Showmanship: Video, Smoke and Mirrors
I want to thank everyone who has offered ideas as to who today's top Blues showman may be.
In performing, you hope to connect with your audience. How succesful you may be depend as much on what your audiencea sees as what they hear. If it were only about the music, your listeners could just as well sit at home and listen to your CDs. Do you rock the house; are your performances exciting? Do you pack as much excitement into each performace as you possibly can?
Here's my next question:
Athletic coaches often spend hours studying footage of a game to analyze how the athletes can improve their performance. Film and stage directors will often do numerous takes and retakes until the actors/actresses have achieved a desired effect, much of this often captured on film Dance coaches often run through steps in mirrored rooms, and this is often caught on film.
Have you ever performed before a mirror? Have you ever video-taped a performance, and afterwards objectively studied what you saw yourself doing to get an idea of what your audience saw? Then, based on what you saw, did you tweak your performance to achieve a desired effect?
While there are natural showman, in either theater, film or music, putting together a polished show is often the result of hours, days and weeks of study and rehearsal.
The 2009 International Blues Challenge is almost upon us again. Showmanship is one of four criteria on which the judges award you points. What are you doing to get ready?
In performing, you hope to connect with your audience. How succesful you may be depend as much on what your audiencea sees as what they hear. If it were only about the music, your listeners could just as well sit at home and listen to your CDs. Do you rock the house; are your performances exciting? Do you pack as much excitement into each performace as you possibly can?
Here's my next question:
Athletic coaches often spend hours studying footage of a game to analyze how the athletes can improve their performance. Film and stage directors will often do numerous takes and retakes until the actors/actresses have achieved a desired effect, much of this often captured on film Dance coaches often run through steps in mirrored rooms, and this is often caught on film.
Have you ever performed before a mirror? Have you ever video-taped a performance, and afterwards objectively studied what you saw yourself doing to get an idea of what your audience saw? Then, based on what you saw, did you tweak your performance to achieve a desired effect?
While there are natural showman, in either theater, film or music, putting together a polished show is often the result of hours, days and weeks of study and rehearsal.
The 2009 International Blues Challenge is almost upon us again. Showmanship is one of four criteria on which the judges award you points. What are you doing to get ready?
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Jake Green on -
One of the smartest things I ever did was buy a small portable harddisk recorder (SD card) and record my live performances. Afterwards I would edit the recording to individual tracks and put it on my mp3 player and listen to it for a month or two (on the bus, on the train, at work, while working out and so on) so I could pinpoint everything I did right and everything I did wrong.
I would also send it to a select few friends and family members who's opinions I trust, to give me constructive critique as well.
The next time I played live, I would have these things solidly coded into my brain and play better next time.
I cannot begin to describe how much I learned from this.
Not long ago I bought a small video camera for the same purpose - this time however to improve my stage performance. And it works.
I quickly discovered some quirks, like having my front too much towards the band and not enough towards the crowd making the performance seem introvert.
So my advice to ANYONE is to record yourself while playing live, then review it untill you mentally archived every little detail, sorting the good from the bad, but remembering it all.
You can only do so much in the rehearsal studio and in front of a mirror. Besides when you're playing and performing, you're WAY too busy to notice all the fine details. Record and review it - and get several eyes and ears on it.
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Permalink Reply by Jake Green on
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Well... This is blues. How polished should it be?
In my opinion there should always be at least an element of spontaneity in there. Thats what keeps it alive and interesting to listen to. Rehearsed solo's and overly practised onstage antics doesn't seem to fit into my view of blues at least.
I know that when Mich Woods (who I had the pleasure of seeing live at the Phuket blues festival) came on and yelled "You wanna boogie woogie!?" and set the crowd on fire within the first 10 seconds on stage, it wasn't the first time he'd ever done that - but it still seemed spontaneous and heartfelt rather than meticuously rehearsed.
I guess thats what we're all going for - the charisma and milage to go on stage and make everyone feel like they just been welcomed into your livingroom. =)
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Permalink Reply by Jason Patrck James Vivone on -
I was trained as an director/actor. I feel like I'm playing a character (the Frontman) who is playing the characters in the song.
