Misleading Your Audience

I wonder how many of us professional musicians mislead our audience. We are either intentionally leading them or maybe unintentionally misleading them.

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I remember one night – back before I was old enough to join our church youth group – my church hosted a concert by a local band that was friends of our family. 

My dad was down on the main floor running lights and had designated one of the older youth members to run the spotlight from up in the balcony. At one point during the show, the lead guitarist broke into a solo, and the inexperienced spotlight operator kept the light focused on the lead singer. The singer tried to downplay it as he rocked out the rhythm guitar part. He then tried to cue the spotlight with a head nod in the direction of the lead guitarist. Finally, the singer outright pointed to the lead guitarist. Near the end of the solo, the guy manning the spotlight ultimately zoomed out and panned to the lead guitarist. Better late than never, I guess. 

You can’t really blame someone who doesn’t have experience in that field of work for misleading the audience as he did, but I wonder how many of us professional musicians do that very thing. We are onstage trying to convey a certain message to our audience, but visually we are misleading our audience. Great magicians or illusionists are masters of the sleight of hand. They can cause the audience to focus their attention on something over here, while they are doing something completely different over there. It’s the perfect misdirect. We can definitely use that to our advantage in our show, but it must be planned out and done on purpose.

We must know when it’s our time to step into the spotlight onstage and when it’s not. I love this video of drummer Steve Moore “The Mad Drummer.” This video was taken by a fan at one of  Steve’s shows. The fan later posted it on YouTube with the video title, “This Drummer is at the Wrong Gig.”

Steve is a great drummer! He is solid in his playing and knows how to own the performance! However, his theatrics can be over the top at times, while the vocalist is singing a verse or during the guitarist’s solo, but that’s what made his brand! It’s his special niche, but it certainly is not something everyone can pull off, nor should they.  

I remember when I sent my video audition to Bread of Stone; the guys later shared with me how they were impressed with my showmanship, as they’ve never had a drummer who played like that. However, following my video submission, our lead singer, Ben, asked me in my phone interview if I am always that flashy or if I am willing to be a team player and not over perform when the time doesn’t call for it.

Don’t mislead your audience by overplaying or over performing when the song doesn’t call for it. And lastly, don’t mislead your audience by failing to visually and emotionally match the message and energy of the song. Your body language, expressions, vocal tone and emotions should all align with the song and the message you’re sharing with your audience. 

Instead of misleading them, lead your audience by helping them focus on the right areas of the stage and to the right person at the right time.

Are you interested in diving deeper into these areas for YOUR show? I’d love to get to know you and learn about your journey in music! Let’s schedule a FREE discovery call today!

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