Four things you can do to improve your stage presence

Have you ever finished a concert with the feeling that something was missing? Did you ever feel like the audience wasn’t quite with you? Let’s talk about four things you can do to improve your stage presence at your next performance.

Use your eyes

The most basic way to improve your stage presence is to let the audience see you by making eye contact with them. This is worth practicing: from the moment the stage door opens for you to make your entrance, balance your head on your spine and look directly into the eyes of your audience members. Smile! Show them that you are at ease with them and let them imagine that they are in for a good time.

Once you’re in place on stage, take another look around. See your colleagues on stage, and see where your audience members are sitting. Make eye contact with individuals, and avoid casting a blank stare at no one in particular. If something funny happens, such as a mute dropping or a chair squeaking, share that moment of levity with your audience. Make them part of the action by including them with your eyes.

Talk to your audience

In the world of “classical” music, the tide has turned, thankfully, away from the days when classical music was thought to be “above” direct contact between performers and audiences. Classical musicians have begun to learn from performers of other styles of music that letting audiences see us as real people with our own voices, viewpoints, needs, and preferences is one of the best ways to improve your stage presence. Talking to your audience members is the one sure way to open the door for an audience member to become your ally. Showing your true self can be risky—maybe the audience won’t like you! But they can’t support you from the other side of the stage if you don’t invite them in.

Think about what you will say. It’s worth writing it down and practicing it. My trombone quartet, the STL Trombones, always checked in before a concert to make sure we were clear about who would introduce a given piece. We would rarely, if ever, read from notes. Gerry Pagano would even tell a tall tale or two to loosen things up. If you feel inspired, you can always go in a different direction, but having a starting point is calming for you. Practice how to use your voice. In a smaller space, speaking without a microphone requires your voice to do all the work. Practice your pacing and the pitch of your voice. Experiment with your inflection. Record yourself. If you are in a space that requires the use of a microphone, learn how to hold it for the best sound. Pro tip: holding the mic like an ice cream cone under your chin is probably not going to work very well!

Connecting with your audience can and should begin well before you set foot on stage. In your preparation for the performance, both in the practice room and in rehearsal, think about what you can say that your audience will want to connect with. For instance, if you are presenting a piece that your audience hasn’t heard before, you can talk about why you connect with the piece. Avoid simply saying “I love it” or “It’s a great piece.” Go deeper into it. Why are you attracted to the piece? Why does it move you? Be specific about your connection to the piece, and invite your audience to share in that experience.

Be in touch with yourself and your fellow performers

We communicate not only with our music and our voices but also with how we move our bodies. I don’t only mean how we move along with a phrase or an accent. People can read us by how we sit, how we stand, how we carry our heads, and how we deliver our weight through our feet. When we are centered, grounded, and balanced, when we move with intent to make our musical sounds and “dance” with the music, we communicate that ease to our audiences, both in the music we make and the movements they see. 

I am a licensed teacher of Body Mapping, and one of the practices we teach is called Inclusive Awareness. When we practice Inclusive Awareness, we bring both inner and outer experience into one larger, wider, deeper awareness. Inner awareness includes everything inside us, including our emotions, our breathing, what hurts or feels good, the feeling of gravity holding us in place, the feeling of our clothes on our skin, and our kinesthetic awareness, which is our awareness of our body in space and in movement. Outer awareness includes the room we are in and the people in the room. In performance, keep your colleagues on stage and your audience in your total awareness. They will instinctively know you are available to them.

Let your audience know you care

Think about what you would need if you were attending your concert as a listener. Would you know what’s going on? Is it clear when one piece or song ends and when the next one begins? Would you need help with what to listen for? Are words being sung that are difficult to understand or in a foreign language? Are there bits of information that only you know that, if shared, could help the audience have a successful listening experience? Take some time to list these essentials and practice how you will share this information.

Finally, at every opportunity, show your gratitude to your audience with your gestures and your words. Keep making eye contact with individuals in the audience as you talk to them. Let them know that you appreciate their attendance and their response to you. Saying “thank you” multiple times throughout your performance will improve your stage presence and make your audience feel welcome and connected.