RBSC eBook How to Become a Better Live Band

7/30/2019 RBSC eBook How to Become a Better Live Band

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© Tom Hess Music Corporation

How To Become A Better Live Band

By Tom Hess, Alex Staropoli and Draven Grey




About The Authors

Alex Staropoli

Alex Staropoli has sold more than 1 million

records worldwide as the co-founder,co-songwriter and keyboardist of thesymphonic metal band Rhapsody Of Fire.

Alex has experienced many

different types of situations in the music

industry, some very good and some,unfortunately, very bad. It’s exactly

through these experiences that Alex can help you ensure

that you will not make the same mistakes, but go in the best

direction possible. Together with Tom Hess and Draven Grey,

Alex has built the Rock Band Success Coaching programwhich offers you a great chance to move forward with yourrock band’s music career and support your ambitions.

Tom Hess

Tom Hess is a virtuoso guitarist, composer

and recording artist who has touredthroughout the world and released a top 100hit single in Europe.

In his Music Careers Mentoring Program

Tom coaches and mentors musicians from

all over the world to get into the musicindustry and build highly successful music careers.Tom is also a very dedicated music teacher who has taught

tens of thousands of music lessons to guitar players all over

the world. In addition to teaching private guitar lessons,

clinics, workshops and master classes around the UnitedStates, Tom trains guitar teachers on how to teach guitar

and build their own highly successful guitar teachingbusinesses.

http://tomhess.net/MusicCareer.aspx

http://tomhess.net/RockBandSuccessCoaching.aspx




Draven Grey

Draven Grey is a professional musician,

producer, artist development specialistfor Rockstar Mindset, and rock band

success coach with Tom Hess and Alex

Staropoli. Draven has played to audiences

of up to 16,000 people, had songs placed ontelevision, has been on many releases overthe years, has record label experience, and has recorded and

produced many albums, among other things. Draven is also

a member of the National Association of Record Industry

Professionals.

Together Alex, Tom and Draven coach amateur rock bands

online to move from being unknown local bands to successful

rock bands in the music industry. Check out their Rock Band

Success Coaching program.






Let us guess, you want more people to come see your band play

live, right? … And you ask, “How can we get better gigs at bettervenues?", right? … Maybe you simply want to get more gigs and

make more money.

Are these the type of things you and your band think about? If itis, then you may already be on the WRONG track… let usexplain…

Most bands want more people to come to their gigs, want to get

more and better gigs, make more money and have more fun inthe process.

The problem is, most bands have missed the most important goal

that is WAY MORE critical than the other desires mentioned

above AND in fact has the MOST power to enable those otherdesires to actually come true.

So what is the big secret that all these bands are missing and

that is right in front of their face at EVERY SINGLE GIG THEYEVER PLAY??? And more importantly, how can YOU use this to

make your rock band much more successful?

Before we tell you what it is, and how you can use it, we need totell you that it is extremely obvious. It is something that every

band does think about (a little bit) but they either don’t know

what to do, or have the wrong approach that doesn’t work. So

what happens? They quickly ‘give up’ on trying to fix the problemand simply ‘live with it’. They tell themselves, ‘that’s just howthings are, we have to accept it and move on to other things’

(like trying to get more gigs, better gigs and promote their live

shows more)….

This is their fatal mistake. A mistake that will keep them from

ever achieving their big goals…

You are about to learn very powerful ways to reach your band’sgoals.

Let’s start by talking about your band and what we both know

happens at your gigs.




You have written some cool music. You’ve put your heart and

soul into it. You’ve lived with it. Your band has rehearsed it.Next, you schedule a gig. You walk onto the stage and begin

playing your first song. It soon becomes obvious to you that

there are 2 groups of people in the audience.

Group 1: The people who quickly ‘get into’ (like) yourmusic and your performance.

Group 2: Everybody else.

The problem is, group 2 is usually (but of course not always) the

larger group. No matter what the size of group 2, we don’t want

anyone to ‘not get into’ your music when you play live.

The good news is, you CAN change it, but to do so you need totruly understand the specific reasons why there are always somany (too many) people who are not loving your music, not

buying your music, not buying your t-shirt, and not coming back

to see your band play again at the next gig.

The first step to changing this is to understand why people in

group 1 are so easily able to get into your music and enjoy theshow.

