The Art of 'Keeping at It'
What’s the driving factor of wanting to be on stage, setting your fears aside, and wanting to start performing in front of an audience? We all have our own unique story from our own journey that got us there. When I pinned up my name and number on that punk bar’s bulletin board, looking for a band, I was much older than the average aspiring rocker. I was in my mid-twenties and had completely circled the planet until I had enough courage to approach singing and songwriting. Though that instance it didn’t end well, it was nice to have the hard part behind me.
When I did my first, second, third, and several other attempts of trying to become a singer/songwriter, I knew that I was going to fail in front of people. But, I also knew that eventually I would learn how to keep the show going, and transition the energy of embarrassment into a challenge to get better and better.
No matter how prepared or rehearsed you are, a lot of people find the action of stepping on a stage extremely terrifying. A smaller group of people, like myself, are willing to face the inevitable factor of something going wrong during a music performance. Your drummer could be off time, you may have forgotten your lyrics, the bassist may be playing in the wrong key, or you could break a string.
The beauty of a live performance is observing how the performer can be within that whirlwind of coordinated chaos and somehow pull out of it, making it all a part of the show. It’s an expected part of the performance if you think about it. Not that you the performer or you the audience members want something bad to happen during the show, but when it does, it’s your chance to make the show memorable.