There's some basic stagecraft many bands neglect. Keep your head up. Keep your eyes open. Give the audience a face to project upon. Talk to them. Engage them. Your job is to start the conversation. If you don't, you're background music.
My bands THE BILLY BATS and THE VIVONE BAND tosses toy marracas and tambourines to the audience. Just use cheap plastic stuff you can get whole sale. Ask them to play along. This is a great icebreaker too for merch.
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Permalink Reply by Chad Nordhoff on -
Over the summer I played a show in shorts and a T shirt. A gentleman told me I sounded great but he couldn't look at me, I looked like a tourist. I've worn my hat and tie at every show since.
I'm up and moving when playing with a band. I've played behind my back, behind my head, with my teeth, used beer bottles for slide, swung from rafters, jumped off balconies, used discarded bras and panties for slingshots, made room within my guitar strap for young ladies during solos, (I met my wife while playing the intro to "Freebird") even jumped into mosh pits with my wireless guitar rig.
I sit while I'm playing solo these days. Usually because I'm playing between 3 and 7 hours to a fluid crowd. Not to mention the fact that the abundance of Memphis BBQ has increased my 'stage presence' by a couple of sizes.lol Other times, my feet are my rhythm section. If clubs choose to forego the usual 4 or 5 piece band and hire poor lonesome me, I owe them a beat or at least an audible pulse. It's easier to stomp people out of their seat than it is to rouse them with my chicken dance.
Aside from the boredom of lazy, warmed over blues, many people are repulsed by fake, second-hand showmanship. In the midst of the guitar slinging and pained, stinkyface expressions, many jerks like me are turned off. Some musicians are so focused on sucking in the audience that they forget to simply invite them into their world.
(for reasons that don't really translate to video) This is one of the most inspiring performances I've seen. He told us "I don't really like where I'm at now... but we're gonna do somethin' about it".
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Permalink Reply by Chad Nordhoff on
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In many cases my job is to provide background music. In doing that job I find that fading into the background is rarely possible. Music has a huge influence on the energy in the room most of the time. If the performer is bored, the show's over. yawn
Having an active musical year, I've realized that I'm often uncomfortable with acceptance by a group of people. Rejection seems more natural. It presents a challenge and I'm energized being an outsider in the room. Immediate acceptance or adoration usually leaves me confused and disoriented. At a gig, when I arrive to a packed house, my first reaction is usually something like [F--- these people, who do they think they are coming to my gig]. That makes conventional showmanship a little tough. Though I'm workin' on that.
Earlier this evening, on Beale St, the "Disneyland of the Blues", I arrived to a packed house. As luck and weather would have it, I lost my voice. I had over 3 hours to play and also a responsibility to keep people inside and entertain them. The bartenders and waitstaff have mouths to feed and bills to pay and November was sloooooowwww. So here I am with a guitar, a microphone, and a spotlight that was particularly bright this night for some reason. Unable to sing, all I could muster was a breathless grunt or a mock Howlin' Wolf growl. Those years of lonesome guitar diddling during my teens and twenties finally made since. I had to throw out most of my setlist and improvise the music. With fragmented grunts I told the folks that "I'm a singer on my good days but tonight I gotta play these blues". Act naturally. Though there's another restaurant every 20 yards downtown, the place was still packed at the end of my show. Small victories are fine with me.
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Permalink Reply by Jeff Norwood on -
I hear ya, Chad! I give 'em what I can. Hell. Then I ask em to buy a CD and take a break. Turn the page. As far as dressing for the stage goes, I don't subscribe to the notion that you need to wear a bluesman uniform to be one. It is a good idea to stick out somehow appearance wise.
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Permalink Reply by Chad Nordhoff on
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Yeah, the whole 'uniform' idea is part of the problem. Still, it's better when you can tell the band apart from every chump on the street.
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Permalink Reply by Chad Nordhoff on
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The last two days the bar was packed with fans getting primed for the UFC fight. Some of the fighters (about whom I know nothing) even showed up. It's a thrill to have an audience that could turn on me at any moment. We got along just fine. Much better than the Miley Cyrus crowd from a few weeks ago.
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