I’m a serious procrastinator.
The kind of procrastinator that waited until May 1st to start prepping his hour long set on May 18th. I’m performing at Porchfest and have about 48 minutes of music planned, leaving the rest for talking and crowd interactions.
The problem is I haven’t performed much at all in the last 10 months or so.
Like all skills, memorization based song performances are a bit of a challenge when you haven’t practiced those songs in a long time.
I face an extra challenge as the entire set needs to be family friendly.
Not only will I need to be ready to go with my part of 11 songs, I need to do it all without cussing, which is not how I memorized everything in the first place.
I figured today I’d share a little bit on how I will approach this show prep.
Step 1 - Choose the songs to perform and figure out how they tie together on stage
Right before I wrote this I did a run through of my current set list.
At this point in the game I have my wishlist of songs. These are the ones that given all the discipline and practice I will deliver with great finesse come showtime.
Since the first song I’m performing was written in like 2012 and the second song was written in 2022 I saw a story arc. I could show people my music across my 12 years of performing and tell cutesy stories between each.
Then you see how long the run time of all the music is back to back. If you have 60 minutes, don’t have more than 50 minutes of music planned. Give yourself space to talk to the people.
Be ambitious with your song choices, reality hasn’t kicked in yet.
Step 2 - Compile all the live versions of the song and do a dry run
Do your best to get “live versions” of your songs made.
I like to mute my main vocals and leave my backs and choruses/bridge parts at half volume. In this case I will actually have to go into all my live versions and delete the swearing, it’s going to be a bunch of chops, but I will own that in the performance. It’s a self-aware reality of cussing music.
You’ll then need to run through those songs.
This time I loaded them all into a Spotify playlist that uses local files on my phone.
Once I got that set up it’s dry run time. I try, and often fail, to get through each song. That’s okay, the goal is to see which songs I know.
This tells me where I need to focus my effort.
Step 3 - Begin daily practice: focus on memorization
I will start by running through my set reading the lyrics on each song.
It’s easier for me to remember things I’ve read. As I practice I create a visual map I can almost read in my mind when I get stumped performing.
Based on the previous step I spend the bulk of my energy on the songs I don’t know well.
Over the years I have found that practicing 10 mins a day for 12 days is more effective than doing 2 hours at once. Especially when you need to lock down 6 songs you aren’t comfortable with.
It’s important to take that time for each song.
At this point the ideal set list is still in play.
Step 4 - Lock in the songs you actually can deliver
After a solid 3-4 days of honest effort it’s clear which songs I will be able to memorize.
For the ones I can't, it's time to pivot.
There are two solid options.
Find songs I know better. Personally I’ve got over 20 in the catalogue to pull from.
Find a friend to take up part of my time slot.
Whichever direction I go I need a solid 10 days to be fully ready.
It’s important to not be cocky. If you aren’t able to learn a song, save it for next time.
The beauty of this excercise is next time I won’t be rusty for my next set.
That is if I stay practicing in the off season.
Step 5 - Practice until the songs are memorized
This step is just taking the time to practice.
By now I’m usually “off script”. I’m running through the songs and taking note of which lines I mess up. Then later on in the day, during showers and chores I focus on the specific lyrics I habitually mess up.
I will also start actually practicing with a mic in hand. I move around my room and start to incorporate my choreography. The most important part is to get myself used to rapping while my heart rate is elevated.
You don’t want to find out on stage your breathing is off.
On average my FitBit says I hit a heart rate of 135-145 BPM for my set. You need to practice at that heart rate. Your breathing will not be the same as when you are at rest.
I try to run through the set in full each day and then focus on the songs I’m weaker on.
As I perform the songs in this order I start to visualize the set with a crowd.
Step 6 - Script out your crowd interactions and theatrics
As the days to showtime get closer I start adding in the conversation between songs.
While I’ll wing it a bit on stage, I make sure I know the main talking points for each break. Scripted stuff will often come off stiff, but you want to be deliberate in what you say. You should take the time to make your set make sense to people. Create an experience, you are in fact, the MC of the show.
I think of the intro. Then I think of anecdotes to share. I figure out when I will give away 20$ (every show with my name someone gets 20$).
When necessary props get acquired. Someone may get a red rose during my performance. The theatrics matter.
You can perform a bunch of songs back to back with no breaks, but in my experience, it’s hard to pull that off. You want some level of interaction with the audience. As discussed in my Big Dogs Only show review, your job is to be hospitable.
At this point, you are show ready. To be fair your last run through should probably be the day of the event.
Although I’m performing at noon, I doubt I’m doing that.
In conclusion: don’t be like me, practice and stay ready
Had I spent even an hour a week practicing my music I’d be ready.
Instead I needed to craft this time intensive game plan to avoid embarrassing myself. I have 15 more days and I’ll be ready. I’m already way better than my first dry run.
A lot of these songs I know deep down. Three of the songs I’ve never performed before. This is part of the job.
Not swearing is actually way easier than I thought.
Looking forward to seeing you on May 18 for Porchfest.
Live Long and Prosper Everyone
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