Welcome to one of the realest and most entertaining articles you’ll have read here at Blue Rhymez Entertainment. And that is: 10 Unexpected Places To Perform At To Build Your Confidence. What do we mean by that? Well these locations are available to you right very now for FREE or they’ve already been paid for in advance and it’s on YOU to take advantage of them to build your live performing skills and your stage presence. Most of these places are in conformity with Rona regulations so read until the end. You will be ready for the real deal if you go check off the list all ten sites. Have fun!
10. Your Mirror.
Yup. It’s a place. If you don’t like yourself in your own mirror how could you expect others to become your fans? You have to become your own admirer at home first! We’ll let you in on a porn star’s secret: “People don’t realize that it’s not all fun and games. I have to do what you do with your hand under the table in the sexiest way possible so that I can turn on everyone who’s watching me. That’s hard! I had to repeat facial expressions and record myself many times at home over the years until I learned my angles because no one is just naturally hot on camera.” Don’t ask us where we know this from 😀 But… truer words have never been spoken. Once you rehearse and look at yourself while performing in the mirror you will see how your eyes betray your insecurities, how your body position in certain angles doesn’t flatter you, or how some facial expressions are way too dramatic. No go conquer that mirror and learn to put on a naturally-looking show. Comfort takes effort! Oh, and in case you’ve barely moved out of your parents’ house and don’t have a full-on closet mirror, get one for only $24.50 on Amazon.
9. In Daily Conversations.
Once you’re past the mirror and have learned how to position your face/head so you don’t look weird when you hit the high notes, low notes, and go crazy on that vibrato, you level up to daily conversations. All artists know other artists. And the smart ones use these music-centered conversations to exert their performing confidence. You ever heard a seemingly confident artist just break into a solo or a rap verse while talking to someone? They too had to grow comfortable with instant performing. How to do this: when you’re quoting a song, sing it instead of just naming its title. When you’re talking about loving a Tupac song, rap some of it instead of just saying the words quote unquote. When you talk about how good music used to be, hum a well-known motif to make your point instead of pulling out YouTube on your phone. Use that voice of yours to express your music-related ideas and thoughts. PS: if you’re in bad shape when it comes to social skills, grab a copy of How to Talk to Anyone: 92 Little Tricks for Big Success in Relationships and then move up to inserting random but reasonable amounts of singing/ rapping in between 😀
8. Your Phone Recorder.
First make sure your phone’s mic doesn’t have dried-up sweat in it, water droplets, or that your cover is muffling the input. You risk thinking you’re a bass when in actuality you’re a tenor 😀 You absolutely MUST get used to the sound of your own voice and fix what you don’t like so that eventually you do enjoy what you hear on playback. This is so pivotal BEFORE thinking about spending thousands of dollars for a studio album. And yet, terribly many artists hate the sound of their voices but expect to like their records and completely rely on the sound engineer to do “their magic.” That magic doesn’t exist. If anything, it’s called autotune and you sound f*cking terrible with it. Hone your acoustics. Pro Tip: get two big journals or magazines, place them vertically at the side of your ears to cut out the direct transmission between your voice and your tympans, and BOOM! That’s your actual voice and how everyone else hears you. If your phone has its memory full and your battery dies out rather often, get yourself a professional recorder for $40 and carry it with you at all times. It’s a great tool for recording lyric ideas and melodies on the go as well.
7. On Camera.
Let’s assume you overcame 10, 9, 8, and now you know how to look cute on camera, how you sound on playback, and you have enough courage to hum sounds to your buddies. The next step in building your performing confidence is recording yourself but just for yourself. This will not go on your social media yet. You ain’t ready! Buy a cheap tripod off Amazon, place your phone or DSLR on it, and record yourself performing the very songs you intend on performing live in public. If your songs are not done yet, perform on camera cover songs that are similar in tone, register, and key to your original ones. You have to understand the vibes, volume control over your pipes, and body movement. We highly recommend you focus on your face for ballads and slow songs and heavier on your entire body for upbeat music. Two different monsters that require different approaches.
