Perform Without Caveats: Own Your Art and Connect with Your Audience

When we excuse ourselves to others before they hear our work, we do a great disservice! This is something I'm working on too.

One lesson I’m working on learning myself is not to offer apologies, excuses, caveats, and so forth before I perform.

We’ve all done this when we are feeling doubtful, uncertain, and/or insecure.

We’ve all seen others do it and we are invited to witness their performance and have been prepared that it might be terrible.

It can sound like this:

“I’m going to play this new song and I don’t know it too well. I hope you like something about it. I am sorry but I haven’t had a lot of time to practice.”

Caveat: I’m sorry but I’m going to sing a song!

There are a lot of problems with these caveats and other qualifiers that we say before we perform. The biggest problem is that you cheat the audience out of having an amazing experience.

1. They are not you.

2. They don’t have your perspective.

3. They don’t know how much better your performance could be.

4. They don’t know what you are capable of.

5. They are there to listen to you and enjoy themselves and now call that into question. After all, they have limited time on this planet: How about allowing them to have their own experience?

The other giant problem with caveats is that the audience doesn’t know what to do with this information except to feel bad (or bad for you).

This was supposed to be great but they tell me it will be terrible. Why did I come here?

You may have lowered their expectations.

You may have also opened them to listening more critically and looking for mistakes that you have assured them are coming.

Can you make a pledge that the next time you perform, you won’t issue a caveat? Try it and see how it goes. Simply step up to the stage and say your name the song you are going to play and go…

See what happens and let me know!

Onward!

This is gonna be so painful that you will LOVE IT!