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Post by scorpiodog on Sept 12, 2020 6:34:16 GMT
Thanks for all your advice and stories, Chaps. It’s helpful to know one is never alone. Just for your information and to my relief, I got back on the horse last nigh, and it was all good. Just a couple of songs, but they went down very well.
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Post by andyhowell on Sept 12, 2020 8:54:56 GMT
Cheque's in the post, Andy. Consider it a gift in these trying times ...
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Post by dreadnought28 on Sept 13, 2020 5:28:24 GMT
My response to Toby Walker’s 48 times? Is that all ? I’d say over 100 error free performances before a new song goes into my set. It’s not just about the words and music it’s about telling the story, feeling it, convincing the listener that it’s your own real story.
Even so there are some occasions when things just don’t feel right. I thought I screwed up banjo parts during a recent online concert and generally felt out of sorts. (Probably because it had taken a lot longer than expected to set up all the camera equipment and I hadn’t eaten all day)
Despite a constant stream of messages throughout and after the concert, nobody made any negative comments about anything, not even when I made a point of asking. Quite the reverse in fact. Just shows how perceptions differ.
Sometimes it’s possible to forget the words or instrumental parts of songs that have been performed hundreds of times over many years or decades. That can be really weird as no thought has been given to something so automatically completed in a very long time. I’ve seen major acts struggle with that.
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Post by Cams on Sept 13, 2020 19:37:34 GMT
It's happened to me a few times. One time I quit gigging for about two years. And now I've not played out since late Feb / early March and the very idea of it gives me the fear. Before lockdown, I was getting a few stand-in gigs for off-islanders that couldn't make it over and it would go something like this:
1. Phone buzzes. I pick it up and see it's a message from the venue and has the word 'play' in it. I immediately put the phone down, screen downwards and go to another room in case the sender can sense that I've seen it. 2. I panic, I pace the room, start cleaning the house or doing the dishes, pretending I didn't see the message. 3. Start to think of excuses about why I can't play. 4. Maybe make something up? 5. But the venue's really stuck and the money would certainly be welcome? They would only ask me as a last resort. 6. The venue is owned and run by friends of mine. I should be more than willing to help. It's not about me. 7. Pick up my phone and open the message. Now they know I've seen it. 8. Reply 'Sure, I can play'. 9. Now the mental switch has happened in my brain. The rest of the day will be different. Baseline anxiety level has now been raised. 10. Time to pick up the guitar and play through some songs. 11. Start gathering up gear, going through my mental checklist. 12. Let my wife know I've got a gig. She's the best person in the world and knows exactly this crazy rigmarole that I go through every time and always says exactly the right thing. 13. The closer it gets to leaving home time, the higher the anxiety level gets BUT
-- Here's the thing. I've gone through this so many times it becomes almost mechanical. I can't talk away the anxiety, and even though I know it'll be all right, knowing that doesn't seem to help. Like knowing that I'll feel great after walking the dogs up the hill, but still wanting to stay home. But I can accept the anxiety and just let it be there. I've learned to do that. It stays there all through carrying my gear into the venue, setting it all up, watching the start time, right up till hitting that first chord - usually a G.
Some nights it gets good and I really feel it. Some nights I don't feel it at all. Every time it's different. I never know going in how it's going to go, but I have had disasters and survived them. Anyone ever ripped the PA power lead out the wall during the wedding couple's first dance? I did that. That was the night I was playing in the band and running the sound from the stage.
What I'll say about your playing that I've seen Paul is that your personality and love of what you do really comes through. I've had nights that like that too and you can't beat that. We all have flat ones and often don't know why. You're not alone, and it has nothing to do with ineptitude!
