There ARE some things you can do to stand out visually and grab the crowd’s attention. Let’s start with subtle (even though many drummers are anything BUT).
First, make eye contact with the audience when you can. Not always easy but take the mindless places to look up and out at people… AND your bandmates! Think about your facial expression too – does it show the audience the joy you have when you play? More importantly, the mood of the song itself. Let those feelings come out of your face!

The rest of your body needs to get in on this too. You may want to try setting your cymbals higher so it causes you to reach for them. The extended arm movements will make you instantly more visual and fun to watch.
Work on stick tricks or a playing style that draws our eye. Use this at the appropriate times of course so as not to detract from what the audience should pay attention to.

Something I like to do when working with a band, is to get the drummer out from behind the drums somewhere in the show. It’s a nice surprise for the audience and will instantly get you more engaged with the crowd. One option is to take advantage of an acapella section or a breakdown where the bass player (for example) could keep things going, or maybe your guitar player could play a rhythmic scratch to keep the tempo. At this point you could come out front with your sticks and get the audience clapping. If you sing, you could jump on a mic with someone up front.

Another option would be to get you at least off the drum throne by standing up to play for a bit. This works really well if your song has a busy tom section going on. You’ll have to figure out how to position your stool, kick pedal, etc., to smoothly get up and down, but the extra time spent working on this, and ALL of these seemingly ‘little’ things, adds up to some great moments, so take the time to work them up!

Lastly, your look can grab our attention. People expect drummers to be a little crazy, so get creative with what you’re wearing! Funky hats, cool glasses, out-of-the-norm shirts, no shirts, whatever…just be sure the look fits the genre and vibe of your bandmates to a degree.

So push the envelope and take some risks…the reward is worth it!

The post Behind the Drums – Who’s Gonna See Me? appeared first on Tom Jackson Productions, LLC.

I’m talking about the ‘bail-out’ – an onstage technique you should implement into your performance now.

You’ve heard us talk about putting pressure on the audience from time to time, right?  This is when you come to the edge of the stage and get ‘up-close and personal’ with the audience.

It’s something you do to make a point and change the intensity of what’s happening onstage. (It’s not the thing to do all night, or on every song… THAT would be too much… a form of Chinese Water Torture.)

So, you’re out there — ‘in their face’ — effectively…so how do you ‘get back’ or ‘go away’?

First thing to remember is, DON’T BACK UP. Why?  Because this looks too timid (not to mention squirrelly).  All the authority you’ve shown prior, would go down the drain.  Walking backward looks like you’re saying, “Ok, that’s all for me now.  I’ll just shuffle back away from you… uh…” Wrong!

The correct way to retreat is a bail-out.  Turn your back and walk away from the audience.  This tells the audience to look somewhere else.

This is against the grain of everything we’re taught since high school plays.  We’ve all been told, ‘Don’t show your back to the audience!’ Well, it doesn’t apply in our world, and personally I think it looks weird in theatre as well.  But I digress.

Let’s say your guitar player has a solo after the bridge of the song.  So after your lead singer finishes the bridge, she bails (turns around) and the guitar player walks to the front of the stage as he starts to play.  He plants himself up front for the rest of the solo.  When he’s through, he needs to bail – turn around and leave.  In most cases, this is best done by leading with the guitar neck, turning around in that direction.

Now typically after a solo, the vocal will come back in, so as the guitar player bails, the singer will be starting to move forward (first word, first step) so that the audience looks away from the guitar player to the singer.  (If another instrumentalist is coming in, then they are the one coming forward as they play.)

An important note here: Do the bail on the next downbeat after the solo or end of the bridge, etc.  Ultimately, it’s more effective this way.  I see so many players bail too early and it can ruin the solo, or at the very least does not maximize the moment.

Here’s an example from a band I’ve worked with several times.  At the front of the song, they put pressure on the audience, and at the end of the introduction, they bail. (at time marker 0:30)  The camera doesn’t catch the full stage unfortunately, but you’ll see the guitar player do a bail:

Another bail situation: Two players have come together face to face at the end of a musical trade-off. In this case, when the moment/solo is done, they need to bail away from each other across the stage.

This simple move helps your audience know who to focus on.  And understanding what’s going on by ‘seeing’ the music, helps them get more out of it!

The post Bailing Out appeared first on Tom Jackson Productions, LLC.

Something a CD can’t contain, it can’t be duplicated, digitized or downloaded, and you can only get it if you’re in the same room.

