Stage Presence

When I look at videos of myself singing or playing, I realise I don't really have a lot of stage presence. This is because I'm not really used to performing to crowds and introducing myself to a crowd. Normally when I perform, I have someone introducing me and what I'm going to play or sing, so I am not used to introducing myself. I struggle with my confidence as well which holds me back and this reflects my stage presence. Because I don't have a lot of confidence when performing, I don't talk to my audience and involve them. It is hard for me to do this as I don't really know how to talk to an audience. To gain confidence when performing, I could perform to my family and friends more as I don't really do that at the moment and introduce myself to them and also ask for feedback on wat my stage presence is like. Furthermore, I could watch my favourite artists/performers and see how they present themselves on stage. From watching them, I can see what I could do to improve my stage presence by incorporating something they might do that would help me and that I could relate to. For example, some performers like to keep their introduction of the song short and sweet, which is something I could do as I feel it would suit me more, seeing as I don't have much confidence or experience talking to an audience.

An additional worry of mine is how I can engage my audience whilst sitting at a piano. One of my pieces is a singing piece, so that won't be as hard to present myself because I am standing up, looking at my audience. But my other piece is a piano piece and I think it will be harder to involve my audience if I am sitting at a piano. Obviously, I can talk to them before I start but it is the fact of keeping their attention. What I could do is start with my singing piece to interact with my audience first, then talk to them before I sit at the piano and play my piece, then talk to them afterwards, as I don't have to talk to them all the time.

Another thing I noticed while watching me back is my facial expressions. It is very noticeable when I go wrong in a piece as my facial expressions give me away or I whisper something under my breath. To avoid this, when I'm practicing, if I make a mistake I should just carry on like nothing has happened, because people will most likely forget if I went wrong by the end of the piece and maybe not even notice as I didn't give it away. Also, I noticed I looked miserable when I played even though I am just concentrating. I do enjoy the piece I am playing/singing but I do not convey this to my audience. To show my enjoyment, I should smile more and make it look easy. I can do this by making sure I am confident with my piece, and have confidence in myself then just enjoy playing it. Showing that I enjoy the piece/s will make it better for me as the performer and for the audience, as they can see I am enjoying performing to them.

Something else to consider would be what I wear, as I want to give my audience to right impression about me. I shouldn't wear something smart as it is not a formal occasion, but I shouldn't wear a tracksuit or scruffy clothes as I want to show my audience that I care about my performance and I care about their opinion. Also, normally when I perform, my hair is down, which subconsciously could be a barrier for me and hide me from the audience. This may also relate to my confidence. I could wear my hair back to let the audience in and show I don't want to hide or shy away from performing. However, I feel more comfortable with my hair down as I hardly ever wear it up and it makes me feel safer as I have a barrier. Having my hair up could affect my performance as it may make me more uncomfortable to not have a barrier and it will make me feel more vulnerable, but this is something I could try to see how it affects my performance as I haven't performed with my hair up yet.