I have a pet peeve (well actually a bunch of them but this one is first on my list). My pet peeve is that as singers or performers we often think that what we think is entertaining or satisfying for us is what our audience would enjoy hearing.
Unfortunately, our human nature easily gets in the way. Whether writers, singers, performers, presenters, enterainers, etc. it is not possible for us to step back from the moment far enough to actually see the forest for the trees.
I heard from a chorus member today (who shall remain nameless) who is not participating in their annual show – for the sole reason that… it’s not entertaining for the audience – gasp!
How do we know this? The show had no theme, purpose, quality criteria, time constraint, etc. How can you propose to entertain an audience with this premise?
Here’s an example of no theme, purpose, quality criteria or anything else…
Our first criteria for any public performance should be to evaluate everything from the audience perspective. Every note, nuance, lyric, segue, etc. is filtered through that criteria.
My contention is that we rarely if ever do that – not because we don’t care or don’t know better, but we are unable to and do not know that we’re unable to do it.
Quartet’s – you need the fifth ear… Choruses, you need an outside influence – someone not in your genre to be honest and tell you that you need to step up the game.
And now to make everyone mad at me… Church choirs are the worst at this (some of you are horrible – get off the stage), and close behind are a few Barbershop choruses I’ve witnessed (and sadly sang in).
Fire away…