Effective Communication: A Lost Art?

July 29, 2009 by Lang Bliss  

Okay, here’s my beef. I sometimes receive e-mails from potential clients for our studio that start out with something like this: “ i saw your ad and want to know how much you charge? i’m a singer. write back and tell me.”

No introduction, improper punctuation, no please or thank you. No clear idea of what they really want. The list goes on. I delete them. I don’t even bother to respond; it gets under my skin that bad.

I figure if they can’t communicate the basics in a letter, then what will happen in the studio? When we move into more complex areas of discussing the subtleties of artistic concepts, then how will we communicate? What if I think they’re saying one thing when they really mean another? There are too many opportunities for train wrecks to occur, and when money is changing hands it can get ugly.

Our society has lost many of its social graces. We’ve lost what we used to take for granted in the form of respectful, common communication skills. A lot of the responsibility falls on our educational systems and the immediate nature of e-mail, but those are completely other issues.

Here’s the point, for those of you asking “what’s the point?”

The exact same thing occurs every time you get onstage and don’t use the tools of communication that exist between the audience and artist.

Just like in society, there are rules onstage. There are basic understood means by which we communicate ideas, feelings, and concepts that require a certain level of mastery in order for us to be understood and accepted, let alone embraced. And it’s not the responsibility of the receiver (the audience) “to get” what we’re trying to say.

If we don’t know how to communicate ourselves in a way that fills them with a desire to understand us, they have no reason to stay committed to some arduous process while we struggle along thinking they should listen! They simply give up and move on.

How many of us still have that wonderful letter written to us by somebody we know –who really cared about us? We hold onto those because they make us feel important and special. That is what your audience wants to feel.

We have to make the effort and go the extra mile, to learn and then put into practice what makes our audience feel special and know we care. Or they really will move on, and we’ll be left wondering why they “hit delete” and never responded.

Lang Bliss, Live Music Producer

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