Nothing can prepare you for live performance (except for…)

Written By Freya Astrella

Whether it’s an open mic night or Wembley Stadium, all performers know the same thing – that performing live is a heightened experience.

And this is exactly why you can never truly prepare for it. Or can they?…

When you’re performing live, you’re confronted with so many variables: you sound louder/different, the audience is indifferent/judgemental, it’s too late/too hot, you’re hungry/you’re tired.  

And I’ve not even mentioned anything about NERVES yet. Oh, how nerves can cause our voice to clam up, and cause our fingers to literally have a mind of their own.  

Body-mind coordination? What’s that, when you’re standing onstage under a spotlight?! 

Bomb or flow? 

Performers often respond in one of two ways: they either bomb or ascend into a flow state. 

The feeling of bombing is crucifying. You panic, your breath shortens, your palms sweat, your face flushes, your ‘monkey-mind’ goes into overdrive, and you start second-guessing everything.  

Before you know it, you’ve forgotten the lyrics, cracked on the high notes, fluffed your playing, and crashed into the curb, destroying any remaining fragments of self-esteem. And best of all, everyone knows.  

However, the feeling of flow is ecstatic. Your field of vision widens, you teeter courageously on the edge of your abilities, your voice expands, and you stop narrating the experience – you simply observe the present moment. 

Here’s a quick definition of flow state: a mental state in which a person is completely focused on a single task or activity. They are directing all of their attention toward the task, and they do not experience many thoughts about themselves or their performance. Some people refer to this informally as being “in the zone.” 

Sounds good, so how do you guarantee flow state over bombing?  

Practice makes perfect, and practice makes permanent 

The answer is pretty boring, I’m afraid. The only thing that will save you is practice.  

And I don’t mean the “last-minute cramming before an exam” type of practice.  

I mean conscious and challenging practice, spanning many months or years; practice that pushes your limits and forces you to fail. 

Hey, don’t blame me – this is what the experts say. Just read Bounce by Matthew Syed or Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. 

In short, proper practice over a period of time, downloads your learning in your long-term memory storage. And every time to recall those memories, you strengthen those neural pathways. 

Your long-term memory requires no ‘active thinking’, like how short-term memory does. For example, say your phone number out loud right now, then try to remember the ‘5839507’ after having your eyes closed for 20 seconds. See the difference in brain power? 

This is key for accessing flow state. How can you enter flow state if you're actively trying to remember what lyric comes next or which particular vocal technique to employ for the imminent high note. 

In very simple terms, to get into flow state, you must rely on the ‘feeling/intuition’ part of your brain. Not the ‘thinking’ part of your brain. 

Trust your instinct  

For example, pro tennis players move to hit the ball before it’s been served by their opponent because they can ‘sense’ where the ball will go. And people (apparently) jump before they’ve even realised they’ve seen a snake on the ground. 

I have an unfortunate cautionary tale to confirm this theory…

I was at college and had just stepped on stage to perform a solo song recital. I was accompanied by my music teacher, who did ask whether I wanted to take the lyrics on stage. I confidently said no, knowing that I knew this song like the back of my hand – it was all I had sung for months. 

I stood on an empty black stage, under the glare of a single white spotlight. And while my music teacher was gracefully playing the introduction on piano, I spent those critical few moments trying to recall the first line of the lyrics.  

And then my ‘thinking’ brain switched on and started narrating the situation: “Oh no, what are the words? Oh no, oh no, oh no...” 

Before I knew it, I let out a few garbled words, and I felt all the life drain out of my body. Thankfully, my teacher sang the next line with me and therefore saved the entire performance. 

That was a classic example of not trusting yourself, and overriding your long-term memory system with the neurotic maniac that is your ‘thinking’ brain – AKA your ‘monkey-mind’.  

Practical practice advice for singers and musicians 

With that terrifying story out of the way, I assume you’re all aboard the long-term memory train. 

So, let's talk about how we build up our long-term memory bank. What exactly do you have to do, and how often?

Here are some practice tips that I genuinely live by: 

Short and often 

One of my favourite singing teachers introduced me to the term “focussed limited practice (FLP)”.  

This means that you commit to practicing for a super short period of time, literally as short as five minutes. You set the alarm, so you stop when you say you’re going to stop. And you do this as often as you can commit to, such as once a day. 

It’s important to set out the FLP schedule in a way that you can COMMIT to it. This way, practice becomes an accessible and digestible thing to do.  

Instead of being overwhelmed or out of time, FLP leaves you with no excuses. Plus, FLP re-programs your attitude towards practice, from thinking about it as a chore to welcoming it into your daily routine. 

