Five Ways The Lead Singer In Your Students’ Band Can Win The Crowd
Helping Your Students Stand Out in Competition
When it comes to live music competitions, the ability of a band to deliver a compelling and memorable performance is overwhelmingly the deciding factor for who comes out on top.
The best live performances temporarily lift us out of our own reality and into the one imagined by the performer. Such performances are often the result of a great front person who effectively engages the audience. Their ability to usher the audience into their world is just as important as their ability to sing and/or play their instrument.
As an international performing artist and a former frontman of several bands, I’ve learned a few ways to win over some of the stiffest crowds over the years.
If you want your student’s band to stand out at Smokefreerockquest, Pasifika Beats, New Found Sound, Battle of the Bands or any other live music competition, read on.
1. Introduce the set in an engaging, conversational way.
Set intros can be difficult to do naturally, especially for younger students who may lack confidence. In competitions, there’s a tendency for the front person to be too formal. Their intro sounds as if they’re in a classroom, e.g:
“Hi, we are ______ from ______ and today we are going to perform a song called Against The Odds. Thanks”.
We can understand why, of course. But this needs to be improved if they wish to pull the crowd in.
Instead, they should try:
“Hey, how’s everybody doing tonight / today? We’re ______ from _____. Who out here feels like they’ve been fighting some tough battles lately? This song is goes out to you, it’s called Against The Odds”
Tip: If the song starts with only one or two instruments playing the intro, those instruments can begin playing immediately and the lead singer can introduce the song on top of it. Have the band rehearse this together. Suggest that they extend the song intro to accommodate if need be.
Note how this alternative introduction communicates the same thing, except now the audience has been engaged and then invited to connect with the song’s meaning. The crowd is now automatically paying closer attention to the song and feels more connected to the singer. This means they’re more likely to enjoy the performance.
Tip: Instead of merely naming the song, encourage the student to think about the meaning behind it and find ways to get the audience to relate.
Something that I personally find classy is when bands compliment the acts before them, prior to introducing themselves. E.g. “Can we give it up again for ______ who went before us? They were amazing!”.
This is a great way to get an applause off the bat and immediately become likeable.
2. Tell the audience what to do.
The lead singer must think of the crowd as belonging to them. In competitions, they can take advantage of the fact that the audience is generally full of enthusiastically supportive friends and family members. Sometimes they just need to be told how to do it.
Consider telling the crowd to:
Clap or snap in appropriate sections
Sing along to a chorus (this works when the lyrics are easy and highly repetitive)
‘Make some noise’ during a solo or breakdown
‘Come in close’ or ‘bunch in’, if the audience is standing
Tip: The extra confident student can even take time before the song to teach the crowd any sing-a-longs or simple dance moves. This gets them excited about playing their part, and also connects them with the personality of the lead singer.
Things like these make the audience feel like they are included in the performance. Furthermore, seeing the audience participate tends to further energise and inspire more confidence in the front person and rest of the group.
Have your student think of (and rehearse) ways they can get the crowd to participate in their performance. Doing this effectively is a sure fire way to stand out against other groups and make their performance extra memorable.
3. Eye contact, eye contact, eye contact.
Lead singers lacking experience may struggle to know where to look. It sounds a bit silly - the crowd is right there. It may (or may not) surprise you how often students will default to staring into space.
We understand that it can be intimidating for students to make eye contact with the audience. This is especially true for the younger ones, but hey, it’s even intimidating for some of us grown adults. Nonetheless, those who are able to overcome this will command the crowd’s attention and stand out against their competition.
Lead singers who don’t also play an instrument are more mobile and thus have an advantage. They ought to make the most of this opportunity. They can do so by moving across the stage, getting close to the crowd and zoning in on particular audience members. This tends to create a sense of fun and anticipation, as people will think “is it going to be me next?”.
Tip: Tell the students to encourage their friends or family to push near to the front of the stage for their set. The student will feel more comfortable locking eyes with them rather than people they don’t know.
Did you know that eye contact can enhance our memory of the person looking at us?
Therefore, if we are trying to help our students’ band create memorable performances, encouraging their lead singer to practice making eye contact will be of great benefit.
That said, staring intensely at a stranger for long periods of time can potentially cause anxiety for that person. In this case, the performance will be memorable for the wrong reason. Be mindful of how eye contact is done!
4. Perfect that in-between song act!
Perhaps even more of a challenge for young front persons than set intros is what to do and/or say in between songs. They often do not give this enough consideration. This is usually due to their lack of experience; they have not yet learned how much it interrupts the flow of a live set.
Awkward silence, irrelevant monologues and painfully dry jokes between songs are the typical hallmarks of unprepared lead singers. For far too many otherwise great young bands, this is a major downfall.
