Despite that fact that modern technology has made it easier for independent musicians to self-record, there is still a fierce amount of competition out there, and a pressure to release the best product you possibly can. When it comes to doing a recording, I phrase the musician’s dilemma this way: do you “just do it”, or do it “right?” In other words, where do you find the balance between getting your music out there to people, and holding off until you’ve raised enough money for a high-budget recording?
To some of you, what I’m about to say might sound like Musicianship 101–but you’d be surprised how many bands miss this point:
When you’re in a band with other musicians, you have to play together, not separately.
What I mean is this: when you play an instrument alone, it’s an open field; any sounds you want to hear, you have to make. But when you play in a band, you’re sharing the musical space with other musicians; if you don’t play differently in that setting, you’re guaranteed to run over one other. Unless, of course, everyone else just stops and lets you take it. 
A few weeks ago, I was talking with a local musician whose band is regrouping. He was talking to me about the band’s new philosophy. “We used to be basically a studio band,” he said, “but now we aren’t going to record anything we haven’t tested out live first.” I thought that was wisdom, because it adds a measure of objective feedback to their song selection process.
Continuing our “Polishing Your Performance” series…this topic ties in with the articles about stage presence, but interacting with your audience deserves some discussion on its own.
As musicians, we all want our music to be heard and appreciated. That’s one of the big reasons why we play live. But one simple mindset in the live setting can make all the difference between a great show and a mediocre one:
When you perform live, it isn’t just about you. It’s about your audience, too.
This topic of stage presence actually qualifies as part of the “Polishing Your Performance” series, but is important enough to be a little 2-part series on its own.
Stage presence is one of those concepts that is difficult to describe or measure. Kind of like the wind. You can’t see or touch the wind (unless you’re in LA or Beijing, maybe), but you can certainly see what effect it has on the stuff it blows on. In fact, we tend to describe wind more by what it does than by what it is. (For example, “That wind done plumb blowed over my whole chicken coop!”) Or, as a more scientific example, the Fujita Scale measures tornado winds after the fact, by the damage left behind.