Chunk the difficult sections 

I know that you would much prefer to spend your practice doing the easy stuff because it feels pretty good. But you won’t get better if you don’t dial in on the difficult details.  

Most songs have sections that are that little bit more tricky. So, why waste your precious time repeating the same easy verses? To maximise your effort, spend more time on the difficult parts. 

For example, if that ‘money note’ is alluding you and your voice keeps cracking, zoom in and find out what the problem is.  

If you don’t, you’ll spend every recital of that song quaking in your boots, knowing that you’re gonna meet your vocal nemesis in the final bar of the bridge.  

So, dissect the problem area, separate the lyrics from the melody, and assess the vowel shapes as well as your vocal technique. It’s a mystery you need to solve before you can stop ‘thinking’ about it.   

Walk away when you get frustrated 

Practice can be so infuriating and illogical! Why, why, why do our bodies misbehave? How come you could sing that song perfectly yesterday but not today?! Gahhhhhhh!!!

The problem with singing is that WE are the instrument. Perhaps you didn’t sleep well, perhaps you’re getting ill, perhaps you’ve just had a stressful phone call, perhaps it’s ‘time of the month’. There are sooooo many reasons for your voice to misfire.  

Sometimes, you just need to call it quits and return to your practice another time. If you don’t, you’ll probably end up over-working, tensing up, and making everything so much worse.  

If you’re intent on practicing, what else could you do to work on your singing? 

You could do some gentle bodywork or a visualisation meditation. Or you could write out cheat sheets to learn your lyrics. Or you could brainstorm a marketing campaign for your next single. Or you could find some inspirational singing videos on YouTube.  

Sleep on it 

Sleep is now widely accepted as THE most important thing a human being can do. And when it comes to memory and learning, sleep is miraculous. (I highly recommend Matthew Walker’s book Why We Sleep for a deep dive into the science of sleep.) 

Firstly, sleep deletes the ‘recycling bin’ of your mind, getting rid of any ‘files’ you may no longer need (ie, short term memory). This therefore creates more storage space for future files. 

Secondly, sleep helps to ‘save’ new information (ie, long term memory).  

Thirdly, sleep also helps to improve so-called ‘muscle memory’ which is a slightly inaccurate term to describe the embodied knowledge of an action (for example, driving on autopilot).  

If you’re struggling with something in your practice session, I guarantee you’ll nail it after a good night’s sleep! 

Visualise/pretend/journal 

You can perform in your mind before you’ve even set foot on stage. And you can do this in a few ways.  

You can sit down for a ten-minute meditation in which you play out the scenario in your mind. But be sure to visualise the absolute best-case scenario, not the worst! Imagine yourself confidently walking towards the stage, stepping up to the microphone, and hearing the audience’s rapturous applause. Then enjoy sitting with that warm, glowing feeling. 

You can also write about the scenario, as a form of ‘manifestation’. Or you can do a little bit of ‘Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)’ on yourself whereby you write out all your fears then respond to each fear with logical solutions. The CBT strategy can help to quieten an anxious mind and help you feel equipped for any outcome.  

I also highly recommend you practice a dress/technical rehearsal, either at home or in a rehearsal room. For example, if you have a five-song set at a local festival, perform the set, in full and in the correct order. Ideally, properly amplified and wearing the exact outfit you plan to wear. 

This pretend-play version of your set will leave nothing to chance and will highlight any little issues that you may not have thought of (for example, a long necklace clanging against your guitar, or how the key of song #1 causes you to go pitchy in song #2).

Trust yourself 

Finally, as demonstrated in my poor little college story, I encourage you to trust yourself. Do the work, put in the practice, and let it go! 

I hope this helps you prepare for your next live performance! If so, I would love to hear about it. You’ve got this! Go share your talent with the world! 

This blog was written by Freya Astrella, an expert vocal coach in East Sussex, UK.

Freya is a bonafide vocal technique expert and is one of the only teachers in the region to have gained Estill Voice certification. Freya holds a First Class BA(hons) in Professional Musicianship, a VocalTech Diploma, and a Master’s Degree in Vocal Performance. She is currently undertaking the Vocal Process teacher training course.

Freya has taught all ages and abilities at BIMM, Access To Music, The Academy of Music And Sound, TheatreTrain, Stagecoach, and The Rock Project. She currently coaches at Rhapsody Artist Development in Seaford. Furthermore, Freya was a lead writer for VoiceCouncil.com, which was the biggest online resource for singers.

Freya Astrella
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