Performance and self respect!

maltingsaudio

So those of us who play live , do you play to entertain the audience or get your message across?
Just watched Andre Rieu Maastricht performance 2019 on Sky Arts which is pure classical top of the pops but 2 hrs of playing stuff which made 50,000 people happy.

So the question is do you go out to change the world, or just to entertain? Or is it just to show off how great a Musician you are?

digitalscream

None of the above.

I play because I'd be really boring if I didn't.

I don't even know if I like it any more, so I guess I'm partly doing it to see if I can ever answer that question.

And also...when I'm playing on stage, there's so much volume that the "noise" of the world goes away if you see what I mean, but it's still controlled and relatively predictable. Very few places I can go for that.

It's all about me, y'see.

maltingsaudio

digitalscream said:

None of the above.

I play because I'd be really boring if I didn't.

I don't even know if I like it any more, so I guess I'm partly doing it to see if I can ever answer that question.

And also...when I'm playing on stage, there's so much volume that the "noise" of the world goes away if you see what I mean, but it's still controlled and relatively predictable. Very few places I can go for that.

It's all about me, y'see.

Wow , totally get that,I call it it “chasing my demons”. Although I prefer to do it in private. To let others into it takes a load of balls.

digitalscream

maltingsaudio said:

digitalscream said:

None of the above.

I play because I'd be really boring if I didn't.

I don't even know if I like it any more, so I guess I'm partly doing it to see if I can ever answer that question.

And also...when I'm playing on stage, there's so much volume that the "noise" of the world goes away if you see what I mean, but it's still controlled and relatively predictable. Very few places I can go for that.

It's all about me, y'see.

Wow , totally get that,I call it it “chasing my demons”. Although I prefer to do it in private. To let others into it takes a load of balls.

I generally consider there to be nobody else there.

Given that I'm in an originals band, that's not often far from the truth

Tannin

Performing was important. In my head, as a young man, it didn't matter how technically proficient I was or how great the songs I wrote were, I was always a would-be could-be if I hadn't proved myself on a stage. That was step one. 

Step two was to do it again, partly because it was good fun, partly because I needed the money. (Would I have played the same gigs for nothing? Mostly, yes. Would I have shoveled manure on the same nights if that was the way to get the money?  You bet! I was skint.)

Step three (which has been in place for all the many years since then) is that I feel no desire to repeat any of it. It was good at the time, this is a different time. Looking back, what was the best part? Just getting it right and watching the dance floor fill up. 

fastonebaz

It's all about purting on a show and showing off for me. 

viz

Pushing onesself musically, having a laugh, making people dance

Danny1969

I've been doing it so long I'm not really sure anymore. But I do know I see people as musicians and non musicians as  civilians and I wonder how civilians cope with the day to day drudgery of normal life. I need that getting into the van, going somewhere new and putting on a show fix. Makes me wonder how long I have left doing it and how much I will miss it. 

There's also an absolute pleasure to be had from getting onstage with some really good fellow musicians. You could take the audience away and there's still a buzz form playing and reacting together onstage. 

p90fool

As a side man for original artists and member of a covers band I don't really have a message as such, other than to entertain. 

Some of the original artists I work for are oblivious to the idea that if they were more entertaining then more people would listen to their message.

Nobody owes you a living, or even a hearing.

Rowby1

It changes over time. Like many at 15/16 it’s about being cool, showing off, impressing girls….

It has at various time since then been about other things.

Now I do it mainly because I love music and how the music itself (not the performing) makes me feel. I love the moment when everything drops into place as a band and you can feel the connection with the audience. There’s some magic involved in music……I do it for those moments of magic. 

TheBigDipper

I like to play with other musicians and to enjoy the process - work out parts, agree on arrangements, practice my bits at home, play at the studio with the band. I'm not really interested in playing to entertain, just playing for myself/ourselves. Yes, I like to play in front of other people but I'm not good at prioritising the happiness of the audience above my own satisfaction - which I recognise makes me a poor entertainer. TBH, I don't even want the responsibility of entertaining. 

I know myself well enough to realise that I'd lose my love of playing the guitar if I started doing 3 gigs a week playing covers in front of happy audiences looking to be entertained. That's what happened to my love of motorcycling when teaching people to ride was my job. It took a couple of years for that love to return once I stopped. 