It’s that personal connection with your fans.

The Booming Concert Industry

A couple years back, while on a long flight, I read an article that caught my eye in our local weekly Nashville Scene.

The writers were looking at the current state of music and talking about how there had been a shift from focus on the record industry to the concert industry, (In case THAT one slipped by you! :-/ )

One thing the club owners and industry folks interviewed in the article pointed out, was that the concert industry does have a major advantage over the recording industry, and that is “No one can digitize the experience of seeing the performance in the flesh, feeling the immediate give and take between artist and audience”. 

Hearing a performer in the same room was the first music medium to be promoted and it’ll be the last one downloaded.

So with this in mind, what is it that will make YOU stand out to a room of people?  One club owner stated, “It’s harder and harder to maintain peoples’ attention and their investment in an entire set and an entire night of music.”

Yes it is — but not if you know what you’re doing!

Stand Out from the Noise

This is exactly why we as Live Music Producers are getting busier… It’s because we help artists STAND OUT from all the noise to win the fans and get booked again.

Peoples’ iTune catalogues are filled with songs, so we know audiences don’t just come to hear you play songs.  It’s the “emotional impact of going to a show that can’t be duplicated,” states promoter Rick Whetsels in the Scene article.

As I worked with a Canadian artist recently, I wanted to know what was behind a song she’d written titled, “Who Saved Who”.  When she told me the story, it let me know something about who she was.

Suddenly, the lyrics came to life!

Realizing then how intimate the song really was, I wanted the band to strip down what they were playing so the music wouldn’t overshadow the message, switching them from drums to shakers, electric bass and guitars to upright bass and acoustics.

I had them all sit on stools so that the audience would mentally ‘sit down’ and let the meaning of the song wash over them.  Then we worked on what the artist would say – how to tell the story in the most effective way so the listener would zone in on the song’s message.

The result was stunning.  I watched and listened with goose bumps all over me.  The singer got tears in her eyes as she sang.  The raw emotion was laid bare, and to say a moment was happening was an understatement!

I know we talk about moments a lot, but it needs to be said again and again.  People don’t feel songs.  They feel something when a moment is created.

Connection is Power

At the conclusion of the Scene article, Beth Cameron of a live event consulting company called Show This, made a powerful statement.  She said, “As long as artists can control their connection with their audience, then that will always be the power that artists have.”

Yep.  And you can’t get that from a download.

The post Can’t Download This! The Live Connection… appeared first on Tom Jackson Productions, LLC.

First of all, experiment with the way you hold onto your fiddle and bow when you’re not playing to avoid looking too stiff. Use your bow to point at the crowd or wave in the air on an energetic song, and try holding your instrument by the neck but down below your waist. If it’s a shorter time between playing sections, this might not be possible, but take the time during the longer rests to relax like this and get loose!

It’s imperative for you to get wireless. There’s no way you can move much, attached to a cord draped over your shoulder. The freedom this will give you is HUGE. Once wireless, practice walking and playing – at least enough to get you someplace else on stage to land and remain while you complete your solo. It’s a thrill for the group of people you land in front of, to watch you ‘up-close-abd-personal’.

Play with your stance when you’re stationary. When you play something grand, big or aggressive, your stance should be big, with legs further apart. This shows power and strength. But if the music is sweet or soft, you’d want to match that with a shallow or close stance. The key is to match the vibe of what the audience is hearing. Your audience will feel the impact!

Something that may not seem like a big deal but will add a little flourish to your performance, is to try following through with your arm movement…flying off of the strings with your bow arm at the end of a phrase or section, will add to the dynamic of the moment. Kind of like saying ‘ta-DA’! or ‘How did you like THAT!’

Try thinking out-of-the-box with your sound. If you are playing country, rock, or maybe even Celtic or bluegrass, experiment with effects. Think like a guitar player when soloing and hit a distortion pedal, or play with some unexpected tones.

This is just a start of course, but should give you some things to work on right away. All of this will contribute to creating your own style, sound and persona. Don’t get stuck in a pre-conceived idea of what you ‘should’ look or sound like…get creative and bust out!

I’d love to get some feedback on how these things work for you, or what else you’re doing live that audiences respond to.

The post Fiddling Around – 5 Things Violin Players Can Do to Tune Up Their Performance appeared first on Tom Jackson Productions, LLC.

Many of you have asked: “How do I create “moments” in my live show?” or “How do I find the “moments” in my songs?”

