It’s Saturday night, it’s 9 pm, you’re at the club, you have a gig and then it happens… Here are a couple of typically embarrassing on-stage scenarios that might seem too familiar among musicians.
Stage fright
Forehead sweat, heart palpitations, trembling hands… These are identifying symptoms of anxiety. This common ailment may at times get the better of even the most experienced musicians and usually occurs before a gig. Although alcohol helps loosen up those nerves in the face of courage, it is not always recommended for a flawless performance. So perhaps you can fall back on Grandma’s good advice and try Valerian root, but please mind the dosage 🙂
A good basic rule in preventing stage fright is thorough preparation and good time management. Having to pack five minutes before the tour bus leaves, makes for an unnecessary increase of stress levels. Regular practice also often builds confidence while removing self-doubt. Another tip in dealing with nervousness is to before a gig, briefly step aside and take a deep breath to focus on your abilities and gather your strength.
Forgetting Lyrics
This is one of those embarrassing moments that are usually highly noticeable, unless of course you’re in a Death-Metal band. Blackouts can simply just happen, how you react to it however, is choice up to you. Whether you sing the wrong lines (and the crowd knows the lyrics word for word), or have a brief moment of silence, taking precautionary measures such as thorough preparation as stated in our first tip can prevent those speechless moments. An additional tip: music stands can be found in our shop 😉
Breaking a string
Murphy’s Law: Right in the middle of the chorus you break a guitar string. Either a spare guitar or spare guitar strings prepared on stage would be a wise idea and while the singer distracts the audience, you’ll be right back on it in no time.
You can’t hear properly
It’s a common phenomenon. You can’t hear yourself and/or your colleagues. This is a serious issue that speaks volumes. Here are a few simple tips for this situation: Tune in to your band mates, and find out who is too loud and why? If possible drown out the amplifiers individually to reveal the issue, instead of turning them up all at once
If the issue reveals itself to be a particular amp, then simply position it higher or at a different angle for a better sound. For further assistance in better distribution and a more balanced sound we recommend a Deeflexx. This will not only benefit you and your bandmates, but also the audience.
Cable clutter
Whether its from instruments or from equipment – you’re guaranteed to have a couple of metres of cable on stage. Someone may tangle up with the bassist, or accidently pull a plug from a socket. Either way conducting cables should not be underestimated, as this could very well lead to our next point. ..
Kaboom!
Although it’s not the end of the world, if you fall on stage or worse yet off the stage, you can severely bruise yourself and your ego. One way to prevent this is to keep cable-ties dear to your heart. If this isn’t available then stage-tape is a wonderful alternative and so is a wireless system.
Bad sound
We could go on and on about this subject… First of all it’s possible that the acoustic conditions of the venue are simply not very good. However there are several tricks to overcome this and improve your sound.
A good sound is particularly a balanced sound. The aim is to hear all the instruments and vocals properly and to present each and every instrument in a well-balanced way to the audience. Take the time to thoroughly consult each other in finding that pleasant and balanced sound – and presumably before your gig! If your equipment does not sound good on stage, then even the best of mixers can’t help you
Another tip: A typical problem in small venues are loud cymbals which create imbalance so extreme, you can’t even recognise the song. A quick remedy for this is to tape the cymbals with stage-tape in order to dampen the high frequencies. However, we strongly recommended this for emergencies only. For a more professional and quieter solution, best go with Cympads.
Last but not least: Check your instruments to ensure you make your spectacular entrance in the right tone. For guitarists we recommend a clip tuner and for drummers a drum tuner or turning Key.
Have you experienced any embarrassing on-stage moments?
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