How To Set Yourself Up For Success In Your First Live Performance
by Derk Stiepelmann
I often see beginning guitar students set themselves up for failure when they want to play their first song in front of an audience. Let us see how that happens and how you can set yourself up for success instead.
Here is an example I have witnessed many times: A student starts lessons and makes good progress. After a short time, he tells me that there is this event (birthday, wedding, whatever) coming up and he wants to perform song X on this occasion. Song X is usually above the current skill level of the student. He tells me about it in the expectation that I will help him get the skill just in time. In addition, the student often hopes that the mere act of setting a short deadline will force him to make it happen. No, it will almost guarantee failure and disappointment. I never take part in these undertakings, because I want students to succeed and not to fail.
Here´s a brief step by step outline on how to prepare for playing your first song in front of an audience. Be sure to always check in with your teacher throughout each step of the process.
1.) Pick a song at your current skill level
Be realistic about where you are and what you can do - performing a song is more than just grabbing some chords - it is about playing in time, playing with feel, sounding good and touching people emotionally.
2.) Practice the song until you can play it really well
Now that the song you have picked is within your skill level, it is mostly a matter of learning, practicing and integrating the different parts to play that song from start to finish. After you are done with that phase, you should be able to play the song through without problems.
3.) Memorize the song get all the details right
You don´t want to sit in front of a wedding audience, looking at a crooked note stand with scribbled notes on your chord chart, not being sure about the next chord, or the lyrics of the song. No matter how small your audience is, they deserve that you show up well prepared. Memorize the chords, the strumming pattern for different section, the lyrics - everything that pertains to that song.
When you perform you want to forget about all of this and be able to play without thinking and convey emotion. Even if you are “just” playing a song for a few people - do it as well as you can.
4.) Video Rehearsals
Now it´s time to record your rehearsals on video to be able to evaluate what is good and what needs to be fixed. Ask yourself:
Do I have the chords fully memorized without looking at a chord chart or did I seem hesitant? If yes, where in the song? Were all the chord changes smooth? Did I have the lyrics fully memorized without looking at my notes or did I get stuck somewhere? Was my timing solid? (This is critical when you play with other musicians). How did my strumming sound? Was I able to perform the song from beginning to end without making a mistake and with confidence? If there are any weak links in the chain - isolate and fix them.
5.) Bad Condition Rehearsals
It is great when you can play a song under perfect conditions in your practice space, but this means nothing in the real world, where all kinds of things can and will come up that can degrade your performance. Now it is time to train under more difficult conditions. Practice playing the song in heat, in cold, in half-darkness, in bright light, with loud background noise etc.. There are many more bad conditions that you can create, you get the idea - don´t practice under perfect conditions only.
6.) Test performance:
Do not make the main event the first occasion where you play that song in front of people. Instead, have a few test performances in which you play for your teacher, your partner, your kids, your friends. You don´t have to gather a small crowd every time, just one person you are not familiar with might be enough. Ask them to give you feedback on your performance, take notes and improve what needs to be improved.
You see, it is quite a lot of work to make sure that your first performance in front of people will be a success, but does your audience not deserve to hear something beautiful?
About the author: Derk Stiepelmann is founder of the Songwriter´s Shed guitar school. If you are looking for guitar lessons in Dortmund, Germany - simply click the link.