If youโre about to go on stage, whether in a 1,000-seat theater or the corner of the restaurant that you can barely fit into, you need to be mentally prepared. While there are undoubtedly some musicians, especially pros, who can just calmly walk in front of an audience without a second thought, most us are going to get keyed up โ which is normal, and adds to the passion of your performance.
You want to develop yourself to where you can get into a state of calm excitement, where you confidently know youโre going to deliver a great performance, yet still feel the rush that comes from playing your instrument in front of people and making great music.
The key to being confident is being prepared.
Before the gig โ and donโt do this in a rush โ make sure you have all your equipment packed and ready to go. If your guitar strings or drum heads need changing, do it before the gig, not right before youโre about to go on, unless youโre someone like James Taylorโs guitar tech. (New strings need to stretch, and you almost certainly wonโt have time to change strings before a gig.) I like to make sure all my gear is ready to go the day before.
Many musicians have two sets of equipment: their gigging equipment which is always ready to go, and their โat-homeโ stuff. This way you wonโt have to pick out the gear youโre going to bring before every gig, with the possibility of forgetting something, and worrying about the very real possibility of forgetting something.
Know your material.ย It can be fun to play songs on the fly at an open mic or jam session, or even at a gig if things are loose (like the after-midnight third set at a bar when most of the crowd is gone), but to be truly solid and confident in your playing, you have to either know the song down pat, or have anย accurateย cheat sheet or sheet music in front of you. I prefer memorizing the material. As the pros say, you donโt practice a song until you get it right, you practice a song until you canโt get it wrong.
Memorizing also gives you the freedom to move around on stage, and not have to be tied down to looking at a music stand, iPad or gawd forbid, your phone. Can you imagine a band like Kiss looking at music stands or iPads while playing? Yeah, kind of ruins the vibe. Exceptions: keyboard players and drummers, who have to sit in one place, and in the case of the former, laptops and tablets โlook likeโ and often are part of the rig. And nothing, nothing,ย nothingย looks more amateurish than holding a phone in your hand and reading lyrics off it. Just donโt.
I can tell you that if youย donโtย know a song down cold, whether with a paper or electronics cheat sheet or not, you wonโt feel 100-percent confident when itโs time to play it. Take the time to get the song down. In the band Iโm in, it usually takes 20 to 30 run-throughs before we feel itโs stage-ready, and even then it needs a few live performances before it really gels.
When playing, youโll have two kinds of memory at work โ memorization, and muscle memory, where even if you get distracted and momentarily watch the baseball game on the barโs TV screen or someone smiling at you on the dance floor, your arms and hands โrememberโ how to play the song. All of that said, I should note that the use of onstage lyrics prompters (โTelepromptersโ to us old-timers) has become acceptable, but most bands canโt afford them or donโt have the room onstage.
I cannot emphasize this enough โย those cheat sheets you get on the internet are almost always wrong.
These are not โofficialโ transcriptions of songs but rather the work of an individual who transcribed the words and chords according to what they thought was right. 95 percent of the time, some of the chords and/or lyrics are wrong. They can be a tremendous time saver compared to what we used to do in the old days, which was listen to the song over and over again and write out the words and chords. But these internet cheat sheets almost always have to be marked up and corrected.
Speaking of the internet, this isnโt exactly a news flash: a vast amount of stuff is clickbait garbage. Donโt be fooled that thereโs some magic system or shortcut to learning how to play. There isnโt. However, thereโs some wonderful educational material out there, likeย Sandra Shermanโsย videos on beginning jazz guitar. Ignore the trash Facebook Reels and YouTube videos, which can usually be spotted by some guy making a goofy-looking face on his splash page, accompanied by a ridiculous clickbait headline. If you want to get better and better, which will make you feel more and more mentally prepared (and physically prepared with good โchopsโ), you have to put in the work. As a woodwinds teacher I knew once said, โI can show you how to do it, but I canโt blow for you.โ
Get a good nightโs sleep the night before the gig. This isnโt always possible, especially for musicians on tour or, like most of us, those who are working a full-time job. But try. If you canโt get a full nightโs sleep, try to squeeze in a nap the day of the gig or even at the gig. Donโt laugh โ when I was playing in the Lines in the 1970s and 1980s and working a 50-hour-a-week job, if we had time before the gig Iโd string a line of chairs together and crash on them before showtime. The more rested you are, the better youโll feel.
You donโt want to play on an empty stomach. Imagine finally getting that big gig and all you can think about is the fact that youโre starving. If your blood sugar level gets too low you may feel physically ill and weak, aside from the fact that youโll be distracted from playing because youโre hungry.
