A Bigger Stage
It’s easy to think that ‘playing a bigger stage’ simply means more screaming fans. Just take the show that worked so well for a few hundred people and now play it for a few thousand people. Easy.
But the playing a bigger stage also means…a bigger stage.
A fifty foot stage in a theater or festival is a lot different than the twenty foot stage in the club. More space to move. More space in between the players. Harder to read facial cues but ample room for backflips and leg kicks.
It’s feels a lot different.
Your presence has to fill the room no matter the size…but your presence coupled with the size of the stage will equal the tactics you’ll use to be most effective.
Workshop Mess
Only The Writing
Only the writing is on the top of the list. It’s what makes or breaks you. It is the most important thing. All the other stuff comes second. Writing great material is a prize in and of itself AND it’s what will carry you to and through the next open door.
The writing process is thankless and boring and doesn’t owe anyone anything. But when you land on a chord or a vibe or a melody and it’s just right…all of life gets brighter and more the way it should be.
Writing is not hard but coming up with something great is a combination of gymnastics, archeology, theology and black jack…and that’s not easy.
If you’re an artist scrolling Instagram you might not be doing what you should be doing.
If you’re an artist and you’re writing…that’s what artists do.
All the other stuff is important but only the writing is the most important.
How Can I Help You?
It’s too much for most people to handle. It puts the burden of coming up with the action on them.
‘How can I help you’ is a thoughtful thing to say and the sentiment is worth voicing and it will sometimes elicit a response.
But if you really want to take action it might help to improve the offer a bit…
Here is how I can help, do you want this?
Transforming The Room
When I was young I would go out to shows. The audience would be pretty electric before the band even went on stage. And the vibe and cheering would only escalate as the band walked on stage and started their first song.
And I thought…’this must be how shows work’…the audience simply shows up with a great vibe, excited and ready and happy to see the band. And then the band rocks.
And then I started playing shows.
In the lead up to showtime I would wonder where the energy was. The walk to the stage was awkward and tense. And getting ready to play the first song…it would be absolutely silent. Nothing. No vibe, no energy, no magic.
It turns out, in those first shows I went to as a kid, the artist was doing a lot more than I thought they were…the vibe and energy and magic is the responsibility of the artist.
That good feeling in the room before the artist takes the stage and it lasts through the end of the night…that’s the artist. The artist is responsible for transforming the room.