Any front men out there?

[Osensei]

After listening to a whole bunch of stuff lately. The obvious has finally occured to me. While its one thing to play comp behind vocals and other instumentation and take a solo here and there, it really takes a big pair to be a front man!

As a front man, nothing less than absolute perfection will do. Are any of you guys front men? If so how do you get up the nerve to put yourself out there night after night? Talk about stage fright! Wow! What do you handle the nerves and pressure?

I know practice makes perfect. But to me front men are the superhumans of our art!

[SpeedDemon]

I sing and play, and since the bands a 3 piece. I guess I am the 'front man'. As far as stage fright, maybe on the first gig. But now its just a pure rush.

[ratherdashing]

I don't know why, but for some reason the people I end up playing music with have no stage personality whatsoever. As such, I end up being the front man. I would love to be in a band with someone who oozes charisma and puts on a great show, but it never seems to happen.

[DonLduk]

uhm im creating a megadeth tribute show and as far as things are going, Im picturing myself as becoming the front man. I know what you mean about not the other band members having front man persona, so I think I will end up singing and front-maning... for the 1st time... im freaking out now! hehe

[Corbic]

We aren't very good yet, and don't have a vocalist, but I'm basicly the frontman for my band. My bassist and rhythm guitarist refuse to move because "Its so uncool to jump around and stuff onstage." Last I checked, the Who, Led Zeppelin, and Van Halen are pretty damn cool.

We haven't had a show yet, but I don't get stage fright at all (was in the school drama club for a bit, and decided that for my pops concert when we play Hey Jude in the Beatles medley to dress up like John Lennon, stand up, and sing instead of play, so I think I'm fine in that category).

[34029324079]

I have been the front man in the 3 bands that I have been in. We played some great shows - I am a singer in all 3 - I did not play guitar in 2 of the bands. Its fun making comments between songs, jumping around, and interacting with the crowd. When you have the mic, you definitely have the power! I stood on kegs, used hand motions, wore a leather jacket & all black, and had some crazy hair cuts to go along with my hard rock styled singing a la alice in chains.

[Nightrunner]

I sing and play, and since the bands a 3 piece. I guess I am the 'front man'. As far as stage fright, maybe on the first gig. But now its just a pure rush.

I'm in the same boat--Lead singer & guitarist in a power trio. Don't let the guys hear me talking about being a 'front man' though... Could cause some waves!

The bass player & I trade off talking at shows & he's the "pretty boy" of the band, but I'm "center" stage rockin the vocals! Fun stuff! I still get a little nervous, but we haven't played many gigs yet & they've been spread out... I do enjoy every show once we're on stage playing.


--Nightrunner

[Osensei]

I wouldn't say that I have stage fright. But the stuff I'm playing these days puts me right up against the edge of my technical ability. That really puts the pressure on. I'm mean the stuff I'm doing is difficult enough when I'm just practicing. I guess as my chops improve it won't be a problem. But for now I seem to manage ok.

To manage I take the advice of one of my favorite players. He said, "I just play a tune over and over again, until it becomes part of me". That's how I manage for now. But it drives everyone around me crazy!

[viewaskew2k5]

Someone the other day said 'jesse, your performance is like a cross between Prince and David lee roth. Your insane'
I said yes. yes i am.

[75lespaul]

I used to front a band called Led Pekker, hee hee. It was so much fun. I had some jitters but when the first power chord was hit I became a different person with no reservations at all. Gotta make sure you can sing what you're playing though, LOL. I have a very high voice so the guys wanted to do 2112 by Rush and Fight The Good Fight by Triumph. For some reason I could do them great in practice, but in a bar or what have you, I sucked BADLY. Maybe it was all the smoke in the room but whew! What a lousy feeling.

I just started playing with some guys now who need a lead singer. I had to ax Hell's Bells right off the bat. Just can't do that stuff anymore.

[Stevo]

I fronted a few bands as a guitarist/vocalist, but I always felt inferior and I'm not very exciting. I was only there because the other members sing worse than I do

I like to play, write and sing a few tunes, but not as the 'front' person.

[stevie_bees]

I'm stepping up to the "front man" role in my latest band. I've done it a couple of times, at jam nights and one off performances, but this will be my first "proper" go! I'm relishing the challenge, plus I get a friend of mine from a few years back to play guitar too. The Boys Are Back In Town is just a few rehearsals away!

[tone4days]

I fronted a few bands as a guitarist/vocalist, but I always felt inferior and I'm not very exciting. I was only there because the other members sing worse than I do

I like to play, and sing a few tunes, but not as the 'front' person.

this is my situation exactly ... even when we had a lineup shake-up last year and added a guy and a girl who both sing lead and play guitar (she only strums acoustic), i still ended up with more than 1/3 of the tunes to sing lead on

i dont get nervous, but i hate having to memorize all the lyrics ... i don't have a teleprompter assist like all the famous over-40 rockers use

[stevie_bees]

i dont get nervous, but i hate having to memorize all the lyrics ... i don't have a teleprompter assist like all the famous over-40 rockers use

+1, I'm not looking forward to that avenue of fun

[Robert Delahunt]

After listening to a whole bunch of stuff lately. The obvious has finally occured to me. While its one thing to play comp behind vocals and other instumentation and take a solo here and there, it really takes a big pair to be a front man! As a front man, nothing less than absolute perfection will do. Are any of you guys front men? If so how do you get up the nerve to put yourself out there night after night? Talk about stage fright! Wow! What do you handle the nerves and pressure? I know practice makes perfect. But to me front men are the superhumans of our art!

