Jul 1, 2008
The Contest (Amy)
I recently went to hear a friend sing for what was billed to be a competition-by-audience- vote-type gig. The entrants ran the gamut from hippie to country, ages 19-60, and obviously got in the competition just by signing up. No pre-screening process involved here.
Contestant number one was a keyboard player - very hippie-esk. No shoes. Nice song except it was 20 minutes long. Well it felt like it anyway. She kept her eyes closed the whole time.
Contestant number two was a guy with a crazed look in his eyes. (I know because I was stuck at the very front of the place about 2 feet from the stage, and that's tough because I wanted to do lots of eye-rolling.) He too had taken his shoes off, preferring to play in socks. He looked at the crowd and said, "Are you naked or am I just drunk?" He then took a violin bow and started "bowing" his acoustic guitar strings back and forth...back and forth...then WHAM, WHAM, WHAM, he whacks it against his guitar, breaks it, then starts jumping and strumming. He hopped up on a folding chair that was randomly on the stage, played fast and spastically and eventually jumped down and began "singing." No votes here dude. I believe you MAY be high.
Contestant number four was my friend Katie. She was by far the most sane person there that night and has an amazing voice. Lots of applause for her.
Contestant number five took aforementioned folding chair and sat on it to play his guitar and sing his latest country hit, "I Just Wanna Get Drunk." It wasn't tongue-in-cheek either. He was dead serious. And yes, HE took his shoes off. BUT, he had one glove on. Not the Michael Jackson kind. The weight-lifting kind. Probably to get a better grip on that slippery pick. That six-minute song was about 5 minutes and 55 seconds too long.
Contestant number eight was in the wrong contest. First, she asked our permission to take her shoes off so she could be "closer to the earth" for her little presentation. (What is peoples' problem with shoes??!) Yes I'm serious. Do you think I could make this stuff up? Then a music track started and she began a spoken word deal. No singing. Speaking. Not rap even. I can appreciate a poetry thing but not in a song competition! She'd had the stage hand set up two mics for her - one high and one down low so that when she bent down to "scoop up the earth" we wouldn't miss a word of dialogue. Then her music ran out and she still had words left over.
By now my head hurt and I wanted to throw something. I couldn't leave because my friend needed us to vote for her at the very end. One more act to go.
The last act was a man in his late fifties with a guitar, accompanied by another guy playing a small accordion. My first thought was "oh boy, here we go." But, he sang a country song he'd written with such passion and conviction, that it won the crowd over. It was an okay song but nothing you'd call a hit. The thing the audience could tell was that it came from his heart, he meant it, and we felt the emotion.
What's the point of all this? I'm not sure if there's just one. Maybe just some observations. Most importantly;
1. The audience can tell if you really feel what you're singing about or if you're faking passion. Most of the artists that night were way too intense, squeezing their eyes shut, frowning as they sang their "mind-blowing" lyrics. Guess what? I didn't feel what they were feeling inside. I didn't even really listen to the lyrics! I was just distracted by their weirdness. That would be the main lesson of the night. A few other side notes:
2. Enough with the 10 minutes songs! Especially for a competition. No one's interested in hearing you indulge in a drawn-out instrumental section that goes on and on. Play your song, short and sweet, and get off the stage. Save the jams for your show.
3. Keep your shoes on. I mean, unless that's going to be your "signature look" and you've got that kind of unique vibe, keep 'em on baby. Those people are few and far between. For the most part, it's just distracting and sloppy looking. Not cool. Trust me.
Until next time, Rock well and often!
Amy Wolter
Performance Coach
Contestant number one was a keyboard player - very hippie-esk. No shoes. Nice song except it was 20 minutes long. Well it felt like it anyway. She kept her eyes closed the whole time.
Contestant number two was a guy with a crazed look in his eyes. (I know because I was stuck at the very front of the place about 2 feet from the stage, and that's tough because I wanted to do lots of eye-rolling.) He too had taken his shoes off, preferring to play in socks. He looked at the crowd and said, "Are you naked or am I just drunk?" He then took a violin bow and started "bowing" his acoustic guitar strings back and forth...back and forth...then WHAM, WHAM, WHAM, he whacks it against his guitar, breaks it, then starts jumping and strumming. He hopped up on a folding chair that was randomly on the stage, played fast and spastically and eventually jumped down and began "singing." No votes here dude. I believe you MAY be high.
Contestant number four was my friend Katie. She was by far the most sane person there that night and has an amazing voice. Lots of applause for her.
Contestant number five took aforementioned folding chair and sat on it to play his guitar and sing his latest country hit, "I Just Wanna Get Drunk." It wasn't tongue-in-cheek either. He was dead serious. And yes, HE took his shoes off. BUT, he had one glove on. Not the Michael Jackson kind. The weight-lifting kind. Probably to get a better grip on that slippery pick. That six-minute song was about 5 minutes and 55 seconds too long.
Contestant number eight was in the wrong contest. First, she asked our permission to take her shoes off so she could be "closer to the earth" for her little presentation. (What is peoples' problem with shoes??!) Yes I'm serious. Do you think I could make this stuff up? Then a music track started and she began a spoken word deal. No singing. Speaking. Not rap even. I can appreciate a poetry thing but not in a song competition! She'd had the stage hand set up two mics for her - one high and one down low so that when she bent down to "scoop up the earth" we wouldn't miss a word of dialogue. Then her music ran out and she still had words left over.
By now my head hurt and I wanted to throw something. I couldn't leave because my friend needed us to vote for her at the very end. One more act to go.
The last act was a man in his late fifties with a guitar, accompanied by another guy playing a small accordion. My first thought was "oh boy, here we go." But, he sang a country song he'd written with such passion and conviction, that it won the crowd over. It was an okay song but nothing you'd call a hit. The thing the audience could tell was that it came from his heart, he meant it, and we felt the emotion.
What's the point of all this? I'm not sure if there's just one. Maybe just some observations. Most importantly;
1. The audience can tell if you really feel what you're singing about or if you're faking passion. Most of the artists that night were way too intense, squeezing their eyes shut, frowning as they sang their "mind-blowing" lyrics. Guess what? I didn't feel what they were feeling inside. I didn't even really listen to the lyrics! I was just distracted by their weirdness. That would be the main lesson of the night. A few other side notes:
2. Enough with the 10 minutes songs! Especially for a competition. No one's interested in hearing you indulge in a drawn-out instrumental section that goes on and on. Play your song, short and sweet, and get off the stage. Save the jams for your show.
3. Keep your shoes on. I mean, unless that's going to be your "signature look" and you've got that kind of unique vibe, keep 'em on baby. Those people are few and far between. For the most part, it's just distracting and sloppy looking. Not cool. Trust me.
Until next time, Rock well and often!
Amy Wolter
Performance Coach
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