The key to putting on a successful live performance is to engage your audience. You need to play each song like there’s no tomorrow, but it’s also important to keep things lively in between songs and throughout your time on stage.

In this article, I will address the art of speaking to your audience during the periods when you’re not playing music. This aspect of live performance seems be very natural for some but very difficult for others. I will attempt to address some of the reasons for this and provide some tips for how to effectively engage your audience when you’re at the mic.

The rise of the home recording studio has had a huge impact on the way we produce music. These days songwriters have become do-it-yourself recordists with an affordable DAW, a few mics and a pair of monitor speakers. I’d like to share a simple tip for getting the most out of your performance on a recording when you’re playing the roles of artist, engineer, producer and studio assistant all at the same time.