This paper is concerned with popular music performance. It investigates the importance of performance, and explores why the non-musical elements are so important to the delivery of a musical presentation. Musicians who undertake formal training spend years of practice learning their craft, and much of the time they spend doing this involves honing technical ability; the importance of which should not be underestimated. Yet, the area of how to perform remains an area to be commonly neglected in favour of a focus on technical development of musical skills for performing musicians in a variety of musical genres – not just in popular music. Paradoxically, the importance of how to perform is rarely questioned; nonetheless very few (popular) musicians have received formal training on, or even an awareness of, the different elements that make a performance visually stimulating and engaging. I believe it is vital that our future musicians are given the pedagogical tools with which they can develop this area of their musicianship.
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