6. Your Garden/ Terrace/ Balcony.
Why do we specifically intend the space allocated for contact with the outside but not completely outside? Well, if you’ve been diligently doing your daily warm-ups, your neighbors/ parents are used to your voice and won’t call the cops on you if you start singing from the bottom of your lungs. Especially if you’re not that great at it yet. Strangers will freak out and avoid looking into your eyes next time they see you 😀 A balcony is a semi-open, semi-comfortable place for you to truly get used to the sound of your own voice. You can combine number 7 with number 6 and film yourself live performing your songs outside of your bedroom. You may laugh now but see how those knees start shaking when you open your mouth for the first time in places other than those you’re used to.
5. Outside In Isolated Places.
Congratulations! You’re halfway through the list and tenfold as confident as when you started out at number 10. Now you take your performing skills to the real world but still in a relatively emotionally safe environment. What do we mean by that? There might be people passing by but not too many to make you run home for dear life. Stage fright is REAL. Raquel Reigns on TikTok is very well known to do this. She goes under bridges in New York City and sings her heart out. Sometimes she’ll even get thumbs up from people around her while recording her snippets. Plus the bridge acts like an outside bathroom reverb effect. Seriously awesome acoustics. Other outside-yet-isolated locations are unpopular parks, workout areas, abandoned buildings, top of hills.
4. Omegle
Now you’re leveling up to some serious courage here. Suriel Hess sure knows how to use free resources available to EVERYBODY, yourself included, to promote himself and his music for free. Jump on Omegle and rap your ass off, sing your heart out, and dance like there’s no tomorrow. Heck, if you got the gear, put on a whole show together. Be ready however for the unknown to happen. People of all kinds are on Omegle and they do and say weird things. Sometimes you’ll get lucky, sometimes not. But you need this raw training so that when you go on stage and there’s a hater in the front row holding a poster saying “(your artist name) sucks,” you won’t start crying and get distracted from performing. Remember that all major artists have had very strange things happen to them during concerts like bottles and shoes thrown at them, fans invading the stage, and people booing them. Put your big boy pants on and perform for strangers. You’ll always be safer on Omegle than touring in real life so train for the day!
3. Social Media
3 more “places” and you’re a professional performer! Number 3 is social media. Now you comprehend your weaknesses and strengths thus you are ready to embrace positive feedback and to mentally neutralize hateful comments. Time to put all that practice to good use and build your brand by consistently performing online for your fans. This time the video recordings go out for everyone else to see them because you KNOW what you’re doing. The new skills that will be required of you are video editing and some light audio production in case you went overboard with your pop filter or breathed in the wrong places. Also, every single device records differently so you may have somewhat of a learning curve until you master how to sing/rap to best render the quality of your voice for places like TikTok and Instagram depending on your phone/camera.
2. Family Parties And Events.
Time to build your first real-life audience! Offer to sing at your cousin’s birthday party, at your sister’s wedding, at your mother’s retirement bash, at your uncle’s divorce celebration, so on and so forth. Believe it or not, you can grow an entire fanbase of REAL people that know and care about you and WILL PAY you in the future to perform at their personal events as by seeing you perform live they will automatically associate you with the go-to person for entertainment purposes. Not to mention that this is major! You will have fun, improve your confidence, and make a local name for yourself. Don’t miss out on any family events where there’s a microphone!
1. Restaurants/ Event Venues
If you’re lucky enough to live in a state or country where venues are reopening, GO! You don’t have to be the headliner of the evening to squeeze in a short performance. Actually, it is best if you’re not on the list and you have to network your way in and convince the host to allow you 3 minutes of performing. An example: you’re celebrating your one-year anniversary with your girlfriend at a restaurant. Well, if you’re a singer, what’s more romantic than dedicating the one thing you do best to celebrating your love? Ask the venue if it’s okay with them if you perform acapella (or to even plug in your instrumental) and serenade your sweetheart in front of everyone present. Another scenario: you’re at the club partying away the night for no real good reason. You realize the song set the DJ is playing is very similar to your own records. You should buy the guy a drink and compliment him on the good taste in music then ask him if he’d be willing to hear out a record of yours. Yes, professional DJs can hear out a song while playing their set live without messing either of the two. If he just says something nice back, be graceful, thank him and even ask for his social media and part ways nicely and politely. If they LIKE your song, however, they will add it to their set right then and there without you asking for it and very probably hand you the mic for you to perform your song. People do go the extra mile when you’ve got that X-Factor in both your confidence and music. Similar to number 2, when you’re on vacation, when you’re out and about, when you’re karaoke-ing your Friday away, and generally where there’s a preamplifier with a decent microphone, you find your way to it and PERFORM.
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