Cast A Spell With Your Guitar series Part 1 – Play Quietly
Great solo performers can cast a spell on their audience with a sense of personal intimacy and you can too if you use dynamics well. What creates closeness between people? Think about it:
low lights – quiet – listening – space – closeness – patience
This translates into music as silence between notes, simplicity, low volume. Just like when you speak quietly to a friend they pay more attention to hear what you’re saying. It’s like a secret for their ears only.
YOUR dynamic range is fixed, either by the settings of the sound system or the lack of one. For your dramatic moments to have an impact on your fans’ feelings you need to set your basic groove at a medium or quiet level so that when you get loud and big, they FEEL it. If you start out fairly loud you have no room to expand upward, only downward.
Experiment 1 – Try playing one of your tunes as quietly as you can on your own. The lower you go, the more tools you’ll have to really connect with your fans. Put down the phone and try it.
(Coming in part 2: Using Silence)
