With the advent of recording technologies, many of us have recorded solo albums,on which we played a variety of instruments. But what if you want to play your songs live? How do you get on about it?

When you recorded your album, you might not have thought about playing live. I certainly didn’t when i recorded my first CD.  Or maybe you did but you put the thought in a box labelled “deal with this later”.

There are usually two main reasons why bedroom recording musicians want to take their music to the stage. 

Almost all music promotion articles you read on and offline say that nothing replaces the good old promotion tactic of playing live and touring.

 The other reason is of course the thrill of getting a reaction from an audience, the adrenalin rush from a live performance.

Whatever your reason is up to you - and you might well have another reason not listed here. I am not here to question your reason but to help you plan your live attack.

What is the main difference between a recording and performance?

It might sound like a daft question but many conversations with musicians regarding how transferring a song to the stage has led me to believe that they haven’t stopped even a second to ask themselves this fundamental question.

Let’s look at the experience from the listener/audience point of view…

Listening to a recording is essentially an activity that only engages one sense, that is hearing.

On the contrary, going to a live show engages most of your senses.  Hearing and sight are obvious. Smell - not how bad the band smells (i hope!) but we all have had experiences of a sweaty guy jumping up and down next to us, and having to turn our head the other way to breathe in. Touch - especially if you are standing up and dancing. Taste - many people will consume a kind of drink.

What does it mean?

It means that the attention of the audience isn’t 100% focused on their hearing. Some of the experiences will be out of control of the performer, but the performer can use stimulus for other senses, particularly sight.

In a nutshell, it means that people do not go to a show to hear the CD - they can do that at home. They go to a show to share an experience with the musician(s), to be taken away to a different world in a way a recording cannot, eg using all their senses.

With this difference established, you should forget straight away about trying to reproduce your CD note for note.

The next thing you need to establish is what makes your music unique? In other words, what reaction from the listeners do you want, and what are the primary ways your songs/recordings achieve this?

 Go back to the bare bones of your songs. Strip down the glitter. What are the fundamental elements?

If you use unusual beats, you will want a drum machine, or a pedal sampler like JamMan (i will review this great little machine later in the month), or a drummer.

If your bass lines are worthy of The Breeders “Cannonball” intro riff, you definitively want a bass.

If your guitar riffs bring all the dynamics to the songs, you need a guitarist.

And so on.

Evaluate each element of your songs. It’s not about “does it sound good?” because of course, everything you have recorded sounds good and adds to the recording (at least, i do hope so ). It is about whether it is essential to getting the reaction you want from your audience.

Check back tomorrow for the second half of this article, in which i will explore the practical aspects of transferring your recording to the stage.

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