It’s always amazing when you get tickets to see a favorite artiste live
on stage. But unfortunately, for the Nigeria music audience, seeing an
artiste on stage holds little or no excitement. Not because they don’t
appreciate the artiste, but because very few of these artistes actually
entertain on stage.
Most audiences are treated to a lot noise, bad lip synching, and
meaningless jumping around. As an artiste, stage presence is as
important as the quality of music that you make. An artiste with great
stage presence not only engages his/her audience, but gives them a
memorable show that will leave them wanting more. Here are some tips to
help you improve your stage presence.
Invest in a large mirror and put it on the wall. When you rehearse your
performance, face the mirror as if you’re facing an audience. This will
enable you to see your actions as a member of the audience would. From
here, you can begin to analyze what aspect of your stage presence you
need to improve on, and what already works.
An important aspect of stage presence is eye contact; eye contact with
the crowd, and eye contact with your band/back –up vocalists. Raise
your head up, be attentive and engage your audience, who in return,
will give you the energy required to rock out on stage.
Develop good stage banter: Stage banter refers to talking to the crowd
in between, or even during songs. This is a great way to improve your
overall presence onstage. However you need to be careful about this! Do
not over-talk! And if you’re not good at cracking jokes, please don’t!
(After all, we have comedians for those things)
When you hit a bad note, act as if nothing has happened. I guarantee,
the non-musicians in the crowd will almost never notice a musical
mistake, and the crowd that does have an understanding of music will
applaud you for being so professional with your mistakes. If you’re
dancing and you miss a step, continue with style.
LESSON: Learn how to
recover fast and move on with the show!
When you encourage your audience to clap along or sing a part of a song,
it will show that you are comfortable on stage and eager to feed off
the energy of the crowd. When you think of unique ways to involve the
crowd with your show, it will in turn, improve your overall stage
presence and stage banter.
PLUS, crowd participation creates a
connection that people will always remember.
Finally, be yourself. If you’re not the hyper-active type, do not act
it. In all you do, let your personality show in the way you project
yourself on stage. And please alcohol and drug as stimulants will more
often than not, ruin your performance!
Don’t forget to share your comments.
