More Lessons Learned from NOT Playing in Front of Ten Million

This is the second in a three-part series from singer, songwriter, guitar player, recording artist Natalie Gelman about her recent experience with ESPN and the appearance/performance she thought she was going to make on “Monday Night Football.”  Go back and read the first part here.  (Natalie was the guest on Episodes 262 and 164 of “Now Hear This Entertainment.”)

The legal department at ESPN wasn’t going to allow for lyrics but I assigned nonsense syllables to the different melodies throughout the music to help me learn and memorize the sections and also show off my voice and the song in the best way possible. I broke it down and learned it little by little over a few days. Honestly, when I first started working on the song I was intimidated and thought that I had bitten off more than I could chew and might be setting myself up for failure.

The truth is though that you really can learn any piece of music by breaking it down into small sections, which is lesson #3. I experimented a lot with the song too, trying it with a more beachy vibe, playing it with foot percussion, doing the mouth trumpet thing I do and even a kazoo one day just for fun. I think those things all helped me learn the song.

Once I learned the song I wanted to make sure I would nail it because I didn’t know exactly what the conditions would be where I would be taping it. It wouldn’t be shot live but it’s always better to be overprepared for something like this. I went over it a number of times including setting up the sound and wearing the outfit I was planning to wear for the shoot so I knew everything was going to work. I even asked my husband to distract me as I played through the song a few times and had to keep going while he tried to make me laugh.

I couldn’t have known just how important that would be (to carry on through distractions no matter what) until I showed up to shoot the piece and found myself on a balcony in downtown L.A. at the ESPN offices on a Saturday night. It was cold, the glass banister next to me and visual down to the streets below were really testing my fear of heights, and not only could I not hear myself as well as I would have liked, but, as we started taping the piece, two bands started playing loudly at the venues below. Their sound was traveling up and over the balcony so I could hear them really well and not myself or my speaker, which was in front of me on the ground aimed at their microphones. I’m so happy that I was overprepared. Trust yourself; if you have an intuitive idea on something that might help you, go with it and do the work even it seems simple.

Taping went great and we did three takes just to be safe and make sure we had the best performance possible. Everyone was friendly, professional, and awesome to work with -- especially considering that a lot of the team there from ESPN had been through a long day flying out that morning from the east coast and my shoot was the last thing they had to do that day.

When I arrived I felt the pressure to be speedy because they wanted to be done for the night but I knew that I had to take a second and prepare myself and not rush as I got changed, touched up my makeup, and warmed up before stepping outside. I think there’s a lesson in there that you know what you need to put on your best performance and don’t let the craziness around you share what you know you need in your core. It was only about 20 minutes of settling in but I’m happy I didn’t rush into the shoot.

It was a great experience to tape the song and I made sure to get some behind-the-scenes footage to share out and just to document the experience. Before I get into what I did after the shoot, I want to add that I really made sure to try and make the most of the opportunity with a few other things.

This exposure was a great opportunity to work with a sponsor and share this media love with a brand I’ve loved and worked with for years. So, once it was confirmed, I reached out to a clothing company to see if they were up for outfitting me for the shoot. I tagged and shared about the company on social media and also had my fans help choose which outfit I should wear as part of my social media campaign leading into the shoot. It all helped bring more awareness to the event and to the sponsor, which was great.

I also wanted to make sure that my name would be visible for the whole clip. ESPN wasn’t sure how long it would be when they aired it, but it was likely to be around 20 seconds. I didn’t want the graphic with my name to disappear from the screen three seconds into my performance. I figured that’s just when people are deciding they like my work and want to hear more.

A lot of times those little details add a lot more work to a project but I really believe they are worth it. When you have an opportunity always look for where and how you can make the most of it (lesson #5).

When Natalie’s blog concludes next week, she’ll tell us about the shoot being finished and now it being a matter of getting the word out to tell everybody to watch the game to see her during the broadcast.  Gulp.

Until then, talk with others in our Facebook group about something you experienced that you thought was finalized but never came to fruition. Plus, visit Natalie's official website and go back and hear her two interviews on NHTE.