Playing live is an experience that can be nerve-wracking, intense, and a highly-charged experience. So it’s really important to make sure that you harness and use these feelings in a positive way, to your advantage. 

The list below offers tips, advice, and things to consider to ensure that your first experience playing live goes as smoothly as possible. This means you can focus and put your energies into performing well and having fun, not into worry and anxiety.

You’ll notice that every tip in the list begins with the word ‘prepare’. This is because preparation is the key to success in this area. Preparation brings confidence, certainty, self-assurance, readiness, and everything else important in playing live as well as you can. So get ready!

This sounds like an obvious one. But I don’t just mean prepare your material, I mean really, really prepare your material.

You should be able to run through your set list forwards, backwards, and in the dark. Because things happen, when you’re playing live. Things do go wrong, circumstances are never perfect, and so you need this solid core of rehearsed material on which you can rely.

If hitches do come along, and collide with half-baked, under-rehearsed material, you’re in trouble. Get it right, get it ready, and then you’re ready for anything.

This is about taking care of all the little things involving your equipment, so that you can depend on it to be as ready for the task as you are. It’s also super important to bring a backup guitar just in case something happens. Plus, bring cables just in case also! 

Are your strings a year old? Or brand new this morning? Either way, they’re more likely to break than a set that’s been put on 1-2 weeks ago, ‘played in’ and allowed to settle.

Does your strap always fall off when you stand and play? Order some strap locks, and make sure they arrive in time.

Where do you keep your picks, or plectrums? If you drop one mid song, what’s your plan?

And finally, every guitarist has that one item that always seems to be on the verge of breaking down. A crackling cable, or a funny-acting effects pedal, or whatever it may be. If there’s one time you can’t depend on it, it’s on the night of the show. So get it sorted now!

This one has a double meaning. Firstly, good sleep and exercise routines translate into more energy and lower anxiety. Both of which are very helpful on the day of the performance.

Secondly, stretch and warm up beforehand to make sure you’re physically ready to play, in a muscular sense. Give yourself at least 30 minutes of practice so that your hands are ready to play, and your mind is sharp for when the lights go down. 

Don’t let hitting the stage be the first time you’ve played all day, that’s going into the situation cold. Playing beforehand, or earlier in the day, is really important in being and feeling ready. But of course, don’t go the other way and play 12 hours straight and risk injury!

This is about nerves, mostly. It’s natural to have a lot of “What if?” questions circling round in your head before a show. What if this breaks, or I mess that bit up, or that thing goes wrong, and so on.

Think about when the situation is reversed, and you’re in the audience. You want the performer to do well, you want the show to go well, and you are supportive and encouraging and enthusiastic.

When we’re the one on stage, suddenly we start thinking the audience may be against us, or want it to go wrong for us, and it’s just not the case. Remind yourself why you’re there! 

The other element here is just to pre-empt some of the possible hurdles, though crucially without taking this way too far and worrying yourself crazy over every little detail.

Just think over some of the things that may be difficulties - needing to tune up mid-set, dropping picks, forgetting lyrics, and so on - and remind yourself how you’re going to work through it.

This will be partly out of your control, unless you own the venue! However, do what you can to familiarize yourself with the space, sound, and setup. And where possible, arrange the space to your needs.

Getting a good sound check can be a real mixed bag. Sometimes it’s thorough and helpful and exactly right. Other times it’s a 5 minute rush that feels like it does more harm than good!

So be prepared - be ready to start your sound check when the engineer is ready for you, work efficiently and simplistically, follow their instructions, and if something doesn’t sound right to you, or isn’t audible, say so - quickly and clearly - to get it resolved.

Think about if you have a preferred side of the stage to be on, where you like your amplifier to be in relation to you, where your band members should be in relation to each other (this may depend on if there’s a ‘band leader’ or someone everyone needs to look to for cues). 

As above, all these factors may not be under your control, however, those that are can be achieved, and those that aren’t - well, you can find other solutions and prepare differently next time around.

Oh, and don’t forget to have fun and enjoy the show!

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