Stage Presence for Guitarists

[asmegin_slayer]

Headbanging helps, but additional movement while headbanging or a combination really makes a big difference.

Example: Check out the bassist

 

[ST3MOCON]

Just try and have fun! Wen you have fun you will have your best show!

 

[steve1]

Do everything this guy does.




edit: this actually happen to me once. minus the dress sense.
back in my teenage years. the guitar flew across the room narrowly avoiding a wall of windows. lesson learned.

 

[tetrapotmelontea]

I find it harder to have a high stage presence as a guitarist, it's much easier as a bassist IMO.
I just find it much easier in general to fuck up on guitar

funny i was actually just about to post the opposite. i can be playing insane technical music on guitar and still be thrashing around all dep style whereas I find it hard to go off when im playing bass, I'm too busy focusing on staying in the pocket

 

[Razzy]

 

[Soubi7string]

not gonna lie that vid made them sound like straight up shu-IT.I may not like their music but I'm fairly sure they aren't THIS terrible.

on the stage presence thing, it is something to work on.
I used to have none and now I've been practicing and (a wireless helps as well) getting your whole body into it and staying in time while doing so is key.

I windmill,headbang,run in circles(if the area permits me),make those weird faces on certain hits, and all kinds of shit like that.
in the best term possible

Just roll with it.

 

[timbaline]

Do what this guy does, except with a guitar and on stage. You have to wear the same type of clothes though.

 

[projectjetfire]

Tbh, I find the staring at one person in the crowd and connecting with them is great. Im in a straight up pop/rock covers band and going mad like DEP would be just stupid so you have to tone it right down. Dont think you HAVE to move around, it just gives you something else to worry about. To make a list, Id have to say:

Foot on monitor (if nothing else, its doing something while doing nothing)
Foot stomps (also helps with timing)
Singing along the words (also shows you know what the singer is saying, which I didnt in a few bands until I realised how fucking shit the singers lyrics were)
Pointing

and Im surprized no one has mentioned this..

THE CLAW

(If you have to ask...)

Make sure you have fun with your band though, otherwise you'll be posing out too much and forget whats going on musicially.

 

[Albionic]

Two words
"power slide"

 

[Albionic]

Two words
"power slide"

 

[stevo1]

windmills!

 

[RevDrucifer]

The biggest thing I had to teach myself in my younger days was to just get into the music. Who didn't headbang and jump around their rooms when they were younger, just going crazy cuz ya loved the music so much?

Shit, I'm nearly 30 and I still do that.

But that same feeling is the one I go for when I'm onstage. Ya just let loose, dig on the music and the body will follow.

If ya take a look at some of the best showman, Zakk Wylde in his early days, Dimebag, Vai (even though he brings teh cheese to the burger), Angus Young, EVH...or even singers, I mentioned Mike Patton before, Axl Rose, Layne Staley.....they all become physical extensions of the music their performing.

 

[blister7321]

windmills!

+1

 

[Fiction]

The biggest thing I had to teach myself in my younger days was to just get into the music. Who didn't headbang and jump around their rooms when they were younger, just going crazy cuz ya loved the music so much?

Shit, I'm nearly 30 and I still do that.

But that same feeling is the one I go for when I'm onstage. Ya just let loose, dig on the music and the body will follow.

If ya take a look at some of the best showman, Zakk Wylde in his early days, Dimebag, Vai (even though he brings teh cheese to the burger), Angus Young, EVH...or even singers, I mentioned Mike Patton before, Axl Rose, Layne Staley.....they all become physical extensions of the music their performing.

Mike Patton extends himself physically so fucking far his not even on our planet anymore...

 

[larry]

remember when you were like 4 or 5 and you would dance and it didn't matter who was
watching or how it looked? well, tap into that. i play in a metal band but i was never
interested in looking the part at all. i just made sure i was playing my ass off and having
a great time with the audience. i feel pretentious when i try to get 'metal'. that shit
just doesn't work for me. however gettin' my swerve on while playin' extra solid made
for a great stage experience on my end which extended over to the audience. FWIW,
i have had to talk to more random white girls because of my stage presense.

in short, play super tight and just have a fucking blast with the audience -- even if
you're just playing to the bar tender..... (just sayin')

 

[nothingleft09]

Dude, check out Killswitch Engage's Set this world ablaze DVD. Adam D. is one hilarious mother f*&6$r on stage. The whole band moves around alot and they do cool tricks and stuff. This video is of a local band in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

 

[Konfyouzd]

As long as you look like you're having fun, the audience is having fun and a lot of the time this simple fact will even help to disguise fuck ups as long as you can play it off...

 

[Explorer]

Here's a observation on what I've read so far in this thread: Everyone is reaching for a small area of music to define stage presence.

My suggestion? Don't.

The biggest example of reaching outside what might be considered the norm would be Mick Jagger, who is the lead singer of the Rolling Stones. He struts about on stage like no one else.

Or... does he?

In order to develop his stage presence, he asked the help of a different performer. He got advice, and learned that person's moves... but, as they were two different people, his interpretations came across as distinctly his own personality.

So, looking at those two performers, Mick Jagger and his stage personality mentor Tina Turner, it would seem that one could look further than what has been suggested so far.

Why do what all the other metal guitar players have done, and just fit a stereotype?

Why attempt to rise above the noise level, but fail because you emulate the same noise level?

How will that make you stand out from everyone else doing the same thing?

It won't.

 

[RevDrucifer]

Here's a observation on what I've read so far in this thread: Everyone is reaching for a small area of music to define stage presence.

My suggestion? Don't.

The biggest example of reaching outside what might be considered the norm would be Mick Jagger, who is the lead singer of the Rolling Stones. He struts about on stage like no one else.

Or... does he?

In order to develop his stage presence, he asked the help of a different performer. He got advice, and learned that person's moves... but, as they were two different people, his interpretations came across as distinctly his own personality.

So, looking at those two performers, Mick Jagger and his stage personality mentor Tina Turner, it would seem that one could look further than what has been suggested so far.

Why do what all the other metal guitar players have done, and just fit a stereotype?

Why attempt to rise above the noise level, but fail because you emulate the same noise level?

How will that make you stand out from everyone else doing the same thing?

It won't.

Brother, you said it in your own post!

The OP is lookin' for suggestions....so was Mick Jagger!

He took what he was taught and worked it into his own routine. Essentially, the OP is doin' the same thing Jagger did.

 

[RevDrucifer]

Mike Patton extends himself physically so fucking far his not even on our planet anymore...

Which makes for amazing stage presence.