Speaking naturally and engaging the audience between songs forms the glue that makes live sets feel like one smooth performance. If your students’ lead singer learns how to do this correctly, it will give them a professional edge over the rest.
So, what are the ingredients for great organic glue?
First, good applause.
Good crowd applause will help prevent some awkwardness after the song ends. Competition crowds will usually give an enthusiastic applause once they perceive the song to be finished, however this is not always the case. Sometimes the event is cursed with a dull crowd. Or perhaps a song’s ending is ambiguous and confuses them.
Recall section 2 - the crowd often needs to be told what to do. In these cases, the lead singer may need to help encourage an applause. A simple, boldly stated ‘Thank you so much’ usually does the trick. I prefer ‘Make some noise!’, as I’ve found that to be consistently effective and it seems to generate a louder applause. However, this phrase doesn’t suit every style of artist.
The next ingredient for good glue, is to work the crowd.
Here are some things the lead singer can try:
Playfully tease the crowd about them needing to be more energetic. E.g. “Now that was cool, but to be honest, you guys were at about 60%. We’ve played in ______ before and that crowd was 80%, but I think you guys can beat that. We’re gonna need 100% energy for this next song, can you guys give me that?”
Challenge sections of the crowd to outdo each other. E.g. “I want everyone on the left side to make some noise! Now I want everyone on the right side to make some noise! Oooh, it looks like the right side was better! Let’s try one more time!”
Get the crowd to make noise based on where they might be from. E.g. “Make some noise in here if you’re from _______ ! Alright, now make some noise if you’re from ______! “
Tip: The running theme here is noise. If a lead singer can get a crowd making noise, they generate energy. If they generate energy, they inspire confidence and keep the crowd engaged.
Note that for performances outside the context of competitions where longer sets are normal, this will become tiresome if done between every song. In typical competitions, however, performers normally get between 1-3 songs. Given this, they should make every effort to create such moments.
The next ingredient is a good intro to the next song.
As mentioned in section 1, it’s always a good idea to first help the audience connect with the song rather than merely telling them its name. In addition to the ways mentioned earlier, the student could tell them a story.
The story could either be about how the song originated, or perhaps the narrative of the song itself.
Tip: Encourage the lead singer to avoid beginning with “This song is about...”, and instead try “Now, imagine…” or “Last year I was…”. Again, the idea is to take the crowd out of their own reality and usher them into the artist’s imagination.
Another function of storytelling is to form an emotional bond with the audience. Often songs are written from a vulnerable place. Carefully exposing that vulnerability will engage an empathetic response from the audience which allows them to connect with the music more deeply.
I have heard students say “what if there isn’t any cool story about how the song came about?” or “what if the song isn’t interesting enough to tell a story about it?” to which I usually reply, “then why are you performing it?”. This is to challenge them to think about the role and function of live art. I also encourage them to find ways to extract meaning and communicate it to their audiences.
Tip: Encourage your student to have two or three stories up their sleeve. They will be useful in the event of technical difficulties or guitarists needing to retune.
The ability to do all these things requires a lot of practice, but it will pay off and make your student’s band a highlight of the competition.
5. End strong!
The ending of a set is another aspect of live performance that student bands tend not to think about. Most lead singers at competitions end by merely saying “thank you” - if that. By polishing the way they finish their performance, the student’s band will stand out among others in the competition.
The lead singer should consider doing the following:
Thanking the crowd for attending the event, and for their energy and support
Thanking the bands who played before them (in general, not individually)
Shouting out the event sponsors (again, in general)
Encouraging the audience to ‘stick around’ for the rest of the bands
Plugging their social media, e.g. ‘Check us out on Instagram at @_______’
Telling the audience where they can find the band’s recorded music (if applicable)
Thanking the judges
Saying ‘Make some noise for us one last time’ before the band exits the stage
There’s something to be said about the effectiveness of a lasting impression. If the band’s front person incorporates some of these at the end of their set, they will finish on an extra positive note. This will likely win favour with the audience (and the judges).
More than music.
Live music competitions are about more than just the music. A performance worthy of first place will create an experience for the audience where they feel energised, included and connected. It’s the front person’s responsibility to lead such a performance. They therefore have the extra burden of needing to perform exceptionally well non-musically, as well as musically.
For the duration of the set, the front person is not only the band’s singer but also the crowd’s Master of Ceremony. This may be more of a challenge for the less confident student than their naturally charismatic counterparts. Nevertheless, if one carefully studies the principles mentioned in this article and practises the techniques, they will succeed at engaging their audience effectively. And they will do so at a level of professionalism that will let them stand out among their peers.
If you are interested in:
Specially designed workshops to take your student’s band to the next level
Having your students developed as potential career musicians
Giving your students an edge at competitions like Smokefreerockquest, Pasifika Beats, New Found Sound and Battle of the Bands