While I will sometimes use a printed set of words for HearMe, I would NEVER do so in a live performance! Why, you say?

Showmanship. In at least two respects:

Pay attention to someone giving a speech, even one that he's written himself, reading it off a typed copy, and alternatively tosomeone speaking directly. IT IS TOUGH TO READ NATURALLY, CONVINCINGLY. I believe this applies to singing too.

Even more important, to my mind, is audience contact. I perform as a solo act. In a performance I am continually looking around maintaining eye contact (or the appearance of eye contact) with the audience members. Seems to me this tends to make me appear the source of the song's story and/or emotions, and not just a second-hand retailer of someone else's thoughts and feelings.

I do have to say that if I only have a VERY few listeners, say three or fewer, I will often find myself singing off into space, or maybe closing my eyes, especially on emotionally charged songs, rather than making eye contact. Why? SEems to me that real eye contact becomes too intense, almost a challenge to the listener, and can get in the way in the way of feeling the song. YMMV.

Dave Oesterreich