Donโt drink too much alcohol before the gig, or any at all. I will address this topic in much greater detail in a separate installment. Look, most of us like to have a beer or two before and during the set, and a little bit of drink can have a relaxing effect, but if you think itโs going to โloosen you upโ as a musician or make you play better, youโre lying to yourself. Same with smoking pot. You may think youโre reaching the heights of Cosmic Connection to the Great All when youโre playing high, and in fact, you may hit some fantastic musical moments, but, reality check, listen to a tape or watch a video of your performance afterward and it may come as a shock to see how lousy you were. I know, the history or jazz and rock is filled with brilliant performances by those who were drinking and using, but, especially if youโre just starting out playing, donโt go on stage buzzed. You really want to be focused. And thereโs the very real possibility that your bandmates will not tolerate your being drunk and stoned, especially if you put in sub-par performances, and will kick you out.
Donโt take the possibility of alcohol and drug addiction lightly. Sure, having a good time is part of the hang at gigs, and letโs face it, if youโre playing in a bar, well,ย people are there to drinkย and itโs easy to get sucked into the partying. But the path to addiction can be a very slippery slope. Some people canโt handle alcohol and drugs. It can and has destroyed peopleโs lives and made the lives of those around them miserable. In case you think Iโm being sanctimonious; I learned this the hard way when I was younger. I partied way too much at times and it was stupid and reckless and I consider myself lucky to have gotten out of it without seriously harming myself and others. Iโve seen people very close to me ruin their lives.
What about stage fright? As Iโve noted, getting worked up, or being more than a little nervous is pretty normal, especially if youโre about to play a big gig. In fact, it would be strange if youย didnโtย feel at least some degree of excitement before playing (unless itโs a regular bar or restaurant gig youโve done a hundred times), and it can fuel your performance. But what if you feel anxious or even terrified? Youโre in good company โ people like Barbra Streisand, Cher, Adele, Brian Wilson, Pablo Casals, Arthur Rubenstein, Donny Osmond, and Ozzy Osbourne have spoken about their anxiety and even panic before taking the stage. And Iโll admit, I still get somewhat nervous before a big gig. (I let it get to me recently when things went wrong, another story for another day.)
Some of the things mentioned previously, like knowing the material and feeling well-rested, can help. Other beneficial techniques include breathing exercises and relaxation techniques, visualization (picture yourself getting up on that stage and playing great; push that self-doubt aside and tell yourself that if youโve gotten this farย you know you have the talent), staying hydrated, and avoiding caffeine.
Some musicians have what I call โbaseball superstition.โ Just as some baseball players will perform certain actions, like not stepping on foul lines, or wearing rally caps or lucky underwear, some musicians have pre-show rituals, and if theyโre comforting, why not? Keith Richards has to have shepherdโs pie before going on stage. Robert Plant irons his shirts. Lady Gaga dances topless and throws glitter. I wear green shoes.
Everyone makes mistakes, including professionals, no matter how well-prepared you are. As I noted in my first installment, the difference between amateurs and pros is how they handle them. If youโre new to this and make a mistake while playing onstage, youโre going to get fazed and think itโs the end of the world. Itโs not. 99 percent of the audience wonโt notice and the other musicians will probably smile in a been-there-done-that way. Donโt freeze, or stumble. You canโt get the moment back. Shrug it off, get back on the horse, and play on.
Hereโs a video of Herbie Hancock explaining how bad he felt after making a mistake at a Miles Davis gig, and how Miles turned it around to make it a good thing, and how Herbie was amazed by it.
The old jazz musician joke goes,ย โif you make a mistake, repeat it. Everyone will think you did it on purpose!โ
I once saw Donald โBuck Dharmaโ Roeser of Blue รyster Cult, one of the greatest guitarists to walk the Earth, forget the instrumental interlude of โ(Donโt Fear) the Reaper.โ After everyone in the band stared at him in bafflement waiting for him to start the opening riff, bassist Danny Miranda played the riff to cue Buck, who laughed and then hit it. Then during the songโs fadeout, proceeded to play one of the most astounding โIโll show you!โ guitar solos I have ever witnessed.
Donโt apologize to the audience!ย Not when you make a mistake, not for anything. If youโre having technical difficulties or have to tune up or need time, then talk, tell a joke, introduce the band. Apologizing makes you look inexperienced and not in control of the situation. Never let โem see you sweat.
The more you play, the better youโll get, and the more confidence youโll have. In time, and youโll have to work at it, youโll get to the point where you know youโre going to impress and wow people.
You can do it!
Header image: my friend, the songwriter/performer Hank Stone, relaxing before a gig at the Chapin Rainbow Stage, Huntington, New York, July 2024.
All images courtesy of the author.
Republished by permission. For more articles like this, visitย Copper Magazine.
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