Tom Jackson’s Great Live Show

Tom Jackson’s music seminar teaches importance of confidence, charisma and stage presence in order to be a successful live performer.

By Hayley Woodin [Entertainment Bureau Chief]

With great advice and great instruction, Tom Jackson’s music seminar lived up to its name.

Held at Kwantlen’s Langley campus on Saturday Oct. 16, the Foundations for a Great Live Show was a three-hour event that focused on the factors distinguishing great live performances from good ones.

Jackson, a live music producer from Nashville, explained to his audience of students and instructors the importance of confidence, charisma and stage presence, and stressed that the secret to a successful show is interacting with your audience and creating an experience.

According to Jackson, it’s like this: “How many moments can we create?”

“Without a vision, people perish,” he continued, again emphasizing how performers must figure out how to communicate with their audience and build a relationship with them in order to be appealing.

During the event, Jackson worked with a country singer and guitarist, and a country music band. They each played one song, worked with Jackson in front of the audience and re-performed their songs.

The improvement was outstanding, and proved to the audience that his teaching methods and performance techniques actually work.

Although the seminar was music specific, and mainly country music at that, there was a lot to learn whether you have studied music or not. Jackson’s foundations for a great show are applicable to any genre or type of performance, including comedy and public speaking.

It’s about creating suspense in a performance, and allowing room for the audience to respond and play with dynamics.

If done correctly, what Jackson teachings can manufacture the highly sought-after “it factor.”

In other words, he helps artists create that special something that makes the audience members automatically connect with a performer without being able to pinpoint the reasons why.

“The choice is to play safe or go for it,” Jackson said.

And for anyone seriously interested in pursuing a career in the music or entertainment industry, you need to “go for it” and attend one of his shows or at least invest in a set of DVDs.