5 Things you Learn from Performing Music

Everyone wants to play music to perform. Performance plays an important part in learning your instrument and can teach you a lot of things that you need to do to become a better musician. Here are a few things you can expect to learn from your performances.

1. Band dynamics

The best part about performance is that you play with your peers or fellow musicians. Performing is a team sport and everyone has to be on the same wavelength to be able to put up a solid performance. Everyone should understand each other’s roles and what they bring to the performance. That is why practice is such an important part of performance. Song dynamics, sound level and tightness are the things that you work on during the jam sessions. Understand your role in each of your performances and executing them along with your bandmates will lead to a satisfying performance.

2. Use of techniques

You have been practicing your technique and now it is time to showcase them. It is during these performances that you understand how it actually sounds with everyone and adjust it according to what the song needs. It should not be too overpowering and neither should it be lost in all the noise. Finding the right settings, tone and volume beforehand is important to get the best of your instrument or voice. The techniques used should be able to enhance and complement the song and other instrument that is being played and not the other way around.

3. Stage Presence

Performance is not just about showing your skills. It is also about engaging the crowd. If you are too focused on playing/singing, the audience will never be able to connect with your performance. Learn few tricks to engage the crowd. Make eye contact. If you can engage them you feel their energy and it gives a different dynamic to your performance. It is important that you make your presence felt, not just with your playing but with communication and showmanship.

4. Feedback

Learn to take honest feedback from your bandmates or the audience. After the show, listen to how they felt about your performance. In fact, make sure you record your show and play it back. Be an honest critique of yourself and see where do you need to improve and what could you have done better. Learn from each performance and strive to do a better performance next time. Performance is all about getting your audience back again and if you can work on what they have to say, they will surely return to hear your improvements.

5. Confidence

Everyone gets nervous when they get on stage, especially the first few times. So, by figuring out the things that made you nervous and correcting your mistakes, you will become more confident each time. Everyone has a few tricks that calms them down and everyone deals with it differently. So, you have to find your mantra and exercise them before you get on the stage. Being confident is a key factor to showcase your skills efficiently. Nervousness can kill your performance and the audience can feel it. Always show your skills with authority, even if your performance is not entirely perfect.

BlueTimbre is a unique Music Company that provides Music Education and  Recording Studio services. BlueTimbre also works with schools to provide end-to-end Music Education solutions for schools. 

The BlueTimbre team comes with decades of cumulative experience in running Structured Businesses, Music Curriculum Development, Music Education and Performance.

4 Reasons Why Practicing your Scales and Technical Concepts are Important

Every riff you play, every tune you hear in a song has a technique behind it and it sounds the way it does because of the use of different concepts that allows a certain tune to have a distinct character. To sound good you have to follow certain rules, thus it is important that you put an effort in understanding your theory properly. Here, we will give you some of the reasons why it is so important to know your theory.

1. Strong Foundation

As you must have heard from numerous source, it is crucial to have your basics strong to be able to get the best out of yourself in higher stages. The best way to have a strong foundation is to practice scales and work on the techniques that you have been taught in the beginning stages. It will get your limbs playing or your vocal chords accustomed to your instrument and develop an instinctive memory in your muscles which will help you long way. As you build up your basics with scales, you will be able to experiment different variations which will make you more skilled musically.

2. Accuracy and Speed

For any instrumentalist it is very important to play your notes cleanly which basically requires accuracy in your playing. Since scales are the most basic sequence you can play on an instrument, it gives you the platform to give feedback to yourself and even evaluate yourself as you will know exactly how it should sound on your instrument. Due to this easily understandable sequence it is also the best tool to improve your speed on your instrument. Different scales require different shifts and alteration of your fingers, thus your muscle will respond to the memory you have developed with practice and will help you to execute in faster tempos. However, you should slowly increase the speed in your playing so that you don’t do any basics wrong.

3. To play in a band

Let’s say you have formed a band which has  a keyboardist, a vocalist, guitars and drums. To start at a common point, everyone has to know the scale on which you are trying to play a song in or else it will sound like a mess. Similarly you have to be able to play along the beat so that you don’t sound like you are all over the place. To have a chemistry within the band and to be tight in your playing, you have to know your scales and other basic concepts. More you are accustomed to your theory, there will be more scope for your band to play more genres, styles and advanced music.

4. Sound Unique

Techniques are used to make a certain note sound a little different which adds dynamic to the song. Dynamic plays a very important role in songs as it make it sound more whole and make it much less monotonous. So if you want to sound like your idols or want to stand out from the crowd, you have to work on your dynamic which are basically your techniques. Take references from your idol or from your mentor on how to best use the techniques to sound technically and musically correct while also adding a lot of character to the sound of your instrument. Work on the technical concepts very consciously as it is of utmost important that you get the basic of each and every technique right in order to sound the best.

BlueTimbre is a unique Music Company that provides Music Education and  Recording Studio services. BlueTimbre also works with schools to provide end-to-end Music Education solutions for schools. 

The BlueTimbre team comes with decades of cumulative experience in running Structured Businesses, Music Curriculum Development, Music Education and Performance.