You need to be able to play or sing your stuff well. That doesn’t mean you need to be a virtuoso, but you do need to be able to do your material justice. And that means you need to practice.

A lot.

Here are 2 killer advantages to being well-rehearsed.

 More brain-space for musicality

Research shows that multi-tasking stresses us out. And music is a highly multithreaded operation. We have to play in time, in tune and with emotional connection – it’s a whole-brain experience.

And that means, the more we can make the mechanics of playing like riding a bike – virtually unconscious – the more space that leaves us for the important bit – the emotion and musicality

More brain-space for for confidence

There’s nothing worse than a hesitant, tentative performance – and there’s nothing better than confidence and assurance. The weakest material can bring the house down when performed with power and conviction – I’m sure you can think of an example or two : )

And following on from the previous point, that same part of the brain that handles multi-tasking is also the part that can calm our nerves when we’re nervous or stressed – like, when we suddenly put a microphone in front of oursleves, and every tiny flaw in our performance is analysed in microscopic detail, just for example.

The solution ? Practice. The less our brains are thinking about the mechanics of performance, the more energy we can devote to playing and singing with confidence and conviction.

Im starting to put up some loops, which can be found by clicking the banner below.  Check them out and let me know what you think…  I’ll be putting more up in the near future.