Yeah it's definitely a learned talent to be a frontman. Not easy at all. It's about being more entertainer than performer, in my opinion. As for handling nerves, it's more about learning to stay in control while nervous. I've done a piano recital before, and once you master being in control of what's going on, and your pieces are memorized, it's about control. Then again, nervousness is a good thing because your adrenaline starts flowing and you can actually become more highly aware of what's going on. There were times that it seems that my pieces (while being played almost too fast) were being played in slow motion.

Anyways, just my two cents.

[Zhangliqun]

I'm perfectly fine if I'm doing songs that I can really feel, meaning either they're songs I like a lot and can identify with the lyrics, or I wrote the tune (so I'd BETTER have a feel for it).

If I'm doing some song that I could take or leave I start thinking too much about how somebody else wants it to sound since I can't really feel it. Then it starts to fall apart.

As for interacting with the audience with the mic between songs, some nights I got it, some nights I don't. It seems like most of the time you have to say or do that one thing early on that gets them on your side, like a joke or gesture or something -- once you do that, you own them. Other times, thank God nowhere near as often, there's some kind of wall of futility between you and the crowd and everything you say just bounces off. Those are the nights you just go from one song to the next without talking much in between.

Way back in the early days, stage fright was a bit of a problem. But as the years passed and it became clear that in the average conversation in everyday life I was going to be interrupted or ignored or whatever more often than not (I have a speaking voice that doesn't carry so most people seem to think that means it's okay to walk up interrupt me when I'm talking to someone), I began to relish any moment when I had the mike, whether as a "front man" in a band or public speaking like in the pulpit at my church. As someone said earlier, there's a lot of power in being the man on the mike -- so it hit me that now is a time when everyone has to sit down, shut up, and hang on my every word -- without EVER interrupting me. MWA-HA-HA!!!

Need to work on my jumping around though. That's another thing that has to have a natural feel to it though. You can tell when a band it doing it because they think they have to vs. when they really feel it.

[frankfalbo]

I usually ended up fronting whatever band I was in. The last 10 years I play at church. At one point I led an acoustic service for a year or two, sometimes I lead the contemporary worship, so that's a "frontman" position I guess. It's strange though. In a band situation the frontman is the salesman of sorts. (Hey look at ME!)But in a worship setting you're trying to motivate others to worship, and actually decrease your own presence. It's a weird juxtaposition. The more you think you're doing a better job "fronting", it's likely that the worse job you're doing as a worship leader!

It is kind of hard to focus on both the singing and playing at the same time. But I've been doing that since high school, so it's second nature now. At one point I felt like I had crossed a threshold when my brain began truly processing both activities seperately. I could put one on "auto-pilot" and think about the other one while I was doing it, or I could actively concentrate and emote through both at the same time. The pinacle of that to me is soloing and playing at the same time, the way some older blues artists and SRV did.

I can play and sing what I'm playing too, like George Benson. That's an eye opener, when you try to do that for the first time. It's an exercise that seems counterproductive to trying to separate the two, but what it does is it really begins to deeply embed your guitar playing into parts of your brain, so later you CAN then put it on auto pilot when you have to.

That's the kind of practice that helps you be able to focus on the third thing, which is your "frontman" behavior. If you're singing and playing, that's only two things, and that does not make you a good frontman alone. So IMO you'd better be able to auto-pilot one or two of those tasks or else you're just singing and playing.

[LesStrat]

this is my situation exactly ... even when we had a lineup shake-up last year and added a guy and a girl who both sing lead and play guitar (she only strums acoustic), i still ended up with more than 1/3 of the tunes to sing lead on

i dont get nervous, but i hate having to memorize all the lyrics ... i don't have a teleprompter assist like all the famous over-40 rockers use

Music stand + binder + stand-lamp = problem solved.

[Loserchief]

i do the Vocals and rhythm/lead guitar(we do dual guitar solos, so the roles aren't 100% fixed) in my band and actually i just kinda got used to it. At first it sometimes was hard to combine complex death metal riffs and the growling so that it was in time and in tune, butit's more a matter of practice.
I'm not haunted with stagefright(i have quite some experience with theater acting and stuff) but it's more like an urge to go out there and rock.

[CenterStaqeSilver]

1) practice the tunes so you know them cold and can PLAY them creatively with gusto, which is 10 times superior than just reciting them because you're distracted or not sure of the feeling or how to play that one chord, DUH!. Are you a singer or a damned amateur librarian?
2) like the songs and like at least 5 people in the audience, so you WANT the songs to be performed and received well. If YOU aren't really enthusiastic about the songs, why should anyone else on Earth care if you live or die? Watch Pete Townsend play guitar.
3) be warmed up. Watch most live bands; the first three songs are a little mechanical, then it starts to get much more organic and rewarding for everyone.
4) make sure the instruments are well cared for. Fresh strings, clean pickups, tuned properly, EQ is OK, reeds, pads, etc.
5) when you talk to the audience, be alert, be personal and be funny and lighthearted to start things off. You're not playing to a store room full of kitchen utensils, you're dealing with people who have their own issues and hangups, so you'll have to put some spice on your red hots!