Making Your Mark in Music: Stage Performance Secrets: Behind the Scenes of Artistic Development

Copyright © 2011 by Anika Paris

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, without written permission, except by a newspaper or magazine reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages in connection with a review.

Published in 2011 by Hal Leonard Books

An Imprint of Hal Leonard Corporation

7777 West Bluemound Road

Milwaukee, WI 53213

Trade Book Division Editorial Offices

33 Plymouth St., Montclair, NJ 07042

Permissions can be found at the end of the book, which constitutes an extension of this copyright page.

Book design by Michael Kellner

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Paris, Anika.

Making your mark in music: stage performance secrets / Anika Paris.

p. cm.

ISBN 978-1-61774-227-9 (pbk.)

1. Music–Vocational guidance. 2. Music–Performance. I. Title.

ML3795.P34 2011

781.4'3-dc23

2011026681

www.halleonard.com

To all who gave me music:

my family,

my teachers,

my colleagues,

my students,

and

my Dean

CONTENTS

PART I: From the Inside Out

Chapter 1

Finding You: Capturing What Is Already There

Chapter 2

Bridging the Gap Between Audience and Stage: Casting Yourself

Chapter 3

Three Points of View: Your Lyric Is Your Conversation

Chapter 4

Using the Chakras: Pairing the Physical and the Emotional

PART II: Dress Rehearsal

Chapter 5

Designing Your Set: What Do Your Songs Say About You?

Chapter 6

Between the Music: Stories and Anecdotes

Chapter 7

Finding Your Fashion Muse: Shopping in Your Closet

Chapter 8

Designing a Signature Sound: Your Band and You

Chapter 9

Technically Speaking: Things Every Singer Should Know

PART III: Lights, Camera, Action!

Chapter 10

The Camera Versus the Stage: Big or Small or No One at All

Chapter 11

The Interview: Tips on How to Keep Us Tuned In

PART IV: The Industry

Chapter 12

Behind the Desk: An A&R’s Take on It All

PART V: Putting It All Together

Chapter 13

Following Your Journey: Summing Up

Acknowledgments

Appendix A

Appendix B

DVD-ROM Track Listing

NOTE

BONUS: Techniques from chapters 3, 4, 6, and 9 are included on the DVD that comes with this book. You can see examples of before and after (with the interview, the musical performance, and the art of conversation that you will create for yourself), and how applying my unique techniques will enhance your performance.

PREFACE

It was a Saturday morning in September, and the rain was pouring down outside my Greenwich Village apartment. I was subletting the place from my parents’ best friend, renowned composer, conductor, and musician David Amram, and paying only $100.00 a month. I would sleep in the loft and wake up every morning to practice the baby grand piano in the middle of the living room. I was in my own little heaven. The neighbors, on the other hand, were probably going crazy hearing the same songs over and over again, accompanied by children playing at recess in PS 41’s playground, the courtyard our tenement apartment overlooked. My brother Paul Peress and I had formed a band, Double Exposure, and we had just booked our first gig at The Bitter End. I had played a few talent shows, in living rooms for all my friends and family, and even recorded demos in the studio. But, this was my first real show and our New York City debut, with a guest list of over one hundred. I panicked. I didn’t have a coach or a mentor, and I needed guidance. I remember grabbing my umbrella and walking to the neighborhood library looking for some comfort in a book on performance by an artist with experience—and perhaps some good advice for me. I asked the clerk if there were any books on stage performance for singer-songwriters. He was thin and tall, dressed in gray, matching our overcast day, wearing wire-rimmed glasses and a wee bit of an attitude.

What kind of music is it? he asked.

Pop rock music. I’m in a band and we have our first show, I exclaimed.

Rock music? he responded with a dismissive shaking of the head. Oh no, I think not. I was alone with my anxiety, with no one to help me, teach me, or ease my worry. And, I never found the book. I went on to perform for years, through the fear, and made oodles of mistakes along the way, all part of being in the world of entertainment. I had a vocal coach and feedback from friends, but still I wish I’d had a mentor. And to this day, I have found only one book about stage performance from a songwriter’s point of view and seen very little about stage performance for musicians on film. After teaching songwriting and performance for the past ten years at Musicians Institute in Hollywood, California, helping hundreds of students find their way and develop their true artistry, I decided to write this book and film the DVD.

