How To Develop ‘Stage Presence’ As A Guitarist
As a guitarist, have you ever asked yourself if you have good ‘stage presence’? It might be you first time or 100th time playing live on stage in front of an audience, but have you consciously thought about how you will ‘perform’ on stage?
Stage presence is one of those things that a lot of guitarists don’t think about much. It’s kind of complicated to define exactly how to improve your stage presence. If you were to compile a list of artists who have a great stage presence, you would quickly realise that everyone is different and performs in their own unique way.
So, here is my attempt at providing a general guide for developing and improving your stage presence as a guitarist.
What ‘Stage Presence’ mean?
Basically, ‘Stage Presence’ is the conveyance of being comfortable on stage and complementing your guitar playing with the appropriate ‘energy’. Appropriate is the key word here. Some forms of showmanship will fit better with certain musical style than others.
For example, you don’t typically see a jazz guitarist playing his Gibson ES-175 behind his head in the middle of a song, whereas this would be totally normal for a blues guitarist (ie. Stevie Ray Vaughan).
6 Tips To Develop ‘Stage Presence’ As A Guitarist
Here are some general tips to improve your stage presence that you can apply to just about any musical style.
1. Confidence – ‘Fake It Til You Make It’
This is the basic fundamental behind stage presence. If you are going to do something on stage then you need to put your all into it. So if you jump around, jump like a crazy guy or if you make a joke see it through to the end. Confidence starts in knowing what parts you are playing and what you will be doing to support the song. This could be as simple as making a mental note “What is the next song on the list?” or just thinking ahead in the parts you’re playing. Even at some point you don’t ‘feel’ confident, you must at least look like you’re in control.
When you play music ‘live’ there are so many things that can go wrong. You’ve probably experienced a power glitch, broken string, bad stage foldback/sound, technical problems, or just plain old brain-farts while trying to perform a song or two. Preperation can help, but it’s just a part of live music to experience and deal with problems.
The key as a guitarist is to maintain your composure and keep the audience unaware that something is wrong. Keep on your happy face and stay confident no matter what happens. Everyone came to listen to good music and have a good time rather than notice the way you fixed all the problems. One of the most valuable skills to learn as a live musician is the art of a ‘quick recovery’. If you make a mistake, ignore it and move on. The audience will forget it as fast as you do (if they noticed it in the first place). Facial expressions or comments only draw attention to the mistake and make it easier to remember.
2. Think Of Others
When playing guitar live, you will most likely being either playing with others, for others or both 
Live music is a shared experience and you need to be aware of what’s happening around you. A classic mistake for beginners is to be so focused on getting their parts right that you forget everything else happening around you on stage.
The classic example of what not to do is the guitarist that lurks in his corner of the stage, never lifting his eyes from his instrument and sometimes drifting out of time because he is not listening to his band mates.
It’s important to listen and interact with your band mates as you are playing music together. Are you playing lead under a vocal line, try walking up to the lead singer and lean in for that part. Are there a bunch of accents played in unison with the drummer? Get up close and really play together. Don’t forget to interact with the crowd. See that guy in the front row playing air guitar while watching your band, why not walk to the front of stage and play to him!
3. Enjoy Yourself
Avoid sending out bad vibes at all costs. Make sure you’re enjoying playing guitar on stage. If you aren’t enjoying yourself on stage, the audience probably won’t either. It’s amazing the difference you can make just by smiling. Trying looking at your drummer and laughing in the middle of a song. Turn to the keyboard player and give a nod of approval when you hear a great keys line in the song. Even if you’ve just had an argument before getting on stage, put on a fake smile so that the audience can enjoy the music.
4. Record Videos Of Yourself
It’s amazing how many little details you notice when you watch yourself back on film. Get one of your mates to record your performance on stage and then watch it later. At first it may be uncomfortable to watch, but it offers great rewards in regards improving your stage presence.
5. Develop Your Personality
When you step on stage, it’s time to leave your quiet personality behind. It’s amazing how many famous guitarists are actually really quiet and reserved when not on stage. Yet when they get on stage they are a teeth-picking, guitar-burning, rock star! It’s important to step out of your comfortable zone and entertain the crowd. Make it easy for people to get out of their seats and enjoy the music.
6. Watch Live Music
Try and get to as many live performances as you can. Watch how the show starts and ends. What impression do you get from watching the band/artist playing live? How do the musicians interact with each other? How do they interact with the audience? What are the transitions like between songs? You can learn so much from watching live bands/artists.
Your Say.
What are some ways that you have developed ‘Stage Presence’?
Have you seen any great videos where the band has a really good ‘vibe’ on stage? Feel free to share in the comments below.
Tags: Confidence, Stage Presence, tips
About The Author: Danny
I have been playing guitar for over 20 years now and love it more every day. I hope through this blog I can inspire and be inspired by other musicians. Music is a journey, and this blog is my way of sharing that.
View all articles from Danny (61)
23.06.11
This is one of my favourite bands at the moment..
