Performance Assessment One

DO IT.

During the performance, we (me, Joey, Levi and Camryn) performed our first real performance as a band (Due Diligence) in the auditorium. We performed All The Small Things, You're Not Alone (our original), and Hotel California. I was playing the guitar while Joey played the bass, Levi played the drums and Camryn sang the songs.

What?

We went on stage third and managed to get ourselves acquainted with the equipment fairly easily and quickly. Our set began in the blink of an eye, however, we experienced a timing issue during the count-in of the first song. Despite this drawback, we all managed to recover almost immediately and proceeded with our first song, All The Small Things. 

All The Small Things went quite well, in my opinion. Our next song was our original, You're Not Alone, which was also a success. The only retrospective gripe I have with the song was the start, where my guitar was not loud enough - this was not really our fault though, nor the fault of the sound tech; it was simply an unforeseeable issue.

Our final song was Hotel California, which we had already been practicing for a few weeks beforehand. I admit to making a few mistakes during the solo, however, I swiftly recovered and, in the public, I don't think many of them would've noticed.

We definitely could have had more stage presence, moving around and interacting with each other.

So What?

I think if we continue conducting regular performances, a lot of the mistakes can be minimised - I think they all were rooted in stage anxiety.

My influence towards the outcome included playing the guitar and signalling towards Levi when I was ready to start Hotel California. This can be seen with the thumbs up signal I gave Levi.

We managed to minimise the downtime between songs, which I think was congruent to maintaining the pace of the show.

Now What?

In the future, we can work on our stage presence by coordinating stage moves and rehearsing speeches. That being said, I think our stage presence will also improve as we become more confident through the completion of more shows.

Another improvement I could make would be familiarising myself with the equipment, namely the amplifier, before the performance. This would allow me to adjust the levels on my side and extract a more suitable tone.