Last week’s Friday "Community Music" show was a success, and so were my setlist choices! The house concert attracted a houseful of over 50 people — predominantly University of Guelph students. I sang 11 songs in the 45 minute set list and not only felt personal achievement for several song choices, but I overcame one of the biggest challenges I face every show: engaging the crowd through ‘big’ ‘fun’ crowd participation.

Tom Jackson, performance coach, refers to the principle of “big and fun” in his workshop teaching material. In order to infuse big and fun into my set, I focused on creating a memorable experience at a specific point in the set, at song 6. (Click here to see how I chose my set.) 


Chocolate was involved!

How I created a memorable moment of big fun in my show:

1. I picked a song that is ideal for crowd participation (my original tune “Blue Like Jazz”)
   
2. I found a singable line to teach the audience (a simple 3 note bass line riff, followed by a finger snap)
   
3. Encouraged competition between 2 sides of the room to see who could sing their line the best
   
4. I handed out blue Hershey’s kisses as a prize.
   

Fail, fail, fail…. Rock!

I’ve tried at many previous shows to encourage a big moment of fun with this song “Blue Like Jazz.” Each time, I fell short because of various factors:

• Just singing the song, expecting people to have fun. Hmm, that may garner some finger snaps but that’s it.
  
• Asking people to snap along with the song. It got people grooving for the first 12 bars, but then snaps fizzled out because people get tired.
  
• Teaching people the 3 bass line notes and asking them to sing along without guiding them as to when to sing along, since that riff does come up a lot. (Intro, between verses, during piano solo?)
  
• Not giving clear enough instructions for their part to sing (by demonstrating the line, giving them time to learn)

This time, I was in the zone with a perfectly receptive crowd. I announced that I was going to need their help and teach them a part of the song. “I’ll demonstrate the line and you repeat it.” After the audience repeated, I said "that’s pretty good, but let's see which part of the room is better" The crowd got real excited when I pulled out the blue Hershey’s kisses and offered them to whichever side of the room could do a better job!

I thought through in advance how I was going to space out the audience singable parts with my own singable parts. This is how my song was structured: 

Crowd — Me (verse 1) — Crowd — Me (verse 2) — Crowd — Me (Chorus, Verse 3) — Crowd — Crowd again — Me (Piano solo, Chorus) — Crowd

I’m feeling the crowd’s energy: so be spontaneous!

Halfway through this experiment of a song, I realized the crowd was really having fun with their 3 notes and a snap and that if I didn’t do something, they were going to be bored.

I.e.: Switch it up. “Okay, everyone! This time, keep it real quiet!!” I reversed the criteria: rather than be loud, be soft.  It was a crazy thing to have the audience in the palm of your hand. Everyone sung their part in hushed tones, just like a grade 5 class having fun. It brought the room energy down, allowing me to change the dynamics for a repeat chorus.

I noticed some musician folks getting fancy and rambunctious, so I called out for some jazz cymbals, and a few people added cymbal noises with their finger snaps. It was a very fun moment for me as a performer to have the crowd with me, all of us smiling and having fun!! I'm typically not laid back and spontaneous, but this time, I was, and very happy with the result!

Lessons learned:

• This university crowd was hungry for competition (no pun intended). Competition is a great tool.
  
• The show attendees didn’t mind some seemingly juvenile singing activities; they had fun!
  
• I can be spontaneous and trust my performance instincts
  
• I’ll benefit by taking risks and learning from previous shows’ experience

Here's a live taping of "Blue Like Jazz" from six years ago. Finger snap along! :)