I'm Bombing and I Know It

Practice Makes Perfect
You practice all your songs over and over again. You can play them with your eyes close. You rehearse and rehearse until every note, pitch, and rhythm is crisp and in perfect sync. You are prepared and ready to get up in front of that audience and rock the house.

No Excuses
No matter how prepared you might be for a performance, for all musicians, the fear of bombing in front of an audience is a very real and frightening possibility. There are many elements that a musician can control, however, audience reaction isn't one of them. Maybe you're having an off night? Maybe you have a cold? Maybe you just suck? Unfortunately, the audience could careless about any of those factors, the audience wants to be entertained and they want to be entertained with some good music, a witty performance, and an overall quality that is worthy of being heard by others.

Bombing Happens
If you have been a performer long enough, at some point in your career you have probably bombed or are going to bomb. It happened to me the other day. My audience was a group of about 75 K-5th grade kids at a school in Dublin, CA. From the moment the kids walked into the auditorium I had an uneasy feeling about this group. The kids would not settle down. They continued to talk and talk and rough house with each other even after the teachers basically yelled at them to stop. The teachers eventually gave up and just turned the kids over to me. As per my usual, I went through my routine of explaining my expectations and what the kids should expect during the show. I did what I have done a million times in a million schools with a million different kids, however, this time, the show was not falling into to place. The kids booed me and they yelled "Boring!" Hell, the show hadn't even really started yet and I was already getting heckled.

Run and Hide?
As I continued on with the show it seemed to keep getting worse and worse. The loud talking never stopped. The rough housing got rougher. The teachers were nowhere to be found. At one point walking off stage ran across my mind, however, I've never been one to quit anything and I kept on going. Though I knew not one child (or the teachers for that matter) gave two craps about me or my performance I kept on going. I sang my songs. I presented my content. I performed my show the best that I could. By the end of the 45 minutes I was exhausted. I received no applause, no cheers, and not a single thank you from the students or the teachers. I don't even think the students or the teachers knew that the show had ended. I packed up my gear and left virtually anonymously amongst the screams of kids and yelling of teachers.

Embrace Then Let Go
When I finally made it back to the sanctuary of my car I let out a big sigh and told myself "I bombed!" In the three years I have been performing my music I have never bombed. I wasn't really sure what it was I was feeling. All I knew was it didn't feel good.

On the drive back home I thought and thought about what I could have done differently. I have always been able to connect with an audience and entertain and educate for the allotted time. I have never stunk so badly before. Eventually, I realized I did everything I could to entertain that particular group of kids. I let that crappy performance go.

Upon Further Review
After letting that terrible performance go, I sat back and thought about what changes and contingencies I could put in place so if in a similar situation I would be able to handle it much better. It took a few days, but I realized that being a professional musician/performer/educator is more than just being prepared with scripted content, you also have to be flexible with your audience. If something isn't working mid-performance then you better be able to think on your feet and change what it is you're doing (especially if you're performing for kids). I now have several well thought out contingencies in place in the unlikely circumstance I should face something like that again.

Bombing Is A Fact
Finally, bombing as performer is a fact of performing. If you are going to put yourself out there to be applauded you also run the risk of being jeered. What I learned from this experience it is a thick and resilient skin is vital to a performer. You can't let one bad performance get you down. All you can do is acknowledge a bad performance happened, figure out what you can do to never let it happen again, and move on.