Photo courtesy of Tiffany H.
"I try my best to stop the trembling my hands and legs are doing...my heart is pounding out of my chest...and I do my best to slow my pulse."
Does any of this sound familiar?
The first article in a series, looking at what it takes for some artists to take the smallest step of contemplating getting on stage, or never taking the step at all. Tiffany H. hasn't made the transition yet, from thinking about performing to actually doing it. Carrying around a passion for music her entire life, Tiffany reveals her secret dream, "It's in me[music]...it's who I am." She believes in her talent, but it is her fear of the audience not liking her, throwing the proverbial tomato, that keeps Tiffany from going any further. When asked who she would compare herself to, Priscilla Ahn, Jewel, Ingrid Michaelson, and Dana Parish.
Reasonable aspirations, certainly. So what holds Tiffany back?
Carnivores. Those meat eating creatures, with an insatiable appetite for more and more. The same look of desire comes from a thousand pairs of eyes, staring up at us and waiting to be entertained. They want a journey on the vehicle that is your soul. Many of you may have heard the old adage, "Picture your audience naked." to calm your stagefright. I don't subscribe to that at all. It's all wrong. You are the one naked, you the performer, and if you are the front person, even more so. The exposure you would feel standing in your bedroom in front of your large picture window, as you experience a broken heart, is the expectation of those fifteen people standing on the sidewalk gazing at you. Voyeurs, thankfully, because that is what sells albums. It's the impulse we fight, of drawing the curtains, and making the choice to let them in to our private moments. I have seen many very talented individuals stop dead in their tracks right before downbeat time because they are unable to lie on their backs with their stomachs exposed and I've lost a few that press "cancel" on their dream, and stop all together. This is the saddest reality in the world to me. These individuals who have an incredible gift to share but grab it back and run before the audience can open it. No matter the genre; punk, heavy metal, soft rock or R&B, the carnivores will always want the same thing from the performer, everything, every morsel. Looking back to our would be artist, Tiffany H., she told me that it isn't that she is opposed to sharing her story, in fact, "I want to relate the message that the song I'm singing emulates...whatever my lyrics be, I hope it digests in the heart of my listeners." So I say, stop the torpedos, stop the career ambush and let's get to work. Bring on the tomatoes, a whole bushel of them. Daunting? Yes, but impossible, no. My students and artists have often heard me compare the path to the music industry as an ever narrowing road. You begin with a hundred thousand people all pushing and shoving towards one small door, only large enough for one person to go through. It isn't the most beautiful, the most talented, the incredible voice or rocking musician that gets there first, or we wouldn't have label artists like Dylan or Radio Head, who while talented, are not the societal equivalent of perfection. Because of this reality, the crowd will inevitably thin itself out. For different reasons, aspiring performers will sabotage their own careers for some of the following reasons; fear, laziness, insecurities, ego, greed, and many other irrational and equally pompous acts of foolishness. Tiffany H. has all of the components to begin a career. It will take work to get her to a point where she will see her dream come to fruition. Follow her story here as I work with her over the next several weeks and see if we can make Tiffany's dream a reality.
For more info on this topic: See Ashley B go from how? to WOW!
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