Arts & Entertainment, Music

Out of the Studio, Onto the Stage

Lesson time 13:07 min

Learn how to deliver an unforgettable live performance. Get concrete tips, including when to eat before performing and why you should be gracious on stage.

Students give MasterClass an average rating of 4.7 out of 5 stars

Topics include: Performance Tips · Touring “Masseduction”

St. Vincent

Teaches Creativity and Songwriting

Explore your creative process and embrace vulnerability with St. Vincent, the Grammy-winning, genre-defying artist and performer.

Preview

[00:00:00.00] [MUSIC PLAYING] [00:00:08.88] - If you're on a stage, it is a performance. People are watching you. People are listening to you. They're coming to go someplace else for an hour and a half. It's your job to take them there and go there with them. I just like to acknowledge that, and then control what I can control in the performance to make it the best possible experience for the audience. [00:00:34.55] You get to bring in everything that you love into one place, the visual art side, the movement side, obviously, the music. That's first and foremost. The conceptual. You know, that's the place where you get to create an entire world on a stage for an hour and a half to two hours for people. That's the best, and there's no reason not to just embrace that fully and make it anything you want it to be. [00:01:02.84] By the time the audience sees the show, it's very well-rehearsed. The lights are in order. Certainly as things go on, it gets more and more well-oiled. But I don't think an audience should pay to watch you figure things out. I think they should pay to see a show. [00:01:21.17] [MUSIC PLAYING] [00:01:24.42] Performance tips. I have so many. And I have so many because I have done things so wrong so many times. So eating. When to eat to have energy for the show, but not be lethargic. Eat four hours before the show. That is enough time to digest, not feel bloated, have enough energy, and have your brain back and functioning. That's one. [00:01:58.73] Two, a lot of times you'll see, oh, no, so-and-so canceled the tour because they've lost their voice from singing. You don't lose your voice from singing. You lose your voice from partying. You lose your voice because you went to the after party, and you're like, yeah, thank you so much, oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Talking is the thing that will do it. [00:02:22.57] Singing. Sing all day. You'll be fine. Singing-- your voice is a muscle, and like all muscles, it can be trained. It can be worked out. I mean, when I'm, like, in the middle of tour, it's like the difference between, you know, being scrawny and being s bodybuilder. Like it's just there. It's there because I'm using it all the time. So warm up your muscles a little bit before you play. That's good, before you sing. [00:02:50.94] If you're a player, warm up a little bit. Even just holding the guitar for me before I play, it just does something to my body where it centers me. And singing before I play, it's centering. And if you don't want to do, like, standard vocal warm-ups and that kind of stuff. Sing songs you like. Sing songs that you like with your friends backstage. Harmonize. Just be in music before you go out on stage. Don't go out cold. That's hard. [00:03:16.62] You want to be so well-rehearsed and so fluid in your body and not holding any tension when you play that you can lose yourself in it when you're actually playing. You want to be so rehearsed that you're not thinking, oh, shoot, is the bridge coming up? W...

About the Instructor

Under the stage name St. Vincent, Annie Clark has won Grammys while remaining fiercely innovative and true to herself. Now Annie is opening the door to her process to teach you how to explore your creativity. Learn how to record music, write songs, improve your guitar skills, and embrace your vulnerability. Let Annie guide you through the ups and downs of creating art so you can share what’s in your heart with the world.

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St. Vincent

Explore your creative process and embrace vulnerability with St. Vincent, the Grammy-winning, genre-defying artist and performer.

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