Fact is, people in group 1 almost always have heard your music

before and know at least some of your songs. There is a direct

correlation between the number of times someone has heard asong before and how easily they can get into it when they hear itperformed live. (This is why good cover bands always find it easy

to get almost everyone in the room to be excited when they play

and why unknown original bands really struggle at many gigs

where their friends haven’t packed the venue.)

Most bands falsely believe that - if there are many people thataren’t ‘getting into’ their music at gigs - those people simply

don’t like that type of music, would never like your songs, or thatthe band is not performing well. Although those are possible

factors for why some people aren’t loving your show, the more

likely reason they aren’t in group 1 is because they haven’t heard

your music yet AND because when they do hear it for the firsttime (at your gig), their brains cannot really understand what




they are hearing (more on this later).

We are going to give you a separate (and powerful) solution for

both of these problems. These solutions will help your rock band

to get started right away to have better live shows. To get the

full range of solutions check out our Rock Band Success Coaching program.

Why audiences have a very hard time to instantly get into

your music when you play live - even if they would love it if

they heard your studio recordings.

When you are playing live to an audience that does not already

intimately know your songs well (which is most of the time for

most smaller bands), the audience struggles to accurately and

deeply hear and perceive your music in the way you want (andintended) them to.

Why? Because when you play a song, they don’t know what is

coming next, they don’t know the melodies, the lyrics, when themood is about to change and what that mood is going to be, or

when the important rhythmic accents are coming (these rhythmic

accents are probably the most important thing the audienceneeds in order for them to ‘feel your music’).

When you play live, the music is typically loud, the mix is usually

not exactly crystal clear, and the room you are playing in is

probably a big box shaped space that horribly reflects the soundsoff the walls, ceiling and floor, making everything sound muddy(unclear) and boomy (bass frequencies are too loud). And things

are made even worse when you play songs that are fast or have

intricate rhythm parts. And let’s not forget that live playing is

typically not as tight (accurate) as your album recording…

These things all combined together to make it very hard for theaudience to clearly hear, process and understand what they are

listening to.

This is a common problem that is hard to avoid when playing for

new people who don’t know your songs well and you don’t have

the headlining spot with a good road crew, a good sound check, a





good venue and a bunch of other factors going for you at these

gigs…

So what can you do to help people clearly hear, understand and

enjoy your music at your gigs? There are actually a lot of things

you can do. We give all of our solutions in our Rock Band SuccessCoaching program. One of the things you can do to helpovercome this common problem is to ‘lead’ your audience into

your music as you play. It’s a simple thing to do, but almost no

amateur band really does it while most professional rock bands

do).

To lead your audience means you ‘lead’ your audience to

understand what they are hearing and even anticipate musical

events in your songs as (or before) they happen. Why is this so

powerful?

Imagine a verbal conversation without body language, hand

gestures, facial expressions, or tone of voice. Can you get the full

meaning (and/or hidden meanings) without these things? Of course not. It’s the exact same with live performances of your

music…

So to ‘lead’ your audience and help them to ‘get into’ your music,the whole band should move ‘with’ the music.

IMPORTANT: This is NOT the same as simply ‘moving around the

stage’ as you are playing! We’re talking about getting the entireband to move in more deliberate ways that are in sync with thesongs' rhythmic accents that EVERYONE in the audience can

clearly see (even from the back of the room).

Think about this: When you wrote your songs, you put rhythmicaccents into your music for a reason. You want people to ‘feel’

those accents because this helps them to feel the music moreintensely. If a new audience ‘sees’ those accents by the way you

move on stage, then they are SURE to actually ‘get it’. They willhave no choice but to hear it now, even when they couldn’t truly

hear it before... and this is CRITICAL if you want them to like

your music!!!!!






How and why does it work?

Remember when we said that as your band plays live, the sound

is often muddy (unclear) due to a variety of reasons (a bad

sound mix, a horribly boomy room, and extreme volume, etc.)

The listener’s ears can’t clearly and accurately understand whatis being heard. But their eyes CAN and WILL be able to visuallysee those accents ‘if’ your entire band is clearly moving with

them all the time.

Something amazing happens in your listeners’ brains! Their ‘eyes’ define in their brain what their ears are struggling to understand.

Everything becomes immediately clear in their minds and they

actually begin to ‘feel your music’ (at least the critical rhythmic

aspect of it)!

