I was doing an interview at Singing Success awhile back and I was asked, “Tom, if everyone buys your DVDs and learns your Live Music Methods, won’t all the audiences figure it out and get bored?”
Simple answer – “No!” I don’t teach what I teach so that everyone looks the same. In fact, I teach what I teach so that everyone’s uniqueness can come through!
To show how true this is, I came up with an analogy (imagine that!)…
You can be a killer guitar hero, or a fantastic vocalist. But if you do not make an emotional connection with people, the audience is left bored and unresponsive.
As musicians, we think it’s all about the music. We forget that the audience perspective of our show is a lot different than our perspective. And we forget that almost everyone who comes to see us is pretty ignorant about musical things.
But not one of them is ignorant about what makes them feel something!
Whether you’re creating food at a restaurant, directing a movie, or performing onstage – making an emotional connection with your audience is what it’s all about.
And that’s not boring!
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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Hi Tom,
I read your articles all the time and I am the lead singer in a Christian rock band. We currently all use music stands. With that being said, I am still able to connect with our audiences and drive the emotional and vulnerability of each original and cover song we do. But I realize that this is a new year and I am ready to tackle my fear of forgetting the words if I lose my music stand. It is a very scary step for me but I am willing to try this. In fact my music stand keeps getting lower and lower as we are doing our shows so I am trying but I also know that I can be so much more if I get rid of it. So I was wondering if you have any good tips that would help me get started in doing this.
Thanks so much for any help in advance.
Hi Cheryl, Thank you for you message. If you have the book, check out the section on the foundation. (understanding your audience, loving your audience, confidence, authority and charisma, and the section about taking risks.) I’ve had a lot of people tell me this has created freedom for them in their live shows. Tom