LA Music Review | Art, stories and advice
by Carley Varley
Epic performances are the ones that we remember…
that live with us and bring a smile to our faces when we reminisce. When you think epic, you think big, exciting and amazing! Delivering an epic performance can be difficult and takes a lot of preparation but if you nail it, it will certainly be epic! I have being performing on stage as a solo musician and now with a band for the last seven years, I always want to do my best and put on a great show, here are my top tips for delivering an epic performance.
- Interact with the crowd
An incredibly important part of delivering an epic performance is interacting with the people who have come along to watch you! Getting people to clap along, throw their hands up in the air, dance or sing along helps make for an epic performance.
Encouraging people to sing a specific part that is personal to you, making that connection with the crowd is always a great way to get the audience to remember your performance.
Whether it’s a heartfelt performance, an emotional performance or just a fun performance, it’s great to look into the crowd and connect with people, make them feel a part of the event.
- Dance around and be expressive
Having fun on stage has got to be one of the best way to deliver an epic performance. The best performances of all time had the artist dancing around on stage! Similarly, being expressive holds the same impact, powerful performances are remembered, the emotion behind the song reflected in a person’s actions and performing.
If you want to make your performance great, go for it as much as you can, dance, express yourself and don’t be afraid to do actions to what you are singing. This is something that one of my favorite artists Taylor Swift does really well, her facial expressions and hand actions match what she is singing. Another artist I love is Hayley Williams, she just dances and has SO much fun on stage that it is actually contagious. Watching them perform this year I remembered thinking that their performance was epic, this was because of how much fun the band had on stage.
- Rehearse and make sure you’re free to perform your best
Prepare as best you can in order to create an epic performance. Rehearsing is so vital to a great performance, if you don’t practice and perfect, you won’t be as free to be expressive. I recall a few years ago I was performing at an event and I hadn’t practiced a song enough so I needed a chord sheet, this meant I couldn’t really look up from my page and I didn’t deliver as good of a performance as I’d hoped. I hadn’t freed myself up, if I knew the chords I could have looked out into the crowd, I could have been free to walk around and dance about too. Epic performances require a lot of preparation, so remember to set yourself up for success by practicing as much as possible.
- Make your performance unique in some way
Being unique is important to delivering an epic performance too, whether it be your outfit, your choice of song, your dance, your lighting or even your interaction with the crowd. Lady Gaga is a very good example of this, her performances are always very unique and they stand out, not only because of her amazing vocals but because of the way she presents herself on stage and her dress sense.
People will remember you by what you were wearing most of the time, if you have epic outfits that stand out whilst you perform, this is stick in people’s minds. You can also ask the crowd to sing a part of a song whilst you sing over it, Ed Sheeran did this at a concert in Bournemouth that I attended, and it was so unique and I thought it made the performance very epic.
Thank you so much for reading today, I hope these tips help you to deliver an epic performance next time you go on stage!
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