Your band can now improve on ‘getting people into your songs’ by doing the following things.

1. Clearly move your body with the beat, and more

importantly the rhythmic accents that may occur off the

beat (syncopation).

2. Move with accents most of the time. You need to do this

deliberately and very often, not randomly or

infrequently. If you are not moving with accents during

some moment of the song, is there a ‘good’ reason whyyou stopped? There should be, otherwise continue to

‘lead’ your audience.

3. Your whole band needs to be doing this! It’s not enough

for only the singer or drummer to be doing this. Guitar,bass and keyboard players also need to be involved for

this to work correctly.

You want the audience to constantly be able to ‘feel’ themusic, so this needs to happen when they are looking at

the bass player, guitar player, drummer etc., otherwise

the audience goes back to ‘not’ understanding what they

are hearing, they don’t ‘feel the music’, it becomes sortof blurry again for them. The band needs to keep the




audience focused on feeling the music and getting them

into the songs ALL THE TIME. Again, of course you cando other things on stage, but that fundamental visual

aspect of helping people perceive the music clearly needs

to be there. You have to lead them all night.

4. The common mistake that musicians make when movingon stage is that the movements are too subtle (small) to

be seen by people who are in the middle and back of the

room. So, movements need to be big enough

(exaggerated) for people in the middle and back of theroom to actually see. Have you ever gone to another

local band's concert and noticed how people near the

front of the stage always seem to be into the music more

than people in the middle or the back of the room? There

is more than one reason for this, but one of the reasonsis that bands sometimes don’t move in a way that allowspeople further away to really see it. Thus people near

the front actually perceive the music better than the

people near the back even though the sound mix isALWAYS WORSE near the front!

One easy way to exaggerate movements (withoutlooking cheesy) is to use your guitar, bass or microphonestand and move them. A small amount of movement can

be seen from further distances because you are moving a

bigger target and it takes less effort for you to do it than

to move your whole body in large movements all thetime (that can get tiring after 90 minutes of playing).

5. REHEARSE! REHEARSE!! REHEARSE!!! Ok, this seems

obvious, BUT we know that many people will read this

and think the ideas are great, but will NOT get theirbands to rehearse with these ideas in mind as they

practice their songs. Here’s the reality, amateur bandstypically don’t rehearse their stage presence…

professional bands do. If you want more people to loveyour music, if you want to get better gigs, more gigs and

make more money, then get your band to rehearse like

professional bands do!

http://tomhess.net/RockBandSuccess.aspx




Sometimes bands don’t implement these ideas in

practice or at their gigs because it doesn’t feel natural forsome band members at first. Your band ‘needs’ to feel

more comfortable with these types of movements

because if you don’t show the audience that ‘you’ are

‘feeling the music’, the audience never will either. Youneed to ‘lead them’.

What else can you do?

In addition to moving with rhythmic accents, another effective

way you can lead your audiences is to anticipate changes in the

song by your moving (differently) to them. When a song is

about to pull back to something slower, calmer or more dramatic,

lead the audience to the change just before and during themoment of change, exaggerate it. Throw your hair back (unlessyou are a bald guy like Tom ), pull your head back, or lean

forward if that is better for the moment. Move UP towards the

front of the stage, OR drop back.

In order for this to be even more effective, coordinate this with

the other band mates. Maybe the whole band doesn’t need to dothis all the time, but for the musicians in the wings (not standingin the very center of the stage) it can be a great and dramatic

effect when the guys on the left and right are in sync either with

or against the singer in the center. Example: The guitar and bass

player fall back and the singer moves forward…. USE the spaceon the stage (more on this later).

Follow the singer

For better or worse, most people watch the singer more than anyother band member. But there are definitely moments when you

do not want the audience's attention on the singer such as duringguitar solos, a unique or special bass line in an instrumental

section of the song, perhaps during the intro section of the song,or something special that the drummer is doing during an

instrumental moment of the song.




During longer guitar (or keyboard) solos (25 seconds or longer)

it’s often a good idea for the singer to leave the stage entirelyand for the guitar player to move to the center of the stage. (Not

every solo should be played from where the guitarist’s pedal

board or midi controller is located on the stage.)

Pay attention to and rehearse your singer’s pathway

The pathway that your singer moves on and off the stage should

be something you actually practice to avoid problems on stage.