This is a personal undertaking in that I, too, suffered from severe stage fright, as many of us do. I don’t believe it will ever completely go away, but I believe that one learns to work through it and that it lessens over time. I walked away from performing music at one point in my career to become a standup comedian. Talk about breaking down the wall. People would heckle me in the clubs, and I had to learn to win them over. Standup was like training in the boxing ring without gloves on. I guess I’ve always been more comfortable making people laugh than having them listen to me sing. How boring, how sad, how naked I felt. On the flip side, I am naturally playful, and learned an incredible amount about myself and the audience by doing standup. Soon, I began incorporating original comedy songs and imitating my favorite artists during my set. Ironically, I won an ASCAP songwriting award for a parody I wrote, called I Want a Man with Muscles. We shot the music video with me wearing an eight-inch beehive hairdo, and 12 bodybuilders in bikinis dancing around me. It was a spoof making fun of glam metal rock bands, portraying supermodels as eye candy, set decoration, and for some strange reason straddling sports cars in every music video. Only this time, it was the men’s turn to be exploited. Still, throughout it all, I somehow separated the songs of my heart from my cerebral comic material. Something remained missing.

When I went back into music full-time, I remained primarily a studio musician and began working with writing partner and producer Dean Landon. And when shopping our songs and demos, people wanted to know who was singing on them and, accidentally on purpose, I landed my first record deal. I then had to take the studio-recorded songs to the stage. I had to wear them like a coat, break them in, and make them mine. And even though I wrote them, understanding who I was as an artist and how I could best deliver these songs to an audience was challenging.

Over time, I learned that talking with the audience, making them laugh between numbers, and then sharing my heartfelt songs were all part of the same conversation. I finally brought my entire self onto the stage, instead of leaving her in the dressing room until after the show. I was present. Since then I’ve toured internationally, recorded three additional records, sang on national television and in concert stadiums, all part of a whole new and exciting world.

We write songs, but the art of performing them is an entirely different beast. Some artists are naturals at it, some should remain songwriters, and some can really flourish over time with a true understanding of what it is they are doing. Take away the piano we hide behind, take away the guitar we hug, move the mic stand we hold on to for dear life, and let the real conversation with the audience begin.

If you’re reading this book, I wrote it to help you avoid spending as much time as I did, worrying and searching, and to grant you more time to bring beauty into the world with your music for audiences that await you.

PART I

FROM THE INSIDE OUT

1

FINDING YOU

Capturing What’s Already There

Music is love in search of a voice.

—LEO TOLSTOY

In this chapter I am going to help you find the treasures you already hold. You’ve chosen a profession that is about performing. Maybe you didn’t start with that in mind. It’s a very strange thing to do, getting up onstage and saying, Hey, everyone—look at me! As a songwriter, my songs came from a less than happy place at first. They were more a reflection of my being an outcast in junior high, feeling angry and unheard in the world, and even getting heartbroken for the first time. I’d sit at the piano pouring my heart out and write a song about my plight. All artists’ way of purging, one might say, is a form of therapy. So the very idea of taking that up onstage to share with the world—are you kidding me?

Truthfully, name one person who hasn’t felt the emotions behind any of the subjects we write about: love, elation, anger, fear, loss, loneliness…And if you take a closer look, we perform in our everyday lives without even knowing it. Consider what’s going on when you dress up for the day, ask for something you want, go out on a date, or walk into a party—you are performing. You have an intention, a mood, and a goal in mind that your interaction with other people will result in. When you participate in your everyday life, you are playing a part. You have an on switch and an off switch that you can fully access.

THE ON SWITCH. These are the times when you think, I want to look good today, "I need him to say yes, I want to fall in love, I’m in the mood for a good time"—and your performance light turns on. We all know from experience what works for us: we know how to get what we want. When I’m feeling good, I put that energy out there, and end up having a good day. When I’m in a bad mood, I get caught in a traffic jam behind some slow car, and many obstacles build up throughout the day, because I’m enabling them.

THE OFF SWITCH. This occurs when we are inside our own thoughts and minds. We spend most of our time preoccupied with our to-do lists, in internal dialogue, and are often unaware of how we come across to others. Has anyone ever asked you if you are okay, when nothing was wrong? But for some reason, an expression on your face or something about your body language may have imparted the message that you were upset. And you most likely responded, I’m fine; you were probably just deep in thought and not thinking about how you came across to the world.

THE SWITCH YOU CANNOT USE. Your friends and family can read you like a book, because they know you. There are characteristics about you that are apparent to everyone else, though perhaps not to you.

So let’s find out how much you know about yourself, and how you come across to others. Here are a few points of basic etiquette. All these things will apply to your everyday life as well as your stage persona and your journey through the music industry. Let’s start at the very beginning.

MAKING AN IMPRESSION. Making an impression is an important opportunity you are given every day. How can you make a positive impact on others? We all know someone who has amazing charisma and seems to be liked by everyone. They light up a room when they enter. They make you feel good. What do they do to create this attractive energy? Here are some tips.

BODY LANGUAGE. A person generally knows in four seconds how they feel about you. Our body language speaks louder than words. And we all