Marialis (
Cuba
)
My band’s first live concert – Marialis goosebump moment
“Hello. I am Marialis and I come from Cuba. My goosebump moment was when I was on my first live concert performance. It was in a local theater here in my city, in 2017. I remember, there were too many people filling the place, including my parents, boyfriend, and friends. They were so excited too. I could see it in its eyes. Marvelous! The stage was set, and all sights were on us. I was playing the bass, it is my favorite instrument. We were five girls in total, playing some covers. The band’s name was “Purple Nicotine”. I will never forget it, even I will tell it to my future sons. I love music, so I would like to revive that moment again to feel that goosebump moment.”
Connecting with fans
Playing live is one of the most important things musicians can do to start building buzz around their music. Once you have your band and you’ve rehearsed to exhaustion, you’ll want to show the world your art. It’s time to prepare for your first live concert.
A concert is the best way to connect with what will be your greatest asset, your fans. One of the things that the person who decides to attend your concert will value the most is that you make them feel privileged with your proposal. A very simple way to do this is to surprise them on stage with a song that you have recorded and prepared for the next project.
Tips for before a live performance
Sleeping well the night before to be rested, or even taking a nap if that is your habit, will be very good for you, since rest is essential for neuro-muscular coordination, and the voice is a delicate organ, which needs to be well coordinated to perform as it should.
One of the biggest losses of energy is produced by anxiety, by nerves. Know how to breathe abdominally, meditate with any technique a short while before the concert, although you can also do it throughout the day in periods of 10-15 minutes, to maintain concentration and conserve the energy you need to be relaxed and focused before a concert.
Voice fatigue from overuse or misuse on the day of the concert is probably the biggest enemy singers have. Morning interviews, soundchecks, conversations in the van, or on the plane, are environments in which the voice tends to be strained and therefore the basic rule of silence is important: speak as little as possible. Avoid using your voice in the first 20 minutes of the day after waking up, and in the 30 minutes after a meal, especially if it is large or abundant.
Normally one arrives at a concert after months or years of work, and with nerves one can disconnect from that moment, from that unique occasion to be able to create some magic on stage and share it with other human beings. You never know when you’re going to get up there again, you never know if it won’t be the last time.
So, trust in the work you have done and enjoy that experience as if it were the last one you are going to have.
Going to a concert, a good anti-stress therapy
Popular belief has always held that music has a calming and relaxing effect, but its anti-stress power has never been proven with tangible evidence. For the first time ever, research has shown that attending a musical event would have a measurable effect on hormones, particularly the one associated with stress, cortisol.
A team of researchers from the Center for Performance Science in the UK decided to measure the effects of attending a live concert on hormone levels. To do so, 117 volunteers attended two classical music concerts by composer Eric Whitacre. The researchers took two saliva samples from them: before entering the concerts and one hour later.
When analyzing cortisone and cortisol, better known as “the stress hormone”, they found that, regardless of age, experience, musical ability or familiarity with the concert music, the latter samples had much lower levels than the former.
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