The singer (when leaving the stage during a guitar solo) shouldalways exit the stage by walking BEHIND the musicians still

playing. When your singer reenters the stage (when it’s time to

sing the next vocal part), he/she should always walk in FRONT of

the musicians (that means the musicians need to know when and

where to drop back on the stage to make room for the singer.This is something the band needs to actually practice at everyrehearsal to avoid collisions or awkward-amateur-looking-

movements on the stage.

If your singer is going to remain on the stage (during shorter

guitar solos), then it is very effective for the singer to direct the

audience’s attention to the guitar player who is about to take thesolo. The singer can point to the guitarists or walk over andstand next to him/her. The idea is to bring the attention to the

soloist and away from the rest of the band and singer at this

point.

The same thing applies in other moments in the song whenanother person in the band (besides the singer) is going to do

something special in some part of the song (when there is not

singing going on at the same time of course).

Symmetry and Synchronization on Stage:

From the audience’s perspective, it looks much better (especially

from the middle and back of the room) when there is symmetryand synchronization on the stage. Believe it or not, this really

does make a positive difference to the way the audience

perceives your live show.




To use the spacing on the stage and to create symmetry onstage, each band member should have a ‘home base’. This home

base is the main position of where each person is standing on the

stage and typically should be centered around the singer at the

center. The guitar and bass players flank the singer in an equaldistance and depth on the stage (when possible). In the homebase position the singer typically stands in the front and center

and the other musicians hang back near the middle depth of the

stage. So with a 4-piece band the home position may look

something like a diamond shape (see below)

Obviously, the band is not going to stay in this position all thetime (that would be boring). For darker moments (such as a

mysterious verse part) perhaps everyone hangs back on the

stage in a ‘dark verse’ position (see next page).




During the chorus everyone may move back to home position 1.

During a final chorus (especially on the last song) many

professional bands use the ‘finale’ stage position where the band

is in the most powerful position. (See below)




Of course you can wander around the stage freely or in other set

formations for different feels and visual appeal, but there aresome basic ‘positions’ that always work to enhance the

performance for the audience. I suggest strongly to explore these

ideas, create your own and then make decisions for your songs -

what the main positions will be and when they will happen in thesong.

In addition, not all positions need to be symmetrical nor do they

need to look exactly like what we suggested above. These are

examples used by many professional bands.

What’s next?

1. Go through your set list and determine for each song what

positions (if any) you want to use for each part of the song.Ask yourself how placement on the stage might enhanceimportant moments. You can also determine which sections

of the song are best left free.

2. Label your main positions and write them down on paper

for each song on your set list.

3. REHEARSE these positions every time the band practices.Everyone should know when to be in what stage positions

and when it’s ok to move freely around and do other things.

This is what most professional bands do even though most

people (fans) have no idea that this is happening or thatthis is planned out, it just seems natural to the fans.

When our bands practice for our own tours we also include these

things in our band’s rehearsals, it makes the show better for the

fans.

Earlier we told you we would give you 2 solutions to overcomeyour main problem of audiences (in group 2) not ‘getting into

your music’. We gave you some good strategies to use in solution1. Now it’s time to give you solution 2…

In addition to ‘leading your audiences’, another (extremely

powerful) way you can overcome the problem of people nothaving heard your music before they see you play live, is to find




innovative ways to get those people to actually hear your songs

before they come to the show.

Remember, if they know your songs before they see you play,

they will enjoy your live show 100 times more.

Here are some of the innovative ways you can do this:

1. If tickets are being sold in advance, for a gig you are

playing at, have a largely printed invitation for anyone who

bought a ticket to come to a specific webpage (that is shortand easy to remember) and hear ‘samples’ of every song

you will be performing at the gig.

2. Wherever else the gigs are being promoted (online, offline,

at the venue, radio, etc.) always have a quick, short andEASY way for people to go to hear samples of every songyou are going to play at your upcoming gig… This needs to

be done not only on your website, but on any other

website, flyer or other promotional medium that otherpeople are distributing for the gig – including the other

bands who may be playing.

3. When playing with any other bands at any gig, get theircontact information right from the beginning (long before

you begin promoting the show). Then send them samples of

all your songs that you will playing. If any of these people

like your music, then they will tell their fans something likethis: “Hey, we are playing at ABC club and there is alsoanother cool band that has some great music”.