I have to admit, it’s a lot easier to show you how to find “moments” than it is to tell you. And…there are so many opportunities for “moments” in a live show I couldn’t possibly describe them all anyway.

What I can do is give you some clues on what goes into creating those “moments”.

Before I do that, I want you to understand what a “moment” is. It’s that connection with an audience that is emotional – where you “reach them”, “touch them” so they catch a glimpse of who you are…They feel like they know you…The hair on their arms is raised…They “experience” your music, not just “hear” it.
When you’re driving down the road listening to music on the radio and something touches you – really moves you – it causes you to go buy that CD or download the song. You want to relive that “moment”.

You want that “moment” at your disposal any time you want.

It’s the same thing with your live show.

You know those times you’ve played a song, the planets have aligned, you can actually hear the monitors, and after the show people come up and say, “Where’s that song? …that song about that thing?”

What they’re really asking is, “Where’s that song that made me feel a certain way?”

That’s a “moment”: a moment of emotional connection with your audience!
So how do you create those “moments”?

I will use what I call a “musical moment” as an example. You’ve heard me say that most audiences are musically ignorant; they don’t understand musical things. So, you have to make it easy for them to understand and connect with the song. A simple way to do this is to find something within the song to develop.

Usually I look at the intro, the solos, the bridge, or the outro. And, to develop it, I might start by stripping a part down to a simple rhythmic or vocal groove. Then we “invite the audience in” by laying that groove or line down so it’s in its simplest form for the audience to connect to – nothing complicated.

Then you begin to build that section out. Start layering on top of that simple foundation, and develop it so that the audience can see and experience the process as you build it.

The beauty of this for both audience and artist is that you can build it differently each night if you have the musical skill to do this. (This is where spontaneity comes in.) And, if you don’t have the musical skills to do it – if you’re still developing your musical skills – you can still do it. You just do the musical moment the same way each night, and the audience experiences what they think is spontaneity!

And finally, each “musical moment” needs a payoff. The payoff is the final outcome, (like the punchline of a joke, the climax of a solo, or the end of a story). Your musical moments need to reach a climax at the end of the section. So you need to develop the musical theme, the riff, and the tension, into that payoff for the audience. Don’t let it just fade away.

There are numerous ways to create “moments”. I suggest you begin with just one song. Listen to it over and over, look inside the song for sections to develop, and get creative!

As you spend time working on this, you will find it easier and easier to identify the sections or lyrics or “musical moments” to develop. It requires taking risks, it takes time, and….that four letter word….WORK!

Just be sure to make those “moments” of connection with your audience. That’s what makes a great live show!

The post How to Create a “Moment” in Your Live Show appeared first on Tom Jackson Productions, LLC.

And for those of you who’ve worked with contractors to build a home recently, who are thinking to yourself right now, “Well, that’s pretty over simplified – 4 steps? What did he think I was doing for the last 8 months when I built MY house!”…

…you’d be right. It is an oversimplification of the process involved. And believe me, I always remind artists that creating a unique show is a long process, too!

But I still believe all the things you do in the process of building a house or building a great live show, basically consist of these 4 steps:

1. Plan It
   The first answer I get whenever I ask an audience of musicians, “what’s the first step in building a house?” is always “lay the foundation!” (That’s why we’re all musicians, not contractors.) In reality, the first step is planning the house — taking all the ideas you’ve seen, heard, thought about, and putting them down on paper.

With your show, what do you want to see (or more accurately, what do you want your audience to see, hear, experience)? Whether it was an idea you got from someone else’s show, from a song you wrote, or something from your own creative mind that no one else has ever imagined — you need to get a vision for your unique show and begin to make a plan for how you’ll make those special moments happen for your audience.

2. Lay the Foundation
   OK, now is the time for that foundation! When it comes to the live show, that means the mental, emotional, psychological, and spiritual parts of you and what you understand about your audience. Most artists have an unsteady foundation because they have failed to deal with what is going on at a personal level inside of themselves and their audience.

The foundation is so very important, but rarely addressed. Your audience will be connecting with you as a person. They want to understand the human side of you. You’ll need to be confident, with authority and charisma, and that will very likely mean wrestling with yourself about being on the stage, being able to accept criticism and learning from it, working through struggles of business and finances, and more.

3. Build It
   This is the part most people think of when you talk about building a home. And it’s the part artists think of when preparing a show. Getting the music right, developing the skills to play your instrument and sing, writing songs, and getting the sound & tone right, etc.

