David Motto’s Practice Tip of the Week:
The Performance Preparation that Nobody Does

Whether your performance garb is white-tie and tails or a vinyl mini-skirt, you need to be sure you can play well in your stage clothes. Hardly anyone double checks this before an actual gig!

Feeling Comfortable at Home

Many musicians practice in the comfort of their own home. They wear sweatpants, shorts, T-shirts. Perhaps they are barefoot. This is fine. You should feel comfortable when you practice. The last thing you want to worry about when you’re practicing is how you look.

Thinking About Being on Stage

At some point, you’ll need to start thinking about playing in public. This means deciding what to wear on stage.

Stage clothing causes problems for many musicians. There are stories of opera singers whose corsets constrict their breathing, backup singers who can’t sit down in their too-tight mini-skirts, rock guitarists who can’t bend their arms in their leather jackets, pianists whose brand new shoes keep slipping off the pedals, and brass players whose suit jackets are so tight they can’t raise their horns to their lips.

You do not want any of this to happen to you.

Instead, you want to feel good when you perform. Try to select clothes so you won’t be too hot or cold. Be sure you can move around easily. Stay away from itchy fabrics. And, if you’ll be standing on stage, wear shoes that are comfortable.

Real Preparation for the Stage Experience

Do a run-through at home or in your rehearsal studio wearing your stage clothes. Even better, have a full dress rehearsal in the performance space itself. (Yes, there’s a reason it’s called a “dress” rehearsal!)

If there are any problems caused by your stage clothing, you’ll have time to make changes before you walk on stage for the real performance!

Going through your music wearing your concert clothing is part of the transition from practicing to performing. You’ll feel more connected to the actual gig and be much better prepared to be on stage.

And, wearing your stage clothes while doing a complete runthrough of the material you’ll be performing soon on stage is the ultimate performance preparation. There’s something that changes in us when we start thinking about how an actual audience will be judging us. They’ll not only be listening. They’ll be watching too. How you look matters to them!

Your Stage Clothing Does Matter

Stage clothing is extremely important. What you wear on stage can define your musical genre and make a bold statement about who you are as an artist.

But, please, make this statement at home first. Don’t let your clothes create a performance disaster…

The Effects of Performers’ Appearance

I wrote an interesting blog post a while back that compares performers in different genres and how they look on stage. It’s fun to compare yourself to others as you decide what to wear.

And, did you know that there’s proof that how performers look on stage affects the outcome of competitions as much as how these performers actually sound? Strange, but true.

To Your Musical Success!
David Motto