That makes their own fans more likely to come to the gig

than if they simply say this, ““Hey, we are playing at ABCclub.” Why? Because everyone knows that people who go to

local shows typically don’t like all the bands playing thatnight and it can be a negative thing for people to sit

through another band they don’t enjoy, but if the band theycame to see now endorses your band, and says they are

cool and have great music, the chances that more people

come and listen to you, like your music, and buy your stuff,

can only go up.




Samples of your music

We do not suggest simply giving away your entire album for free.

What we do suggest is to prepare ‘samples’ of every song. These

samples should start at the beginning of the song and continue

through the end of the first chorus.

That should be enough to give people a real sample of all the

main parts of your songs and to actually hear the parts in context

(that is very important)… This should be enough to make them

want to come see you and buy your records/merch before or atyour gigs.

Some bands have tried something similar in the past, but we

believe they had the wrong strategy. Most bands never sample

their set list, they sample the ‘band’ (a big mistake).

"What’s the difference?" you ask. The difference is marketing.

People who do not know you, do not care about you nor your

band (yet). They don’t want to hear samples of ‘your band’. Whatthey DO want to hear are samples of what you are asking them

to pay for, your songs. Why? Because they want to know if it’s

worth it for them to travel to some dirty club, filled withintoxicated people, pay to get in the door, wait for you to takethe stage, pay for overpriced drinks, then stand there for 90

minutes while you play your original music that they have never

heard before, then leave the club and drive home with their ears

ringing and a headache.

As you can see, you have a lot of ‘selling to do’ because it’s a lot

easier for them to stay at home and watch TV, sit on the

computer or just about anything else.

These samples of the actual songs you want them to come and

hear are very important.

You might ask us, ‘That sounds good, but why not simply givethem video samples of past gigs we have done? Wouldn’t that be

a better sample of what people will get?”




The answer is maybe, but probably no. How tight was that

performance in your last video recording? How perfect was themix? How boomy is the recording?

Our best guess is your audio recordings of the songs on your

album (or demo) will do a lot more to get the full impact (withperfect clarity) of the song into the listener’s head… and it is thatclarity (which is so important for them to remember so that they

can mentally ‘fill in the blanks’ from their memory of the song’s

recording as you play) that is so critical to these people to be

able to ‘get into your music’!

Is it worth it?

Are all these changes we are suggesting to you really worth the

extra effort required? Well, let’s review the facts and then youcan decide for yourself.

When you get as many people as possible to hear your songs

before your gigs and then lead your audiences at every gig, thisis what we found happens:

More people are more likely to come to your live shows.

People are more likely to actually arrive at the venue before

you begin to play, and they stay and don't leave before you

are done.

More people are more likely to bring their friends to see youbecause they can show their friends the samples of your

music in advance.

More people are finally able to mentally ‘fill in the blanks’ (from memory) about what the songs sound like but are not

so easy to hear live - which makes them love your musicmore.

More people are more likely to buy your merch (music, T-

shirts, posters. etc.)




Here’s the best part:

Do you remember when we said this to you?

“Let me guess, you want more people to

come see your band play live, right? … And you ask, “How can we get better gigs at

better venues, right? … Maybe you simply

want to get more gigs and make moremoney.”

Well, when more people begin to love your live shows and come

back to see you, guess what happens… Getting more people to

come to your future live shows becomes much easier because

the word-of-mouth buzz about your band will be great.

Club owners, booking agents and national acts will want you andgive you better gigs, more gigs and more money when your band

has such a powerful effect on audiences.

So knowing what you now know, it should make it clear that your

band’s number 1 priority (to make your live shows go well) is to

get your music in the hands of every person who comes to everygig as much as possible and then lead these audiences all night -every night. This should be a never-ending quest for you.

Your next step:

We (Alex, Tom and Draven) have been where you want to gowith your rock band. We know what it takes to go from where

you are now to where you want to be. From small clubs to bigger

clubs… From bigger clubs to 2,000 seat venues. From 2,000 seat

venues to 10,000+ seat arenas. Check out our Rock BandSuccess Coaching program now to take a big step towards

getting and being where you want to be.







© T H M i C ti

This e-book is under international copyrightprotection. It cannot be copied, sold, rented, loaned,

or distributed in any way whatsoever, without written

consent of the Tom Hess Music Corporation.

RBSC eBook How to Become a Better Live Band

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