Add to that the part of “building it” that most artists don’t think about… the visual and style development… and you know this is a big part of the process, and one that will take a great deal of time to get right!

4. Move In
   Finally, there is this important part of building a home (or a show). It will make the difference between moving into a “cookie cutter” house in a subdivision that has been decorated and furnished by the builder, or choosing your own paint color, flooring, furniture, and accessories to create our own unique home.

To do this with your live show means rearranging your songs so you are in control and can connect with the audience. It means extracting the moments within your songs that allow you to express yourself completely from stage. And it means learning how to effectively communicate, musically, visually, and verbally from the stage so your audience can understand who you are and relate to you and your music.

We’d love to help you with all 4 parts of the process… just let us know!

Comment below and tell us which of these 4 steps you struggle with the most and why.

The post 4 Steps to a Unique Show appeared first on Tom Jackson Productions, LLC.

This is easy for guitar players and singers, but I get approached all the time, by keyboard players asking, ‘What do I do? I’m stuck behind a piano or a keyboard set-up!’ It’s a good question and I’m always glad to answer.

Here are 3 things you can do to make your performance more interesting for the audience, either as a solo artist or as part of a band.

First of all, change things up by being able to both stand and sit at your keyboard. Raise your keyboard stand to a height where it’s comfortable to either sit on a tall stool, or stand and play. This changes what the audience is seeing, as well as enabling you to match the feel of the song – sitting when the songs are more chill, standing when you need to bring energy to the performance.

You’ll want to make sure the stool is the right height to be able to work your sustain pedal as well, so it may take some trial and error to figure out the right combination of keyboard and stool heights.

I worked with a solo artist who set up 2 keyboards – one high and one lower. We set them up in a ‘V’; each angled slightly towards each other. When he is at the high one he stands and occasionally sits down on a stool, and at the low one (which was mainly an acoustic piano sound) he sits. Each brings a different vibe, plus changes where he is on stage and faces a different part of the room.

Secondly, pay attention to your standing stance behind the keys. If you’re just standing straight and only moving your arms to play, chances are the audience can’t see any movement if they can’t see your hands.

A way to remedy this, for more aggressive songs in particular, is to stagger your stance, with one foot forward and one back a bit. This will allow you to ‘attack’ the keys with your whole body, and push in and out, giving us a visual that fits the feel of the song.

Another trick is to get visual with your hands. Follow through with your movements – i.e.; if you do a slide down the keys, let your arms follow through coming off the board, or after a sustained chord, hold it with your pedal and let your arms float up and hang. This helps us ‘see’ the music and feel the emotion of what you are playing.

The third thing you can do is abandon ship…yes, leave the keyboard! What I mean is, find a moment in your set to get out from behind your set-up. Take your mic out and come up front to set up the next song or tell a story. Do an acapella song, or even part of a song, and as you’re singing walk back and sit down and segue smoothly into the next tune.

Something else to try, if you have a hooky, singable melody or beat to clap to, is to stop playing at that section of the song, then get them to clap (on 2 and 4 of course ). Once they’ve got that going, then grab your mic and come out front. Keep encouraging the clapping, then sing to that, or do a ‘call and response’, getting them to repeat the lines you are singing.

Get creative! Give these things a shot and I believe you’ll see a positive audience response.

The post Three Things Keyboard Players Can Do appeared first on Tom Jackson Productions, LLC.

Check this out: Amy just worked with Veteran Country star Pam Tillis before she went to play the biggest country festival of the year: Stagecoach.  (Think Coachella for country music).

This review of Pam’s show tells it all:

Stagecoach: The highs, the lows and the classics of Day 3

If you’re getting ready for a tour, doing a showcase, you have an important performance coming up, or you just want to improve your show, you could definitely use Amy’s expertise!

You may wonder if you really need help on your show; BUT it really does make a difference!

If you want to make a difference in your show, if you want it to rise above the norm then contact us!

Find Amy Here

The post Can I Brag? appeared first on Tom Jackson Productions, LLC.

So when is the best time to work out moments in your songs and put your show together? Should you plan ahead of time and work on the details?

What if you don’t know what shows you’ll be doing? How can you work on your show in advance if you don’t even know what, when, and where you’ll be playing?

It might be good to look at the pros & cons of working on your show well in advance of important gigs.

