What does it take to be a great performer? | Think Like A Musician

What is discussed, and when

1. 3:00 – 6:00: The Pocket

Notable quotes from "What does it take to be a great performer? | Think Like A Musician"

• How do you get to the pocket? How do you be in the pocket? Wow, that's a great question.

  about The Pocket · at 4:41

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

Concepts & topics

• The Pocket — Concept · 2 mentions · first at 4:41

Full transcript with timestamps

0:00 What makes for a great live performance is when you walk away, and that air hits you in the parking lot, and you’re kind of wondering, what just happened? Hey, you. Yes, you! Is there music inside of you? We’ve recruited working musicians from throughout the industry to help you hear it, hold it, and share it with this wild and wonderful world. A great live performer is someone who is at one with their sound, and there's no separation between themselves and the sound they're making. I like to just feel really present, really in my body, in this state of bliss that lifts up people around me and makes them want to tune in.

0:48 For me, what makes for a compelling performance is when you are comfortable. If people are coming to see me perform, in essence they’re coming to see me do something they could never imagine doing. They want to watch me be comfortable because the thought makes them uncomfortable. Part of my exercise is being myself and being comfortable because that's the beginning of performing in a genuine way. Me having a great show is not always going to be me having my best vocal night, but it's going to be whether or not I was able to move the people in the crowd.

1:19 The stage is a magnifying glass. We can tell if you're not telling the truth. The audience’s experience watching you is going to be a reflection of your experience on stage. If you're having a good time on stage, they're going to have a good time watching you. I like to treat the audience as a couple of my friends in my living room. My friend off to the right, my friend down the middle, and my friend on the left. I always tried to make sure everybody is engaged on every side. And more importantly, it’s like, don't do anything except the way you would do it for your best friends in your living room.

1:58 And one of the things about being a professional musician is you have to play well, no matter if the audience is giving you a bunch of energy or not. Sometimes you have a great audience, sometimes maybe it’s a Sunday night and people are a little sleepy and you don’t have a great audience. But that shouldn’t matter to the professional musician— you have to play. We’re in an era of rampant price gouging— people are really spending a lot of money on tickets to go and see people play— so you want to make sure they get their money’s worth because it’s not really fair to go out there and phone it in.

2:33 I really think music is where you really connect to people, but it's okay that it's also show business and you are going to be performing. You’re going to be on stage and you want to create something visual that people want to look at while they’re listening to you. They will listen better if there’s something in your energy that feels good. You have to have a visual component and a musical component to make a good show, I feel like. Sometimes it’s an exploration in identity that is just as important as exploration of technique.

3:08 When you look at performers, like Billie Eilish’s colored hair and her baggy clothes, makes people feel an identity. How I connect with fans in a live setting is the music first. The trust that the music is going to be to be where it’s supposed to be on a nightly basis, second. And the rest is left to beautiful chance. So, let’s get really clear. Six grown men aren’t meant to be traveling on a bus together for a month. For it to work, that in and of itself is going to be a bond. Chemistry on stage is incredibly important.

3:48 The audience feels it if you guys are all on the same page. And I think that also extends to the front of house engineer and the person who's mixing your ears. That person is incredibly important. If I can't hear myself and if I can't hear my band, that has everything to do with the chemistry and the level of show that I’m going to be able to put on. Trusting each other on stage, runs across many different kinds of ways of performing, you have to trust what everyone else is doing. and have the utmost confidence that they’re doing their utmost to perform their role to a high standard.

4:18 The people that I’ve surrounded myself with who are in my band we’re also connected musically. And everyone kind of comes from a different musical background, which is cool because all of these different ideas can come together in such a perfect way. So if you have a great sense of rhythm and a strong pocket, I love you, that makes all the difference to me. How do you get to the pocket? How do you be in the pocket? Wow, that's a great question. Essentially, pocket is groove or feel. If someone says, “oh, they’re in the pocket” it means that they’re in time with each other, they’re in sync with one another.

4:55 The pocket is between a bass player and a drummer. When the groove feels very effortless, and there is, it’s breathing in a way, you can say about a musician they have great pocket, right? People that just naturally lay down, they play and you’re like, oh, I have to move when they play. You can’t get there without listening to what other people are doing. You need to be listening to the drums, bass, anyone else who is on stage with you— you need to be listening to them and figuring out how you can make your sound fit in with their sound. We're not robots, right?

5:33 And that's where the pocket comes in, because it's not about perfect time. It’s about the feel, right? And so that comes with time. Comes with time and just experience and playing with the right guys that have the pocket. And then at one particular moment, I remember when it happened to me, I finally found the pocket and I was like, thank the Lord! I’ve been looking for this moment all my life. You need to be willing to make mistakes. A lot of people say you need to dare to suck. You have to find your way through the clunkiness to get to a point of where, “oh, this feels right!” Each person has to find their own survival system. What works for you? What works for you?

6:21 What works for your voice? What works for your family? What works for your heart? What do you need? Because I think that life also is important. It's important to live life, to be able to have something to sing about.

Questions about this episode

What is discussed in "What does it take to be a great performer? | Think Like A Musician"?

In order: 3:00 The Pocket.

What is mentioned in this TED-Ed episode?

1 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including The Pocket. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "What does it take to be a great performer? | Think Like A Musician"?

The episode runs 7 min; the transcript is about 1,154 words in 11 timestamped sections.

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