Fledermaus

I only came to performing in my 30’s with lots of help from a great bunch of musicians I met in a pub. It had a fabulous reputation for music and they all had such enthusiasm! I was so nervous of making a mistake…. Playing a bum note, forgetting the words, chords. They made me see through that. … “make em laugh” as the song goes!

I had such a good time I married one of them! I love just making music, enjoying the craic. Although I do still feel very inadequate at times…

All the lock downs knocked the stuffing out of me a bit. I didn’t do much practicing and now I feel I’m back to square one! Sigh. Must find my muse again….

As Rowby1 said…. MAGIC

Musicwolf

My originals days are long behind me so these days it’s just about covers.

At the heart of it I think that I do it because I need to perform, I need to be the centre of attention.

Regarding musical choice, I don’t want to play stuff that I hate just because it pleases the audience but equally I don’t play stuff that I like but the audience doesn’t.  I joined a second band who have, so far, done a handful of gigs at the end of 2021 / start 22.  In a couple of weeks’ time we’ll be out again and we’re throwing out several songs that we enjoyed playing but which haven’t gone down as well as we would have liked.  There’s an almost limitless number of songs out there from which to choose so no point in flogging any dead horses.

Caffeine_Vampire

It's the songs. I do it for them. As Bob Dylan said, 'I believe in the songs. The songs are my lexicon'.

I think on some level I'm afraid that they'll be forgotten if people don't go out and play them.

Weird! Never really thought about it before.

robinbowes

I like to think of it as the Musicians's Triangle.

The three corners are Money, Enjoyment, Acclaim/Merit.

It doesn't matter where you are in the triangle as long as you're happy.

bloodandtears

My goal is to play songs I like to like-minded people... If I get a bit of green for it, all the better..

EricTheWeary

I think I’ve said this story before but there was an interview on R4 with Bob Geldof and he was being asked why he still gigged; the glory days of the Boomtown Rats were long gone and he gets his income elsewhere. He said it was a holiday from being himself. So, it was that to me as well in many ways and that’s what I miss about it (although there’s a lot that I don’t). 

Although I did like to play some songs that were for me or that I thought the audience should hear and not entirely the most obvious choices and sometimes there would be that one person in the audience who really appreciated it. 

I love live music and don’t want musicians to be human jukeboxes, so I do find myself a bit at odds with people who only want perfect rendition of the hits. 

mudslide73

Rowby1 said:

I love the moment when everything drops into place as a band and you can feel the connection with the audience. There’s some magic involved in music……I do it for those moments of magic. 

I think this is the magic with performing. When there are receptive punters you play better and they become more receptive - like a circle of quan. We're on the pub cover circuit but we get this fairly often. I love the interaction, camaraderie and showing off. I like going into a venue and saying (like David St Hubbins): "hi, we're the group that's playing here tonight".

I think true quan is when you do it with your own material but then there's all the other promotion stuff I can't be arsed with (I've covered this here many times before).

digitalscream

maltingsaudio said:

digitalscream said:

None of the above.

I play because I'd be really boring if I didn't.

I don't even know if I like it any more, so I guess I'm partly doing it to see if I can ever answer that question.

And also...when I'm playing on stage, there's so much volume that the "noise" of the world goes away if you see what I mean, but it's still controlled and relatively predictable. Very few places I can go for that.

It's all about me, y'see.

Wow , totally get that,I call it it “chasing my demons”. Although I prefer to do it in private. To let others into it takes a load of balls.

To clarify, on re-reading...when I said "noise", it's not really a "demons" thing. It's more prosaic than that - it's the "autism thing". Put simply, I don't have much of a filter for incoming sensory information, so when I say "noise" it's literal. Filtering many sources down to only the relevant ones is a conscious thing which requires constant effort.

Solutions to that are either a silent environment with very few sources of visual and auditory input, or an incredibly loud environment where one source drowns out all others.

Hence...gigs

ESBlonde

These days it’s important to me to play good popular songs with nice people and feature vocal harmonies. Present the song well and the performance magic happens, it doesn’t have to be perfect or in the original key just good and tuneful.
I sometimes dread getting ready and the loading/setting up but once on stage the joy of the music makes that all fade, at least until it’s time to strike the stage! I think I might have too many toys er… I mean tools on stage.

LastMantra

I just play at home for my own enjoyment. If I don't feel like playing I don't. 

I know that's not what you were asking but I think there are a few on here like this.