Pro #1: You Have More Time

That may sound obvious. But there’s more to it than simply having more days on the calendar to rehearse when you start earlier. Not only will you have more days — you’ll also have fewer other things going on to crowd out the rehearsal time. The closer you get to a “big showcase” or “great touring opportunity,” the more time you’ll need to spend on your website, social networks, travel plans, press releases, etc., etc.

Pro #2: You Can Get Comfortable with Your Show

When you take the time to start working on your show well in advance, you’ll have more time to get comfortable with the songs, the moments, the transitions, the movement, the places you’re leaving open for spontaneity… all those things are more fun for you & more meaningful for your audience when you’re truly comfortable with them!

Pro #3: You’ll Give Your Show More than Leftovers

To be honest, as much as I try to follow a budget in my own life and business, there are times when I overspend on some things. That means I don’t have enough money for other things I would have liked to have had. It’s the same thing with the investment you make (of time, energy, and money) in your career. If you’ve spent hours, days, weeks of time on recordings, videos, photos, bios, websites, social networking, booking, publicity, attorneys, management… and then leave the live show development until last… it gets your “leftovers.” That’s not wise.

Pro #4: You’re Ready When a Big Break Comes Along

I worked with an artist who was amazing at networking. Every day, without fail, she religiously worked her website and social sites. But at the same time, we were working on her live show — perfecting each song, creating moments, working on movement, fundamentals, transitions, talking to the audience. Her music started finding traction, and a national TV show took notice and had her on their show. She went on to deliver a stellar performance in front of a major audience because she was ready. The result was a first-round Grammy nomination, and CDs flying out the door. Her manager commented to me that he was glad they hadn’t waited until the last minute to work on her show.

Pro #5: You May Find Success Sooner

As Henry Hartman said, “Success always comes when preparation meets opportunity.” I believe if you get ready, opportunities will come. You don’t need luck — that’s chancy. But when you’re preparing in advance, looking for opportunities to share what you can do, you will find success.

So those are some of the pros to working on your show in advance. Next week we’ll take a look at the down sides to rehearsing earlier rather than later.

Tell me about why you like to work on your show with “time to spare” — I’d love to hear your thoughts below!

The post How Soon Should You Work on Your Show? appeared first on Tom Jackson Productions, LLC.

The first opening act had some great songs, lots of energy, and did a decent job onstage.  Unfortunately, they weren’t all on the same page.

You see, as a group, you need to understand the importance of directing the audience’s attention to the right thing; otherwise, the audience won’t know where to look.  I call it misdirection, and it takes away from the effectiveness of what the group is trying to do.

It’s sort of like a football team where everyone knows their assignments except for one person.  And that breakdown can mean a major loss of yardage!  So even though this artist group had good songs and sang well, the audience was watching one person distract them – and group effectiveness was diluted.

The second act had a great band!  This artist is very well known, and has had a couple of hit songs. Their set was about 30 minutes long – and unfortunately, it felt like an hour!

The artist was onstage singing their heart out, telling stories about the songs and what they meant to them. In fact a couple of times the camera pulled in close and we could see teary eyes.  Obviously, they were very emotional about their songs, and they loved what they were doing.

But they didn’t know how to get that emotional connection with the audience.

They wandered around stage, doing stuff they’d seen other people do.  By the response from the crowd, after 2 or 3 songs, they didn’t want any more!  The artist wasn’t boo-ed off the stage.  People clapped for them.  The artist maybe even thought the audience loved them.  But there wasn’t one person I talked to after the show who didn’t feel the same way – the 30 minute set was too long.

I’ve said it many times, and I’ll keep saying it: people don’t go to hear your songs, they go to experience moments!  Though this artist had hit songs, they had no moments in their live show.

I’m always tempted after a show like that to talk to the artists and tell them how Tom Jackson Productions could help them.  But in most cases it’s a losing battle, because the artists don’t comprehend what is happening in the audience.  They are so connected to their own music onstage, they think everyone else is, too!

Finally, the headliner came on.  Two hours and 20 minutes later I wanted to see more!  There were moments everywhere.  Touching moments, fun moments, musical moments…there were visual moments and more throughout the night.

People ask me all the time: “how many songs should I have in my show?”  That’s the wrong question.  The question I have for you is “how many moments have you created for your show?”

Because if you’re just singing songs, 30 minutes is too long.  If you’ve been creating moments, 2 hours might not be long enough!

For help creating moments onstage, see Turn It Up to 11, DVD #2 in the All Roads series.

The post When 30 Minutes Is Too Much and 2 Hours Isn’t Enough appeared first on Tom Jackson Productions, LLC.