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YOUR
REAL VOICE - the vocal ezine for real people
December 18, 2005
#16
FEATURE EDITORIAL
How to Beat On-Stage Disasters
In all your dreams and fantasies of being on stage and singing, giving
it your all and creating the best performance of your life, do you ever
envision anything going wrong? Of COURSE NOT, but it does
happen. Unfortunately, we can't plan for when or what will go
wrong during a performance, but we can learn to deal with disasters and
be prepared to make the best of them. Practice, repetition and
over-preparation are the keys to dealing with anything that can happen
during a show.
I chose this topic for YRV because two weeks ago I did a performance
that was a great example of odd disasters and how to deal with
them. During the three performances I did that day, two of them
were completely bump-free, but the third was like a minefield! It
had enough problems that it served as inspiration for this article, and
would have made great comedy TV if we'd had a video camera.
During a show, the goal is to give a great performance. That
means keep the show going regardless of what goes wrong.
Literally, give no regard or recognition to the disaster while it's
happening, which is one of the HARDEST things to do because as human
beings, we are driven to react and respond to what we see around
us. Giving a great performance can mean moving through a disaster
without responding to it or letting it pull our focus and energy away
from what we are doing. The key is keeping the disaster from
interrupting the performance. Learning not to react, or to
react and correct while not missing a beat is one of the most valuable
skills a performer can have!
My rehearsal process is to learn the music well beyond the point of
"learned." I call it that Navy-Seal Training for stage
performers. I want the music so well learned that absolutely
nothing can interrupt the song. I purposely over-prepare, way
beyond the point where most people stop. That gives me an extra
edge on stage because I can relax during the performance knowing that
nothing can stop the song.
I'm glad I prepared this way because of what happened in the show I
did. We have used the same venue for the last twelve performances
of this particular show. Since I am very familiar with that stage
setting, I prepared for what usually happens. However, since our
last show there, they have installed three large ceiling fans above the
stage. One of the fans was directly above the piano I was
playing. My music started blowing around on the stand, and since
both of my hands were on the piano, I couldn't stop it. Whenever
I had to take a hand off the piano to catch the music, half of the
sound was gone. At one point during the middle of a song, one of
the pages blew off the stand into my lap right during a particularly
important part of the song. YIKES! Another person off-stage
came on stage, ducked behind the piano, grabbed my music and held it
there so I could play. Since I had over-prepared I knew the music
well enough to keep playing. Although it was not memorized note
for note, I did have that ability to keep going. Because I was so
prepared and didn't react adversely to the pages blowing around, the
singer never knew anything had happened. Her performance was
great, despite what could have ruined the show.
Another singer in the show was not quite so lucky. She decided
the night before the show to change her entire performance.
Although she had never done the rehearsals without her song lyrics in
front of her, she decided to attempt to memorize the song AND add a
dance routine! BAD IDEA. She had never performed in this
particular show before, so she had no idea what the stage was like, or
how much room she would have, and she had never rehearsed the song
without the words. She just figured somehow this would all work
exactly according to her fantasy during the show. It
didn't! She had greatly underestimated how much room she would
have, so her moves didn't fit and she was so distracted by the dancing
that she forgot the words. Against my instructions, she left her
lyrics at home, thinking she wouldn't need them, so there was no way
for her to look at a reference. She also didn't tell me that she
would be doing anything different than we had rehearsed. I saw
the dancing for the first time during the performance. When
disaster struck, it was too late for me to be able to help from across
the stage, since I didn't know that she didn't have the lyrics in front
of her (as had been her assignment). Although she eventually
recovered and was able to get the song going again, by that point her
singing was ruined. She was shocked and upset and embarrassed,
and her singing reflected that. She hadn't rehearsed her new plan
near enough to deal with what went wrong, so when something did go
wrong, she had nothing to fall back on. She spent the rest of the
song just trying to recover. Her focus was on what went wrong and
what the problems were the whole time she was singing.
I have been an audience member when disaster struck on stage, and I
have always noticed that the best performers are the ones who are able
to keep the audience from noticing what went wrong. The
audience's attention goes where a performer sends it, so our job as the
performer is to direct the audience attention where WE want it to
go. If a disaster strikes during my performance and I do nothing
but pay attention to it, what will the audience notice? The
disaster. But if I am performing and some problem occurs, but I
keep focused on performing, the audience stays engaged in the song, not
the problem. It's where MY focus is directed that determines the
outcome. And, if the disaster that happens is big and noticeable,
the audience is more willing to support a performer who charges on
brilliantly despite a problem. I am much more attracted to and
moved by a performer that triumphs over adversity right in front of me,
especially when they keep the show going and still give it their all
while something really bad is nagging at them or making them look
foolish. The singer that keeps singing with focus and passion
during THAT wins me as a fan for life!
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Contact Athena by e-mail at info@sing-in-tune.com
or learn how to sing
perfectly in tune at her web site at www.Sing-In-Tune.com
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