Canadian Musician November / December 2019 | Page 38

ARE YOU
STAGE-READY?
Rehearsal Tips, Tricks & Truths from Artists & Touring Pros
BY KEVIN YOUNG
P
ractice and rehearsal are about becoming more adept
and flexible regardless of what your gig entails, but there
are differences between the two.
Practice is often defined as individual preparation, but
it can be a collective effort – preparing for a tour, songwrit-
ing, or recording. In rehearsal, you’re bringing all that practice to bear on
an upcoming performance, ensuring you can meet the demands it will
make on the players and crew – individually and collectively.
In practice, you’re constructing the building blocks for the struc-
ture you’re going to hang your work on. In rehearsal, you’re putting
in the finishes, which will vary depending on whether you’re working
as a group of co-equals or as hired guns for a principal songwriter/
performer, as well as the setting and intent of your performance.
To get some perspective, Canadian Musician assembled a panel
of individuals to provide some tips, tricks, and truths with an eye to
making your practice, rehearsal, and ultimately your performances
more effective.
Stage psychologist and performance coach Luther Mallory has
worked with hundreds of artists in his own workshops, with Cana-
da’s Music Incubator, the Allan Slaight JUNO Master Class, and other
music industry associations. Mallory often focuses on the mental and
emotional barriers that artists face, usually as a result of simply being
the centre of attention.
“When we ask for attention, basically we’re saying, ‘I’ve got
something to show you,’” Mallory says, which not only invites judge-
ment from others, “but also obsessive judgment of ourselves, be-
cause everyone’s looking and we have to do something impressive.”
Practice and rehearsal, he adds, are about getting to a place
38 C A N A D I A N M U S I C I A N
where you think less and feel more when you’re performing. “Essen-
tially, it’s getting into the moment and staying there,” he asserts.
On the stage, in the studio, and in songwriting sessions, “It all
relates to risk,” he continues. “In life, in art, if you risk nothing, nothing
will be your reward. If you’re not willing to lean into risk and make a
statement, people aren’t going to decide about you,” meaning they
won’t find you or your work interesting enough to invest their time
and emotion into.
“Songwriting is the same,” adds Mallory. “Say you want to write
a line about a zebra in a song. Your judgment-obsessed mind tells
you that’s ridiculous; people will think you’re a hack.” Your job then is
to manage that discomfort, identify it as a necessary risk, and take it.
“Basically, you’re saying, ‘Would you mind judging this for me?’ know-
ing you may be rejected.”
Mallory suggests practicing with overcoming fear in mind. “Let’s
say you’re a singer. Sing your song five times in a row and don’t stop
under any circumstances. When your brain kicks in with, ‘You missed
that note. You’re a piece of crap,’ manage it in real time because that’s
what performers do.”
Practicing alone with nobody to impress, the impulse is to start
over. Don’t, he advises. “When you screw up, you have to find a way
back into the moment… like you’ll have to on stage.”
It’s about physical practice but also mental training, and exer-
cise and meditation are means to that end. Exercise is training the
body to “overcome the mind,” push your limitations, and manage
fatigue and distraction. When your brain says, “That’s all we’ve got,”
push on to the point where that’s actually true. “Then you feel like a
superhero because you risked something and overcame the mind,”
Mallory tacks on.