Stagecraft – How to be a great lead singer with your band

Ok – so now you’ve got your big chance and you are up there in front of the band. You’ve rehearsed your songs and you are ready to do your stuff – what next?

If you are just starting out and you have already sung in front of a band you may have begun to realize there are many things to learn about live performing. It’s often surprising how little some singers seem to know about stagecraft.
Well firstly, it’s nothing to do with stagefright ! I’ll talk about that another time.

If you read my previous article about singing in tune with the band you will already know something about the overall skill set required to successfully perform live. Singing in tune is not only desirable, it’s a necessity. However, performing is not merely stepping up to a microphone and singing your song in tune. Performing is about the overall package you present to your audience.

Popular music is mostly vocal oriented- there is nearly always a principal vocalist who sings the melody. This means that the main audience attention is on you the singer. Although the other members of the band will attract some attention whilst you are singing, the spotlight will always be on you because you are the main point of communication with the listener.

In front of the band you are a salesperson. Your audience is watching every single thing you do! They will know when you are unsure of what the next lyric is, they can tell if you missed the entry to the bridge, they know if you are not in control. While it is a common experience to find members of the audience who don’t seem to know anything about anything there are many who do know something.

Stagecraft for a singer is about leadership,discipline and confidence. It is essential that you control what is happening on stage. There are many elements to singer stagecraft but I will cover a few of the key points here.

1. Never develop the attitude that the band is just there to back you.

Bands are a collaboration between musicians. All bands have a particular personal dynamic that revolves around everyone fulfilling a task. This means that you must never under any circumstances give the band the impression that you regard them as your backing band.
Work with them at all times and resist the temptation to try to tell them how to play their instruments, even if you really can do better than them. They have their own parts to think about and they expect you to have your stuff under control. They will be expecting you to give them a clear idea of how you want things to sound.

This is where you need to develop good judgement and keep upmost in your mind that a band is a very egocentric animal and feelings can be hurt very easily if you say the wrong thing! This means no throwing tantrums or getting pissed off if you find things not going exactly the way you want the first time.

When you stand on stage make sure you are in regular eye contact with each member of the band. Spend 75% of your stage time looking at your audience and spend the remaining 25% making eye contact with the drummer, the bass player, the keyboard player and so on. The band will feed on this unspoken communication, they rely on subtle cues from you to fine tune what they are doing.

2. Subtle cues? Can’t I just sing my song and they play along?

Nope. Remember, they are not there just to back you, the band is part of your performance. Think of yourself in the role of the conductor of an orchestra. In a symphony orchestra they are all wonderful musicians, well rehearsed and very professional. Why do they need a conductor? To pull it all together, to control the light and shade,tempo and degree of intensity. In the same way you must communicate this to the other band members in a subtle way.

Here’s an example. Say you have decided that you want to sing the 3rd verse of a particular song much more quietly after you come out of the bridge. You want to put some contrast at that point because the big chorus leading out of the song comes straight after. Even though you may have rehearsed it, you must also cue everyone when you actually perform it. Instead of being obvious and waving your arms around , wait until a few beats before and then turn around momentarily to the band and sing more quietly while giving them a knowing look.

It’s up to you to control the dynamics of the performance not only by how you sing but also the way you communicate with the band during the song. The more you do this the more they will look to you for guidance. They will get used to looking at you for subtle gestures and facial expressions that will tell them something. You will find yourself building a repertoire of body language that they will recognize and follow. As you get more practiced at this you will even be able to get them to slow down at the end of a song completely on cue with only a look from you.

Finally, this is the great undiscovered country for all lead singers. It takes time to learn this but it is very worthwhile. If you are not in control of the performance package you will look and sound like an amateur. The music business is basically smoke and mirrors from the audience perspective and you must learn to orchestrate that.

Michael Oliphant