chances of Success – is gonna show up in your inbox.
Once you’ve read my book and incorporated the Five Easy Fixes into your live show, you’ll be well on your way to becoming an actual Singer/Songwriter/ENTERTAINER.
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Larry Butler has devoted his entire life to the live performance side of the music business. He played keyboards and guitar in bar bands during high school and college, which evolved into club and concert promoting, ending up as a tour manager based in Los Angeles. Those efforts led to 20+ years at Warner Bros. Records as VP Artist Relations, touring with a world-class roster of artists. Although the focus at WBR was to utilize touring to sell records, he coached many young artists in performance, staging, and media relations.
Larry now heads up his own Did It Music company in Nashville. His focus is on coaching young singer/songwriters and performers in the art of becoming experienced entertainers. His most recent book is The UPDATED Singer/Songwriter Rule Book: 101 Ways To Help You Improve Your Chances Of Success.
