clapping...

anonymous278347457 · #1 03-21-2006, 01:16 PM

I was playing with a school wind band on monday in a couple of primary schools. And we were playing "king of rock and roll", its got a swingy bit at the end which speeds up and slows down a bit.

so basically the conductor, stopped looking at us and looked at this kids to get them to start clapping along.
So i lose track of which beat im on and try desperatly to get back, however the kids all clap on differant beats of the bar, and some clap more that once each bar. So i got horribly out of time, so did lots of other people in the band.

Personally i found this quite annoying/funny. Since they were about 4-12 nobody really noticed.

anyone else experienced this before?

Tony G · #2 03-21-2006, 01:18 PM

You need to learn to keep the time in your head. Feel the time. If other people screw the time up and in turn it screws you up, its no problem. But if you are just looking at your conductor for time, keep practicing.

Esquillama · #3 03-21-2006, 04:17 PM

I've learned from years of teaching elementary music, and
from gigging where there are drunk audience members, and
where there are sober audience members, that to get a crowd
of people to clap "together" is an exercise in futility.

There is almost assuredly going to be some people who start
to clap faster, and in turn others start to follow, and before
you know it..... you've lost the beat entirely.

Not to mention how people constantly clap on beats One and Three
instead of two and four. Don't get me started.

TheDarkReaver · #4 03-22-2006, 11:49 AM

your average gig goer can't clap in time for ****, i've noticed this at every gig i've ever been to.

arbitrary · #5 03-22-2006, 12:25 PM

I like to clap on the "and" of beats
I like the and of 2 and four
I sometimes just the and of 3
I'm kinda a lame ass

tplyons · #6 03-22-2006, 12:37 PM

I clap triplets.

chaosMK · #7 03-22-2006, 01:27 PM

I screw up all the time at my live shows. I mean it's not like I fall totally off on stage, just once in a while I will do my bass feature in the wrong key or go into a loud change when it continues smooth. In these types of situations I make a hideous expression and scream "Blaaaaagghh" into the audience, or just laugh with everyone else.

arbitrary · #8 03-22-2006, 01:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tplyons

I clap triplets.

you too? I stopped doing that 'cause it made me think too much of pirates...

Kronos · #9 03-23-2006, 11:09 AM

Make really good friends with the drummer. You both will benefit from this union. Any time that crowd noise starts to drown me out on stage, I just walk closer to my drummer. He's basically got a monitor in his ear, so he can hear all of us.

gottawalk · #10 03-23-2006, 11:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kronos

Make really good friends with the drummer. You both will benefit from this union. Any time that crowd noise starts to drown me out on stage, I just walk closer to my drummer. He's basically got a monitor in his ear, so he can hear all of us.

+1. Yup. Right after having time in your head, (practice with a metronome), get in tight with the drummer. If the two of you are together, it takes a big part of the load off the "time" problem. The other thing to practice is to know the whole tune good enough to where if you get off, you can cue yourself back in by hearing what the horns or other instruments are playing at the time. This happened to me during an orchestra concert in college when things went horribly off-track. I kept listening and finally heard a cue from a flute player and counted in my partner's entrance and things went on quite well from there. We're all in this together! The audience is definately not part of the "team" and you've got to do whatever you can to keep it all together. Frustrating, but it gets a little easier with more playing experience, and knowlege of the material. Good luck and keep it up!