In this episode, Jared seeks advice on putting on a concert and shares his nervousness about performing in a concert setting. He discusses his upcoming public show and invites listeners to provide tips via email. Jared reflects on the importance of embracing challenges and learning from failure. He plans to research successful bands and concerts for stage banter inspiration and emphasizes the need to add a unique touch. He concludes by expressing his willingness to record the concert and provide updates.

"I think one of my biggest assets is my willingness and ability to learn new things."

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What's up giving persons Jared judge, welcome to another episode of The Gigging Musician Podcast.

Today, I'm going to do something a little different. And I'm going to ask you for advice. Because in about a week and a half, I have a public show, which, if you have been listening to many of these episodes, you know, I don't do very many public shows.

But I got this public show, a couple of months back, might have even been late last year, I don't remember exactly when the contract was signed. But this is a town is hosting, like a Friday in the park kind of event.

And the they hired me as their electric violin performer. And it's more like a concert setup. Which I don't do that many concerts. I mainly am a private event performer. So I'm not entirely sure what to expect.

I'm going into this a little bit scared and nervous. But I will figure it out anyway. That's why I'm asking you for advice. Like, how the heck do you put on a concert.

And maybe this is just an episode for me to kind of think through that, what what shifts do I need to make in order to make this a successful concert. And you know, hopefully, you'll be my brainstorming partner.

And if you have any advice and tips, please feel free to email me Jared@BookLive.com, I would love to hear them.

But anyway, so it's going to be a concert, the people that are coming is, you know, families, and some of them might be lawn chairs, there's gonna be food vendors, maybe drink vendors, and I think it's gonna be a fun, family friendly atmosphere, I will be supplying my own PA system.

And then I think I've got about two hours of performance, you know, take a break in between the two. So 245 minutes, that's roughly.

And I guess, I'm going to have to do some stage banter, which, you know, I have a background as a classical musician, violinist, viola player, conductor. And as a classical musician, you typically don't do stage banter.

If you've ever been to a classical concert, you know that oftentimes, there's no talking at all. It's just, Let's appreciate the music. And, you know, typically, it's classical music.

But with my electric violin act, I don't really play classical music, I play mostly, you know, covers, it's kind of like karaoke, or play a lot of, I would say, some top 40s. But, you know, classic rock, a bunch of bunch of genres.

And I think it's a good show, people have told me, it's a very entertaining act. But I'm just worried that if I get up on stage, and don't talk to people don't do any stage banter, it'll be kind of an awkward show.

Or maybe people won't notice I'm not sure. But either way, I think I want to have some stage banter. Obviously, I am comfortable speaking to people, you know, this is the podcast, after all, that's the main thing that we do here.

And I do have experience as a elementary school music teacher, which I think might come in handy, as I try to, you know, entertain people. So I'm sure you know, at the beginning of the concert, I'll get on the mic, introduce myself, or maybe I'll start with with a song, I think that's probably the better way is just start with playing.

And then after that, is when they get on the mic, introduce myself, thanking them for for coming. And just to kind of explain what they're going to hear. And then play, I think it's okay, if I do mostly music.

And then, yeah, probably, maybe in between some of the songs I might like, introduce some of the songs, or, you know, what I really should do is I should research stage banter. You know, what do people do for that?

Because that's kind of my approach in all situations is like, I do put myself into situations where I can fail, where I could fail at the stage manager thing, it could be completely awkward, but I'm going to do it anyway.

So that's one of my big philosophies in life is just, even if you're scared or nervous, just do it anyway. Because either you'll, you'll figure it out, or you'll fail. And there's nothing really wrong with failing.

Like, it just means you had a learning experience. Sure, there might be some short term pain associated with being embarrassed about failing. But at the end of the day, I don't think it's gonna have any long term impact, which gives me the freedom to not be as nervous or scared going into it.

Because I knew nothing really bad is gonna happen. No one's gonna say, Oh, your stage banter sucked, and then hold a knife to my throat. So anyway, once once I got the mindset in that like, even if I fail, it's not that bad.

Then comes like the learning phase. I think I mentioned this yesterday. Like, I think one of my biggest assets is my work. willingness and ability to learn new things. So that's when you go into research mode, and hungry to go on YouTube.

I'm gonna search Google a lot, and probably watch a bunch of videos of successful bands, and watch a bunch of concepts, which actually sounds pretty fun. And just start to model it, take some notes on that.

Heck, I could probably even use chat GPT to come up with some stage banter. But I don't want it to sound memorized. And like, you know, not off the cuff, I want it to sound improvised in like a conversational tone with the audience.

So I'm not gonna go too hard on writing a script for myself, but just kind of bullet point ideas based on the videos that I watch. And then I might practice a little bit, you know, just say some of those words out loud, see how they feel.

And then maybe, as I'm practicing my music, in between songs, practice with a little bit of stage banter. So that's when you get from the learning phase, to the implementation phase. And, yeah, I feel like, it'll be okay.

I definitely welcome your advice. And I will 100% let you know how it goes. I might even record it, just so we can have an archive of it. And that actually be pretty cool having a having some real concert footage, because I think I would like to do more of these public shows.

But there is definitely a bit of nervousness holding me back from doing them. Plus, you know, they have a reputation for not paying that well. And I'm not necessarily in the business of building fan bases. I want to get paid.

So I'll let you know how it goes. But I hope this was helpful even think through how I think through a process in my mind. But it all starts from this place this mindset of being willing to fail and fail fast.

Because really nothing that bad will actually happen. It'll be totally okay. Even if I do fail and totally screw up on stage. So yeah, fail fast.

Then go into learning mode, find some models of who's doing it successfully, break apart what they're doing it, analyze it, even take some notes that might even transcribe their stage banter. And then try implementing it yourself.

And even if, like, I don't want to be exact replicas of the people I see. That's where you got to put your own unique spin on it. But that kind of is the three step process for everything is Be okay with failing, find a model, learn what they're doing.

And then do some of it yourself with your own unique spin. Cool. All right. Well, thank you so much for being my brainstorming partner today. Yeah, listen to how it goes.

Thanks for tuning in to another episode of The Gigging Musician Podcast. Remember, "You are just one gig away!".