We all get the jitters on stage, and its safe to say that we aren't always prepared, but how good are you in dealing with sudden change?


Before heading up on stage, its safe to say that we always have a game plan, and a ready to go set list, but sometimes our papers get lost in the shuffle where we have to make imediate changes before the show begins. A lot of us aren't very good in working under pressure, and sometimes there are those who thrive in sort of situation. I think the major problem is that if we aren't confident with our own matieral, then we can't help wondering how the audience will re-act to our efforts. The last time I perfomed an acoustic show with a few friends of mine, I ran out of ideas, I had a few lyrical transcripts ready for the show (due to the fact that our singer didn't have time to memorize them before hand.) While she was practicing before the show, she misplaced the lyrics to our closing song, all that she remembered was the chorus. And frankliy, it was a long time since I wrote them I forget the major verse lines. But still she was adament to sing this song over the acoustic arrangement that I had perfected over the weekend. So she just improviused on the spot, she naturally sang two verse lines added onto the chorus, and everything worked out nicely. Not to mention the fact that I gave her a break with an extended (impulsive) solo line.


I recently found out that the new band Staind, with their song "Outside," the verse lines were totally impulsive the night that the singer recorded the song live for the family values album. He was nervous throughout this performance, but the passion in his voice disguised how he was really feeling, and that night he worked well under pressure. I'm not exactly huge fan of their work, but I like this song, and to think that most of their other stuff was slaved over compared to this song, it makes you wonder...These guys should go with their impulses more often if they wan;t their creative to reach its highest peak. But overall, when you're under pressure, are you better at rattling off lyrics, or solo lines?

-Joseph