I’ve decided to enter the world of blogging! Today I wanted to write about a few take-aways I’ve learned from singing live that can be applied to any career or life situation.
**You can’t please everyone. When you are trying to appeal to a large audience of very diverse people, no one is going to love every song you sing. Of course it’s great to have a wide collection of songs (ballads, upbeat, mainstream, covers, originals, etc.) to try to keep the audience happy as a whole, but it’s important to enjoy yourself and not feel responsible for controlling how the audience feels.
**Watching back your performance is THE BEST way to improve. Although it’s excruciatingly painful to playback performances of myself, especially when I didn’t feel good about it, it has helped me see my weaknesses and what I need to focus on for future gigs. I am nowhere near perfect, but self-awareness has been a key to my successes. For example, knowing my low notes get weaker the longer I sing, I schedule songs that require a low range for earlier in the performance. If you are trying to get better in any career or life skill, receiving feedback whether it’s watching a video of yourself or taking constructive criticism, will speed up your improvement process.
**Being able to adapt to any environment and think fast on your feet is one of the best skills you can have. A while ago, I was singing at an event where there were a variety of performers throughout the night. I got to watch and learn from them. One of the singers was “perfect” in that she had dance moves planned out and scripted things to say to the audience. However, the venue was very intimate, it was not a big audience, and the things she was saying and the dance moves she was doing seemed very out of place. I’ve learned that it’s important to adapt to the environment based on the crowd’s energy and the set up. Sometimes I am hired to just be background music so I don’t try to overpower the event with loud music and bold dance moves (not that I really have a lot of crazy moves anyways). Other times, I’m the main focus of the event so I try to interact with the audience and bring the energy up. I’m always learning and this is a skill that has been slowly developing overtime as I get out and perform more.
So whether you’re a teacher trying to meet all of your students’ needs or businessman or businesswoman trying to stay on top, hopefully these tips resonate with you. Of course, they are common sense, but sometimes it’s good to be reminded.
I will be blogging more this summer. If you have a topic or any ideas on what I should write about, I’d love to hear from you! Also, I am available to perform at private, corporate, and charity events this summer in the Chicago area and suburbs, so let me know if you’re looking for live music! Thank you!
