The top ten things you can do to start out on the right foot.1. Relax.
Seriously, that is the most important thing you can do. Remember people aren’t really paying attention when you first start playing. They are jabbering to friends in IM, cooking dinner, sorting laundry, and picking their nose. They really only start to take notice when you start doing something good. Remember most the music in Second Life sucks ass, so if you really start off on the wrong foot, nobody is going to piss in your popcorn.
2 Voice up front.
Most musicians feel they’ve spent a lot of time mastering (snicker) their instrument and want to feature it prominently. Many are also not very confident about their voice. But the sad fact of the matter is most people connect to the music via the singer. We all can relate to the act of singing. Even if the listener knows they can’t sing well, they still understand it. Words make sense. Notes are either right or wrong, but words convey emotional content.
3. Remember, “I’m having technical difficulties”.
Okay, you have just started a song, and suddenly you can’t remember how to play it, what the words are, or why you thought it was a good idea to get out of bed in the morning. Most try to pull it together, fumble about, flail about, start to panic, have a major bout of insecurity, and spend the rest of the show thinking, “God I suck”.
While you might well suck, you don’t suck because you had a mind fart. It happens to everybody… except of course me.
If you are totally stuck just stop, and use this phrase. “I’m having technical difficulties”. People listening assume you were distracted by some glitch in the system, and still hope you might provide them with a good listening experience.
This works best for total melts downs, Minor booboos can be covered with the phrase, “That is how you know it’s live music”.
4. Sound good
While this might seem like a no brainer, it’s funny how many people don’t seem to realize their sound is sapping my will to live. The guitar might be way to loud and sound like it’s crammed up a baboon’s ass, the voice is breaking up, the stream is skipping. All kinds of sonic evil can be happening while the performer bears their soul. If you have headphones, use them. Do listen to what is going out on the stream. If you don’t have headphone, and are going uber low tech, let me suggest a single mic and an acoustic guitar. Not acoustic/electric, or if you have one don’t plug it in unless you can hear the mix (I’m talking earphones again).
Put your mic about eight inches from your mouth, with the mic pointed right at your face. This is a lot further away then most people are use to, but what you are doing is picking up the voice and guitar in the same mic. The position of the mic makes sure the voice is up front. Take a look at the VU meters in your streaming software to make sure you have a good signal, not too high or low.
While this is not perfect sound (you could debate the best way to go about that for ages) it is almost always (like 98% of the time, depending mostly on the quality of your mic) good sound with a solid mix. It’s so simple it really lets you concentrate on your show.
While this is not the set up I currently use, it was what I started out streaming to Second life with. It gave me a solid base to work out my show with. I still use a good deal of acoustic feed from the guitar, and a small amount of pick up. But I have played some shows without being plugged in and didn’t even realize it until mid show (some songs require a bit more emphasis from the pick up, and until I play one of those songs it’s only purpose is to shore up the bottom end a bit).
5. Relax.
Not a typo. It’s that important.
6. Remember you are playing to one person.
I know there might be a bunch of Avatars at the venue you are playing. But don’t freak out. All shows are the same in the fact each person listening is just one person sitting in front of their computer. This works in your favor if you remember it. Don’t treat the audience like a group of people because at the end of the chain, that is not how they are experiencing the show. Be personable. Be nice. Tell the story behind the song. Allow your listener to come to realize there is a person on your end of the chain singing songs to them.
7. Don’t read chat when you are playing
This is probably the most difficult thing to ignore when you start out. You want to know how you are doing, and you seem to think if you read chat it will give you a clue.
It won’t. There will be a lot of crap like “Wow, I love this song”, “Beautiful”, “Wooot” and of course, “RUUUUUGGGGBBBAAAAA”. But these comments indicate NOTHING. Most are emotes that the brain dead seem to use to pass the time. You can’t really play well if you are trying to read.
We all get “BUSTED” reading the chat during songs, do try to avoid it the best you can. Close you eyes if you need to.
While you should not read chat during songs, you might want to look at your IM’s in-between songs. They might have an important message in them like, ”Hey your mic seems to be off”.
8. Woodshed
Find a dump that will book anybody and play there often to get your show up to speed. Don’t run off to the “Career making” shows until you have some kind of grip on the mechanics of what you are doing. By the way, while it’s rumored there are some venues that will put you on the path to glory, that is a myth. It’s all hard work and grinding away building you fan group and working on your performance. It doesn’t really matter if you are the best thing since the wonder bra.
9. Take your music seriously, everything else not so much
Now some are going to accuse me of being an elitist asshole here. But when it comes to Music in Second Life all that should really matter is the music. Take it dead seriously or you are part of the problem, not part of the solution.
If you have nothing to contribute, then don’t waste people’s time. There are too many self-indulgent assholes playing rock star. The sad fact of the matter is the system in place seems to only encourage this behavior. So many Karaoke fucktards with chick managers seem to pop up at every “Open mic”, most of the non-music community population thinks that is what makes up “Live music in Second life”.
Play something real. Play something you love. Play something that will touch someone. Make a difference and don’t let the bullshit get you down.
You’ll play shows and only a few people will be there. It doesn’t mean you suck.
You’ll play shows and it will seem like the whole world is there. It doesn’t mean you’ve made it to the big time
Your group will swell and shrink. Don’t worry about that.
People will cancel shows, don’t take it personally.
The stream will fuck up.
You won’t be able to TP to your show.
The Sim crashed.
Your Internet service provider is having problems providing you service.
Money transfers are suspended during you show (thank you Linden labs)
A million and one problems can and will try to prevent you from doing the one thing that matters most. Play your music. If you music is important to you, you’ll endure these indignities with as little grumbling as possible. It’s actually amazing when things work the way they should
Laugh it off little Buckaroo. It’s only Second Life.
If getting your music to the people that will enjoy it is important to you, all the other crap doesn’t matter a wit. Don’t get hung up on tips and fees. It only amounts to a few bucks either way in real life. Play the shows that will get you in front of the people that need to hear your music.
10. Relax.
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