Music showcases are a great way of displaying raw talent and repertoire strength.
Often the settings vary greatly. You can be lucky and play in front of a music-loving, relaxed audience but also within a stiff business atmosphere. Paradoxically musicians are expected to play just as energetic and free spirit as if playing in front of wild, fan audiences.
To help you stay relaxed and ready for the challenge, we created a prep-list for your next showcase.
First things first – let’s start with the musical narrative:
Set-List necessity
Having a great set-list is key when performing at a showcase. Try to take enough time beforehand and create different versions and scenarios. Ideally, your set-list will offer an exciting narrative that leads through different facets of your musical catalogue.
Depending on the span of your showtime, try to workout several strengths of your performance.This could be instrumental or vocal elements, but also pure groove or audience interaction.
Go in strong and keep it that way.
Artist representation
If it’s an important showcase, make sure you have an representative present.
This can be a manager, booker or label representative. Basically you need someone to engage in the conversation that you might not have the time to.
Even if it adds extra costs to your travel-party – invest some resources into your artist representation.
Targeted social media campaigning
You can use a targeted social media campaign to direct industry reps to your showcase.
Think about the content you want to boost in that campaign and plan it well in advance. Get someone with knowledge in the area of online targeting into your team.
Audience projection
Gaining the emotional stability to master a solid showcase can be achieved by projecting a different audience into the current room.
The crowd might vary greatly from what you’re used to and expect. Keep calm and try imagine a hometown crowd into the seemingly fierce environment.
Ideally, this will not only loosen you up, but also the situation in the room.
Business-crowd
You won’t change the fact, that the showcase crowd probably consists largely of business and media reps.
This doesn’t mean, that you can’t try to walk out with a bunch of new fans after a stunning performance.
Set this mental goal for yourself: Turning a business crowd into a fan crowd. By doing so, you approach the evening in a positive, upbeat manner rather than dealing with stress or anxiety.
0 be the first one to show some appreciation for this!