We Raised $800,000 For Ukrainian Refugees (Patreon)

Before it's time for the next wishlist lesson, I want to share something very special with you. Not only did we get to perform a sold-out stadium show last week - but all of the revenue was also donated to a very good cause!

I wanted to take this opportunity to make a video for you and to show you how I prepare for shows like this. Here's everything I personally learned from this event, so that you can hopefully benefit as a live musician, aside from the technique/theory lessons :)

Here's a quick summary of my biggest takeaways:

• We had to deal with cold weather and I previously made the mistake of spending as much time as possible inside to go up there with warm fingers - this time I spent around 30 minutes in the cold before taking the stage and this helped with adapting to the situation! I also didn't run into tuning stability issues this way, often caused by sudden changes in temperature.
• Once again, I made a Cubase project with the trickiest parts of the set and this really helped with delivering a good performance - so I highly suggest doing this instead of only playing the full songs over and over again!
• Since we didn't have a soundcheck, I went with a very balanced band mix in my in-ear headphones. That way I didn't risk having myself or any specific element way too loud or barely audible. The only thing I requested is a loud click track so that I can definitely make sure to play it time! This worked so well that I didn't have to make any further adjustments during the set.
• One last thing concerning the clothing: wearing multiple layers really helps because a jacket can restrict your movement quite a lot. So I personally always get better results wearing multiple items of clothing instead of one huge winter jacket :)

I hope you all enjoy this video, I'm currently working on the next wishlist lesson - until then, please have an amazing weekend for me!