I reckon they have great stage presence: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWp_JHn-I88&NR=1
24.06.11
Read your article on stage presence. Every component is valid and useful. But, there are anomalies.
I saw Iris DeMent—a big hitter on the folk/country scene. She had the most awkward stage presence. Clunking and banging into things, clumsily dragging stage accessories around, like a nervous klutz. All with a dead pan demeanor. Shtick is the word for it. Her songs for most part are on the serious and sentimental side. It’s like she would use the time between songs to lighten things up at here own expense.
24.06.11
One of the problems my own band faced, was keeping the whole presentation “fresh” – trying not to say the same things all the time between songs, not resorting to old habits, because usually the folks at the show have been to at least one other performance and they want to see something a little different.
One of the tricks we used to combat the problem was to occasionally come up with a fictional backstory before we went on stage – members of the band assumed fictional identities and we basically improv’ed with each other as these characters between songs.
One of my favourites was the night we pretended to be Germans from Saskatchewan travelling through Canada. It was fun to be “Klaus” for the night, basically shticking it up with “Otto” the bass player. The point is that it was fresh and fun for us, so we had some laughs and enjoyed ourselves, which I think always enhances the audience’s perception of the fun they are having themselves.
If the band isn’t having fun, it’s not very likely that anybody else is….
01.07.11
Back in the late ’60′s our band had a chance to do a TV appearance lip-synching to a record we’d just released. Our manager rented a dance studio for us to practice “being on TV” while playing along with our record. Dance studio??? Yes, because it had a full wall of floor-to-ceiling mirrors. We could see ourselves as a live audience would see us. And our manager also reminded us that on TV our moves get shrunk down from life-size images to what is viewed on a tiny screen by comparison. So for TV, especially long shots of the band, a move has to be highly exaggerated to even be detected on a 13″ or even a 19″ screen size. (This was way before the era of 54″ flat panel displays!)
Bottom line: get a video camera and someone who can get close-ups, mid-range and long shots of you performing, and closely analyze the playbacks of yourself and/or the band. If you’re really looking to improve, play it back for people you trust to give you honest critiques rather than spare your feelings because they’re your close friends/relatives/significant others.
01.07.11
I agree.Three or four times a year we take a videocamera with us and film the whole gig. You can learn so much of looking back at your own performance!
01.07.11
Watching your first videos of your shows can be enlightening – or very horrifying. I thought that I had some rocking moves at a recent show. When I saw the video I looked like a frog that needed to take a dump!
When you’re practicing at home it can helpful to stand up, strap up, use your full amp rig and try to imaging the audience out in front of you. Practicing in front of a mirror sounds cheesy and egotistical – but it can help you put on a eye-popping entertaining show.
You also want a stage presence that matches your music. Robert Fripp does fine by sitting on a stool but Gene Simmons kind of needs the makeup, firebombs and confetti.
11.07.11
I just cop Meshuggah cuz I’m old too… just slump in time with the music… LOL! Everyone here should see Dillinger Escape Plan at least once though to know what it’s like to really tear it up! Those guys are nuts.
12.07.11
Did you mean these guys?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-lxwlgyhhA
05.03.12
I think this article is not for everyone. For example I am the guy who has to sit down (not play standing up) and concentrate deeply to play music. if I try to look at my guests guess what I screw up and make all kinds of mistakes something ones that will break a song completely. I play lead guitar. I have to look at the strings or I play the wrong notes and screw up if I take my eyes of the guitar.
Your article doesn’t tell one how to get to this stage you talk about only that that is something one should be doing. This is not informative. Only a handful of people can play in a world class band and act world class like tv stars or pop icons. They are exceptional.
Tell me what I’d have to do to be able to not look at the strings while not completely screwing up??????
I’ve been playing for 5 years every day.
Adrian
25.07.12
> Tell me what I’d have to do to be able to not look at the strings while not completely screwing up??????
Adrian, seriously, just stop considering “world class bands” as “they”. Believe your or not, potential world class bands are mine and yours, so WE are not exceptional or excluded regarding a really great world-class stage presence during OUR live performance, friend!
P.S. greetings from Russia, by the way
09.09.12
Your advice assumes people are good enough to multitask while playing their instruments. Not all can. I certainly can’t at 42. I find I have to sit down so I don’t trip and fall let alone play and move around at the same time. Can you explain some advice how an amateur can improve stage presence? Older people like me who at 40 started the guitar. thanks.
16.02.13
Adrian,
Stop looking at the damn strings when you practice. Guess what? Your hands know what they are doing. Try playing whole songs at home without looking at the strings except for large position changes.
I had one part of a solo I kept screwing up, with a 10 fret position change, and my guitar teacher told my to stop looking at the strings. Guess what? I nailed it every time. The muscle memory was there but the brain and the eyes were getting in the way.
Try it and you’ll see very quickly. You play on stage the way you practice. Try learning a new song without looking. It’ll take a little longer but the sooner you learn to trust yourself the better your playing will get. Promise!