Superstars Like Keith Urban Know This

Keith Urban, in an iTunes Original interview clip, says of his live show, “I feel touched when I see people singing along with the songs and you just see the love, the want and the joy and the fact that they’re so with you in the moment.”

Well, that’s easy for Keith Urban to say – he’s a superstar! But how do you get there? How do you get to that place with your audience?

There is a way to do it, and I can help…

I worked with two extraordinary bands in New York City not long ago. The players in the bands were good. They could play with any star like Keith Urban, Madonna, Black Eyed Peas, regardless of genre – they were that good.

But instead, they were struggling. Most of them had day jobs on the side. Most were still taking music lessons, trying to get better. Some were Berklee or U of Miami grads (two of the top schools in the world for music). I really enjoyed my time with them, because musically they could do anything I asked them to do!

But they were missing ONE BIG THING when they played: an emotional connection with the audience.

You don’t have to be a superstar to have that emotional connection. You just need to understand what connects with an audience when you’re onstage.

And, by the way, it isn’t about playing technically right. If that’s all it was, we’d have tens of thousands of stars – people who have graduated, taken lessons, mastered technique on an instrument. (Really a shift in the way a musician has to think, by the way!)

The same thing holds true for songwriters and vocalists. Obviously, we need great songs. Everyone in the music industry would love to write a hit song. By God’s grace, I’ve had the great fortune to produce a whole bunch of #1 songs for artists’ live performances.

But regardless of structure, how well the song is played, the arrangement, production and so on – the one thing all hit songs have in common is they create an emotional connection with the audience.

When I first started playing I used to get angry and frustrated (let’s be honest: jealous!) when I’d see a band or artist I knew wasn’t as good as my band, get a big hit song. I thought many times “we’re better than they are!”

As I’ve worked with literally 100s of artists over the last decade on their show, I realize it wasn’t about how great someone’s voice was, or how good the guitar player was, or how dynamic the drummer was. Like I said earlier, I love working with groups like that; but that’s not what makes the emotional connection with an audience from onstage. It’s connecting them to the emotion inside the song.

There are methods, strategies, psychology, techniques, concepts, rules that I use to help artists emotionally connect to their audience.

When I started doing this years ago, I used to sit in the rehearsal hall and I’d say “you got me, you got me, ….ohhhhhh, you LOST ME!” So then I would figure out why they lost me. Was it visual? Was it musical, verbal, the arrangement? What was it that disconnected me emotionally from their song?

So I developed my Live Music Method, which is all built around making the emotional connection with an audience. This Live Music Method is what I teach on my DVDs and at conferences and workshops around the world; and it’s the subject of a book I’m just finishing which should be available in the next couple of months.

When I see great musicians and singers (like the ones I worked with in NYC) who are really experienced, but new to my Live Music Method… when I see the light go on for them, see them have that “ah-hah” moment… when they realize that this is not performance coaching, this isn’t choreography, it isn’t dance or drama… when they realize that it’s about the emotional connection with their audience… it makes it all worthwhile!

Tom Jackson

Tom is uniquely talented and skilled at transforming an artist's live show into a magical experience for the audience; helping artists at every level create a live show that is engaging and memorable, teaching them to exceed their audiences' expectations and to create fans for life. Tom has taught indie and major artists of every genre. He has worked with Taylor Swift, Le Crae, Home Free, The Tenors, Shawn Mendes, The Band Perry, Francesca Battistelli, Jars of Clay, & many more. Tom also teaches at colleges, conferences and events worldwide.

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