Quote Of The Day:
“I’m an entertainer. If people are paying good money for tickets they deserve the best show they can see. I don’t get into lighting stuff on fire, but I do believe in going the extra mile”. – Bryan White
Now that you have rehearsed your show for months; endings are tight, vocals are rockin’, and you have the right guitar tone, is there anything else you can do to take the show up another notch? You bet. How about adding a little bling to your stage set up.
In my ten years of touring, one of the things we tried hard to do was add some stage décor to make the stage look interesting. It wasn’t huge, but you’d be amazed at how a few purchases from a store like IKEA can make your stage look ever so cool. One time, two of our band members missed the first set of our two-set concert due to a cancelled flight. We knew we were going to have to perform acoustically for the first set, so we quickly found a thrift store that let us rent a fabulous Persian rug, some antique lamps and stools to help create the right vibe for an acoustic set. We loved it so much and it went over so well that we worked it into our show that tour. In fact, every time we started a new tour, we wanted to change the look of our stage set up to keep it interesting for our fans who would come to see us time and time again. It doesn’t have to be over the top (a la Roger Waters’ “The Wall” setup) or extravagantly expensive. Use your imagination to create a look on stage that is reflective of who you are as an artist and what you are all about. Thrift and vintage stores, garage sales and yes, IKEA are all great places to find inexpensive items to create a look on stage that will leave your audience impressed that you went the extra mile to make it both an audio and visual experience for them. (One little note… if you think that creating scarecrow size versions of yourself as part of the stage décor is cool, don’t do it. Those poor little kids that ran screaming from our show are still in therapy – LOL).
Another way to create some cool vibes on stage is to incorporate lighting. When we finally got to do concerts on the theatre circuit, we were able to enhance the stage décor with great lighting to help project the emotions or situations we were singing about to our audience. One of my favourite tour memories is a little French Café scene complete with a bistro set, checkered table cloth and candle on the table we set up in the dark at the side of the stage. I looked forward to that lilting French song every night when we lit up the little café corner and sang to an accordion (how often do you hear someone looking forward to singing to an accordion – LOL), but it took our audience on a little stroll down the Champs Elysees with us. So simple, yet so effective. Lighting can be used to create drama, eeriness, love, fury – all emotions we could possibly be singing with during the course of a concert. If you are fortunate enough to be playing a venue with great lighting and a tech, put a little thought into making it work for you to help the show look as good as it sounds.
Until next time… Breathe and Happy Singing!
Angela
p.s. – I am stoked to announce a special summer sale on my digital 5 Point Singing System vocal program. Go to http://5pointsingingsystem.com/live/manual-001d/ to get a discount of over 50% because I want you to have this wealth of vocal knowledge! It will be the best $39.00 you ever spent on your voice. I guarantee it!
www.angelakelman.com
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