Capturing both the eyes and the hearts of your audience is vital if you want to make a long-lasting and unforgettable experience during your performance be it a concert, a presentation, or whatever is your thing. Many aspects come into this and we are here to discuss them in detail. Be sure to follow through with these professional tips and tricks from the UK-based experts to achieve the maximum during your show or presentation. Read on!
Keep Your Eyes on Your Audience
Many people are not fully aware of all the aspects that go into putting on a great show for your audience. This includes tech support, careful planning, and organization, but much has to do with the psychology of the performance as well. This is why it is crucial to be aware of all of these psychological tricks beforehand so you could implement them all into your performance on stage. In addition to this, these tips can help you and are thought of by many psychologists, to be a prerequisite for engaging with any kind of audience. Firstly, let’s start with eye contact. Many will argue that this is a silly tip because how on earth could you keep eye contact with your entire audience. However, eye “contact” is still important, or better put, you must keep your eyes focused on the audience. Sure, artists can get carried away with the music, and this is perfectly fine, but no one wants a performer who looks like they are bored. This is why a great trick is to pick someone out of the audience (a group of a few people). Even though you’ve focused on a few people, the whole audience will feel immediately connected to you.
Start Interacting with Audience Early on
Aside from keeping your eyes on the audience (aka. Keeping your eyes on a few audience members so everyone could feel connected to you), there are also a few pointers on how to capture the hearts and eyes of your audience. Since many shows require some stage setup, mic checks, and even a trial practice before the real show, the chances are there are going to be some audience members present. This is your time to shine. Much of this advice has to do with an early interaction with your audience.
As many professional speakers can tell you this can help you understand your audience better, and get more people interested in what you have to say. Performances are rarely only based on one thing alone, as otherwise, they would be dull and uninspiring. Furthermore, the audience itself will be more engaged if they get to know the performer in front of them, and they may even encourage more people who’ve never seen them before to consider it. Ultimately, to capture the hearts of your audience, you can organize a post-performance meetup so your audience will have a better chance of connecting with you, which is what will win their hearts indefinitely.
Leave No Room for Silence
Another great tip that is essentially a prerequisite of your performance and that will guarantee that you will get a chance to capture the hearts and eyes of your audience is to cut silence from your shows. A clear sign of an amateur act is silence during their performance. While it’s quite easy to create room for silence like when you’re tuning your instruments or the guitarists mess with pedals, the drummer taps around on the cymbals, the audience will wait patiently for something to happen.
Even though you can sometimes use this to build suspension, more often than not it’s much easier to get carried away and lose your audience’s focus if the silence persists. Furthermore, every moment you keep quiet – your show is losing momentum, and the audience is losing energy. These are all the reasons why you should constantly give your audience something to focus on. For example, you can move into the next song before the audience’s applause has died down. Or you can try writing a few interludes to connect some of your songs, which is what all audiences enjoy – when a performer writes original, unrealized music for their shows. You can also fill the quiet moments to make a joke or statement.
Visuals are Important
The easiest way you can work towards capturing your audience’s eyes and hearts (especially eyes) is by having a great visual aspect of your show. There is an infinite number of things you can do on stage that will create a great visual setting and make the gig unforgettable. In today’s very digital London, some components can be a vital aid for your audience to fully engage in your show so it would be great to hire a large TV screen for your event to make it easy for your audience to see video footage, slideshows, or anything you want to display as a visual component of your performance.
Furthermore, many people expect high-quality video since all of our TVs and laptops have made us used to it, which is why you might want to seek out hire UK companies who have HQ equipment (see what I did there). Screens may come in handy in various settings, be it during a business presentation, a rock concert, or even to display images at weddings. They have multiple uses and communicate the message clearly which ultimately makes for a show that can capture the eyes of any audience. Besides, London was home to an epic music scene that many artists still thrive to achieve, and now they could.
Put Effort into Your Outfit
More often than not, performers get very nervous before the shows and they don’t consider the best outfit options for their shows. As many female performers (or anyone who wears heels) will tell you, shaking like a leaf while on stilts is not a good look and will never be a good look. In addition to this, you should be aware of the weather conditions because the last thing you want to do is catch a cold since you’ve stayed out in the cold all sweaty.
