Prepare Your Band For Big Stages
Have you ever seen a band play and it was just… really bad and you could tell the band was not stage ready yet?
Even though they played well, the overall performance was just bland and anything else but captivating.
I know there is a good chance that you who are reading this may have even been part of such a performance.
And if you are not yet in a band, start by reading here to learn how to start a band the right way.
It can be very painful if you worked hard to get your 45 minutes of fame after months of preparation and gig-hunting.
Only to deliver a crappy performance and scare away your audience.
Let us rather look at what you can do to avoid that experience from now on!
First tip to get your band stage ready:
One basic principle that all professional bands stick by, is to meet for the rehearsals to practice the PERFORMANCE.
NOT to teach somebody a new song or parts of a song.
That is your homework and it is expected of you to do them and come to the rehearsals PREPARED.
Also professional bands rarely have *weekly* rehearsals.
They operate on a different cycle that goes pretty much like this:
Write album -> Record Demos for band members -> Everyone practices their parts -> Album recording -> Rehearsal for Touring -> Touring -> Repeat.
That means they block out a few weeks before the tour to rehearse their performance EVERY DAY for a few hours, they record themselves on video and give constructive criticism to each other.
Second tip to get your band stage ready:
That includes being OPEN FOR criticism and not taking anything personal of what your band mates say that you can improve.
Unless you have a very experienced and entertaining front guy (which you probably don’t, since you are reading this), you should think a little bit about what to say in between songs in advance to not come off as rookies or unprofessional.
It can become really awkward if you have long silence between songs and you don’t use that time to engage with your audience.
I would recommend to generally stay nice and don’t say anything offending when you are just trying to get yourself out there.
You can hurt yourself very quickly instead of being helpful.
Third tip to get your band stage ready:
So don’t be an idiot with an undeserved rock star attitude.
That also (ESPECIALLY) goes for how you treat the venue owner and staff (if you want them to book you again in the future that is).
You show up on time, you don’t cause any schedule friction, you don’t take yourself as the most important person in the room.
You’re not.
Fourth tip to get your band stage ready:
For the venue owner your only purpose to be there is to make him money.
You can be happy about that or not. It doesn’t matter.
If you want to be successful and be treated with respect and appreciation, you have to be aware of the mechanisms that are ruling the business and find your place in there.
So the most selfish thing to do to help yourself, is to help others achieve their objectives.
For the venue owner for example:
He wants a full house and wants to sell a lot of drinks.
If you show him that you want to help him achieve that, you WILL stick out from the rest and he WILL remember you in good spirit and book you again.
You gained.
Fifth tip to get your band stage ready:
Of course you have your own goals that you want to achieve so your job includes thinking about how to get the most leverage out of your performance.
Can you sell merchandise?
Get people to remember you and come to your next show too?
How will you make sure of that?
I will leave you with those questions and write more about this topic later but realise that this is a fundamentally different approach in thinking.
