Practicing your shtick (stage moves, breakdowns, crowd interaction, etc)?

[Bajazz]

 

I think a lot of the "you're just born with it" theory comes from the fact that the people who are good at it have probably been doing it continuously their whole lives before they get on stage for the first time, so you rarely see somebody develop into a good audience-interaction person from ground zero, whereas everybody has seen (and experienced) learning a musical instrument from nothing. If you're not naturally good at it, it can only help your show to think about it and practice it. It only seems cheesy and canned until you reach a certain level of smoothness, at which point it looks a lot more like smooth, spontaneous repartee.

Xcactly!

 

Anything can be learned as long as you are motivated. But if you try to force a front person to act in a way he/she thinks is wrong, you'll have a hard time. Also there is a limit to how much you can practice certain thing. At some point you'll have to try it out live to see if it works. I always try to add a few details at a time to see the response. On one gig I tried to introduce songs, but found it could be nagging to do so at every song. Another gig I had a plan to what to say when tuning guitar between songs. Later I planned how to move on stage on and between songs. And then later again I introduced som moves when doing guitar solos etc....

 

I have strong belief in improving a little every day!

[tlbonehead]

The main thing if you gave that ability in normal conversation/out of the spotlight is to get comfortable enough onstage to just be able to do it naturally and spontaneously just as if you were just hangin out shootin the breeze.