Other than practical reasons, which can impact your overall performance, there are more other ways why putting effort into your outfits can pay off. Having unique outfits can make the show unforgettable because it can add to your overall performance. This is also one of the best ways to capture the eyes (and the hearts) of your audience. It will signal how important you take your show, and it will ultimately be more entertaining. If you’re in a band there are infinite ways you can coordinate your outfits to make an unforgettable show. Performance outfits are like uniforms, but in much more creative and inspiring ways, and your audience will appreciate the effort you and your band have put in.
Body Language
Another way you can capture the eyes and hearts of your audience is through your body language. A very good example of how body language in some extreme forms can communicate emotions, and your overall performance is by dancing on stage. By dancing on stage we mean having a professional choreography for your performance and developing a unique style that your fans will learn to appreciate. If you’re not an avid dancer, you can always consider having dancers on stage, or if dancing is not at all your thing in general, there are still some key pointers to have in mind about your body language.
The message your body language sends to the audience is equally as important as your verbal message. Your facial expression as well as your stance (and eye contact like we’ve discussed beforehand) can play a critical role. If you’re wholeheartedly yourself on the stage, you will win the hearts of your audience. However, if you’re nervously shivering on the stage or show off your nervous habits such as touching your face, playing with your hair, or fidgeting, you are less likely to make a show-stopping performance that your fans will remember.
Improve Your Sound
They will not forgive you if you spoil their eardrums. Being on stage is so much different than being in the rehearsal room. This mostly has to do with the fact that the sound has to be perfect on stage which leaves little to no room for error. More often than not, performers won’t have the luxury of working with a professional sound engineer, but instead, the whole band is in charge of the mixing, or at least someone knows the basis of it.
It’s highly recommended that some of you know the basics of sound and the essentials of how to use a mixer. As many professional sound engineers will tell you, you should be sure to use the equalizer very wisely to create a well-balanced sound. You should also make sure to help each instrument fit in in the sound spectrum. In addition to this, you can use various sound editing software to perfect your craft and make your music sound much better to your audience. While it can be very hard to coordinate your brand because the drummer is always the loudest followed by guitarists which can strain the singer’s voice if they try to outvoice them. This is the last thing you want so be sure to reduce all sources of noise as much as possible.
Change Up the Mood
There are many tips and tricks on how you can captivate your audience, and many of them have plenty to do with your body language, and the mood it communicates. We’ve also previously discussed the importance of eye contact, and ultimately how important it is not to make big pauses during your performance. These long periods of quiet will prevent you from building momentum and capturing the hearts and eyes of your audience.
This is why we’ve paid special attention to what you can do to prevent this from happening. These tips will also help you to better tune in to what your audience needs and to ultimately change up the mood as you see fit. Variety is the spice of life, and this is no different for on-stage performance as well, and you need to look for ways to mix things up during your set. Whether it’s humor, serious music, singing along, connecting with the audience, or other aforementioned quirks, be sure to tune in to what is best for the given moment. However, don’t use too many things too quickly as this will have the opposite effect.
What Not to Do
There are, of course, many wrong ways to make an impression as well. To prevent this from happening we’ll discuss a few key pointers to keep you from ruining your show. Most artists make the same mistake of thinking the impression on their audience will be made by how well they sing and play. And while this is a very important factor, we’ll agree, there’s much more to it. If you mistakenly believe these are the only two factors that matter, you will have the wrong focus when you’re planning out your show. When your audience comes to your performance, they are there to see you as well, not just to hear your music. They want to be awed, and if they had just wanted to hear you play, they could have just stayed at home and binge listened to Spotify. People show up to see other people, not just to hear music. They come because it makes them feel more alive. When your audience hears you play and sing, most of them are not having the same experience, which is yet another argument why only these two factors aren’t important so be sure not to focus only on them during your next gig.
There are many ways you can capture both the eyes and the hearts of your audience, but they are all best achieved if combined. From physical aspects such as your body language, how much attention you pay to your audience to technical stuff such as planned outfits, sound engineering, nothing quite captures the audience like big visual effects which can be achieved with the simple help of large screens. And as many experienced UK production hire companies who’ve been in the business from the big music booms, you should be sure to consider this aspect the next time you plan a performance. This is a matter to take with utmost importance because you know how many big industry names came from London, let alone the whole UK.