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Post by scorpiodog on Sept 13, 2020 23:04:00 GMT
Cams, you bloody hero. I know something of your trials. You are quite open about this on your blogs and podcasts, otherwise I would have put this in a pm. Thank you for explaining the detail. It is so much worse than I go through. And so strange. You are a better guitarist and singer than I’ll ever be, but your performance anxiety is so bad - and yet you do it.. I understand your drive to perform perfectly. And it shows courage. Real courage. This is why I’ll never permit anybody at my little music club to disrespect anybody who stands up to perform notwithstanding their standard. I know how hard standing in front of an audience is. I have been known to be very rude to people who exhibit anything less than acceptance of the performance or who make disparaging comments. I have even been known to ask a person never to darken our doors again. I’m glad you’re fighting your demons, my friend. You are so good, you deserve an admiring audience, which I’m sure you get. But I’ve never unplugged the pa during a married couple’s first dance! I’m sorry, but I didn’t feel your pain when I read that. I laughed out loud. Please feel free to exclude me from your will.
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Post by Cams on Sept 14, 2020 9:17:13 GMT
Thanks for the kind words Paul. I wasn't fishing, honest! That PA story though, honestly. I don't imagine it can get much worse. But it wasn't the disaster it might have been, at least for the guests. They wedding couple were in the middle with the guests around them singing the chosen Queen song. When I pulled the plug, they carried on singing and the wedding couple later said that it was a lovely moment that added something. Bizarre, eh? Of course in my head it was disaster city - those Presonus mixers don't come back on quick, like rebooting a Windows 98 machine. Remember that?
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Post by curmudgeon on Sept 16, 2020 19:10:08 GMT
Enjoyed your video curmudgeon ... so that I can completely dispense with life experience and hard won 'been there done that' knowledge is there an Eau de Curmudgeon available, a couple of quick squirts when needed and away I'd go. Although, I do cringe a little when I'm in an audience and for some reason the act / performer starts signalling me out... but that's just me and is probably why I'm not a great performer! I tend to prefer performers who are little introverted. Hi Rob, no there is no liquid, medical, recreational or smoking materials that can make you a better performer.
They may however, make you think you are better than you are which will never convince and audience.
Ensure that you are well hydrated (non fizzy water) and be yourself. Think of your audience as a group of friends that want to enjoy your presentation.
Make eye contact, be natural, don't mumble/ramble, speak clearly, tune up during applause, and be 'umble
Interestingly I organised a socially spaced "garden party" for my club members (or at least max,. 30, in august, and it surprised me that we all felt nervous as it had been soooo long since anyone had performed.
I had hoped to repeat it on the Saturday the 19th but Boris stopped that.
I doubt any of us will be performing at least until about April.
Time to refine and review our presentation skills.
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Post by Matt Milton on Sept 17, 2020 8:28:10 GMT
I had hoped to repeat it on the Saturday the 19th but Boris stopped that. I doubt any of us will be performing at least until about April. I'm probably not telling you anything you don't already know, but some people have misunderstood the 6-person rule to mean that you cannot perform to audiences of more than 6. A couple of London acoustic events near me thought that was the case, announced they were stopping doing gigs and singarounds, and then have subsequently announced they will start again after Musicians Union made it clear that it means that groups of no more than 6 can mix and mingle to form larger crowds; not that no audiences could be larger than 6. So restaurants and live music venues have generally responded by ensuring that there are no clusters of seats numbering more than 6. Harder to enforce if it's standing, but that in itself is no different to what the rules were previously: live music venues were and are supposed to be covid-secure, which means socially distanced, so that hasn't changed with the 6-person rule. I was at an outdoor session on Sunday night where we socially distanced (apart from a few couples, because they were couples). Mostly instrumental, but we had one or two songs, for which the singer socially distanced a bit more and we didn't do joining in. That's partly because it was quite a small beer garden; if it had been larger we could have done more joining-in singing as we could have had more space. I'm hoping to have some time at the weekend to speak to my local church about organising some gigs there. I figure a large church is about as close to outdoors as an indoor space can get; and there should be plenty of opportunities to demarcate seating in advance based on ticket sales. The church already has three classical concerts organised for end of this month so I'll be interested to see how those go. Maybe this post should be the start of a whole different thread, I'd be interested to hear what's going on in different places, at different sized venues.
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Post by scorpiodog on Sept 17, 2020 9:35:03 GMT
Maybe this post should be the start of a whole different thread, I'd be interested to hear what's going on in different places, at different sized venues. Here locally to me in Dorset, we have a large cafe. They have measured the gaps between tables and have limited the seating to 3, 4 or 5 at a table and there is now capacity of 28. There are rules. Briefly, and in my words as follows: 1) Don't come in if you're feeling unwell 2) on entry use hand sanitizer and give contact details then sit down (or go to the counter, buy your stuff, then sit down). 3) remain (anti)socially distanced at all times. 4) don't move any furniture and don't change seats 5) no mouth utterances at a higher volume than normal conversation - but applause is permitted. 6) masks to be worn outside the cafe area (eg to go to the loo) 7) singing is only allowed in a designated performance area and performers are to be socially distanced from each other (so there's no singing along from anybody not in the performance area). That area is 3 metres away from everything else. 8) No interaction is permitted between tables They have had a public health inspection for normal food hygiene and also one for Covid 19 rules compliance (who knew you could have these?), they have carried out a risk assessment. They scored 5 out of 5 for both inspections. The proprietor emails someone at the council to give them details of each event, and all events are under the control of the cafe but may be commissioned by the cafe without delegation of responsibility. this means that folk clubs and the like do not have to complete their own risk assessments. They already have two events booked under this regime. Our local folk club which has not met since February starts there on 1 October. Before then my little music club "I Can't Believe It's Not A Folk Club" meets there on Monday coming. I don't know whether the council will send someone to observe. I don't know whether the police will come to close us down. I do know that whatever happens, I shall be polite and compliant. I am taking a risk, I think. The potential fines are enormous. But I feel I have minimised the risk, and I'm not particularly worried. I have checked the regs, and I know we're pushing the envelope a bit, but reasonableness dictates that this is a low risk event, and is definitely within an interpretation of the rules. All the authorities have been kept in the loop, and the cafe has assured me that they are taking all the risk. I'll let you know how we get on.
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Post by NikGnashers on Sept 17, 2020 20:27:26 GMT
I always make mistakes every time I play to an audience, and I only play to 5-15 ppl usually at open mic & jam sessions.
Fortunately, I don't rely on it to make a living, thank heavens, so i just laugh it off and shrug my shoulders.
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Post by andyhowell on Sept 18, 2020 7:21:26 GMT
[mention]nikgnashers [/mention] I make a mistake every time I play - audience or not!
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Post by Matt Milton on Sept 18, 2020 8:21:36 GMT
I always make mistakes every time I play to an audience, and I only play to 5-15 ppl usually at open mic & jam sessions. Fortunately, I don't rely on it to make a living, thank heavens, so i just laugh it off and shrug my shoulders. Probably the easiest gigs I ever did were playing keyboards for a band who had a bit of a following. So much easier to play as part of a group to a big crowd when you're getting paid. Big audiences are much less intimidating paradoxically. Well, that's maybe not the case if you're playing entirely solo... There's one thing I heard on Radio 2 one Saturday lunchtime that I will never forget, which will always give me succour and consolation - the biggest screw-up I've ever heard by a professional musician. Wish I could remember his name - it wasn't Damien Rice but it was someone like that, a sort of mid-level male singer-songwriter. Someone I'd heard of but not a household name. He was playing a few songs live on the Dermot O'Leary Radio 2 show. In one song he was using a harmonica. When it got to the harmonica solo, suddenly these random painful completely out-of-tune sounds came out that were utterly undisguisable. There was no comeback from it, he was playing totally wrong notes that were excruciatingly out of tune. I realised what he'd done - he'd put the harmonica in the rack upside down. He stopped playing the harmonica abruptly, carried on singing the song as if nothing had happened and finished it. He must have been feeling wretched, knowing he'd just royally screwed up on national radio to a listening audience of thousands - that was one instance where nobody could've cheered him up by saying 'I'm sure no-one will have noticed'. Neither he nor the host mentioned it. No 'whoops, totally mucked up the harmonica solo there'. But life goes on. Though maybe the fact that I can't remember the geezer's name suggests he's probably not enjoying Ed Sheeran levels of success these days...
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