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Don't Use Charts on The Gig

#41
A few years ago my in-laws treated the family to a cruise. One of the highlights of that cruise for me was a jazz horn band and naturally the bass player.
A few of the members knew each other and had played together before the cruise, but most of the band was put together for that gig. The band leader had his arrangements and they played off his charts.
So for me seeing how well they played together without a lot of rehearsal on those 'modernized' jazz standard arrangements with lots of chord and key changes and chord substitutions/reharmonizations, really showed me up close what a professional bass player can do. The bass player's sheets were just the chord symbols. Like I said a highlight for me of that vacation. Very inspiring.
 
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#42
i notice that some of the responses reinforce the charts as a visual nuisance. i suppose if performers keep them well hideen, then the nuisance of charts magically vaporizes somehow. this must be why i see so many performing professionals using discreetly hidden teleprompters.

again, i'm more of a substance over style person myself. need a music stand onstage? doesn't bother me in the least. ipad? teleprompter? crutch? whatever. i wanna hear what you play.

as an aside, i detest playing or hearing others play to backing tracks/prerecorded tracks/computer triggered tracks etc.
 
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#45
As others have already mentioned, a lot depends on the type of gig. If you're a rock covers club band, charts on stands in front of you would look bad. We used to rehearse our songs in set list order so that we could more easily move from song to song with no dead air in between. Only dead air was for instrument changes - which we also tried to minimize.
 
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#46
Febs said:
This is not my experience. There are people who can read well, and people who can't. The people who can read well have no trouble at all playing the songs "with the feel of the band" while reading.
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There are sight-readers who are really, really good at playing with feeling referencing their music. Those players are the well studied, consummate pros who from one, a lot can be learned.
In all the bands I've been in where charts are involved, without the music up front, even after weeks or months the horn guys are still lost on Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is(?).
I used notation to learn Tower of Power's; You Can't Fall Up because the bass line had so much going on and I wanted to challenge myself to do that one thing. But, after months of rehearsals and gigs, you'd think some stuff would sink in.

If I'm prepping for a sit-in, yeah I mark up the set list like all get out but by the time the BL starts counting things off, I am staring forward at the crowd. I guess it's just a work ethic.

An aside: I'm wishing someone would publish bass notation for Herb Alpert...so far no luck.
 
#47
If I have time to learn the songs, I've never used notes of any kind in mainstream pop/rock/country/R&B bands. I will only occasionally put a small note on the set list regarding a key or a tricky change, but before long even those details get memorized. From what I've seen, that seems to be fairly normal.

There are a lot of good reasons to memorize the tunes, everything from eye contact with the room to the way a memorized tune flows.

Of course, unless you have an eidetic memory, short-notice gigs change everything. During sub gigs I always have notes of some sort for the songs I haven't played before.
 
#48
I use simplified charts until I have the material memorized. My charts include hints on vocal parts and some song changes that I have trouble remembering. If I play with the group long enough I will eventually do away with the charts, if the group is booked frequently enough.
 
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#49
My opinion is this:

If you went to a play, or saw a movie, and every one of the actors (performers!) was holding the script in his/her hands and constantly looking at it- or better yet, yelling: "Line?!"- would you think "These guys are *professionals!", or "*** is this?! What a bunch of hacks! I want my money back."?

I know what I would think.
 
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#50
It's not just what, but how. I agree that having the music stand in front of you generally does not look good, at least for a rock band, but off to the side for a quick glance is not going to be noticed. For my jazz gigs, as long the stand is not between my face and the audience, and I don't stare down into it the entire time, no biggie.
 
#51
Awesome Sauce said:
My opinion is this:

If you went to a play, or saw a movie, and every one of the actors (performers!) was holding the script in his/her hands and constantly looking at it- or better yet, yelling: "Line?!"- would you think "These guys are *professionals!", or "*** is this?! What a bunch of hacks! I want my money back."?

I know what I would think.
Click to expand...

There is the case of Graham Chapman. Rumour has it he was so loaded on booze during monty python shoots, he literally would have each line fed to him one at a time, going "line" every time he got lost. Few would argue he could not act, in fact he was a brilliant comedic actor.

In his case, when his "performance" was seen by the public, it was edited together and we never saw any of it. Same goes with charts IMO. If you don't seem fixated on them to the point where it is noticeable, fine. But if you are staring at them the whole time, people are going to notice and it can appear amateurish. Write in big letters, duct tape them to the floor, no one will ever know.
 
#52
P. Aaron said:
<snip>Every musician I've ever worked with who stuck strictly to charts never seemed to really play the song(s) in a manner that sounded anything but restricted, not free or with the feel of the band.<snip>
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The truth is everybody is not equally musical. There are people who can read music upside-down and backwards with feeling.
 
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#53
I have been gigging and doing studio work since 1978 and have never used charts. I'm fortunate that I have a very good ear and can anticipate changes. I did a gig on Saturday night with a band that I had never played with. They called out 2 songs that I had never heard and I was able to follow along without any trouble.
 
#55
I use Uitimate Guitar and CowboyLyrics when I'm learning a new song. If I can't make the part out from listening, I'll use TABs. Once I have it worked out, that is the end of it.
Being old school, I am turned off when I see band members on stage with their heads buried in charts.
 
#56
In church Ill use my notes to help me remember songs but I try not to stare at them or anything. In my hard rock band I think Id be laughed off the stage.... by my own band. And I would understand why, it just doesn't really look right. Im not a super amazing bass player but I think its expected that you learn your own bands songs so that you jump around on stage instead of stare at tabs or whatnot.
 
#58
I use charts with the worship band at church, since we draw from a large number (100+, I'd guess) of hymns and contemporary Christian songs. I was raised Catholic, and as a result know very few hymns used in Protestant worship. After a couple of years doing this, I'm more comfortable than originally, but the security blanket is okay...I never use charts with the classic rock/country/pop band I play with in clubs, because we do mostly well-known material and I have a pretty good ear. Actually, when I was getting started playing professionally in the '70's, one of the things I was most proud of was when I got enough big band gigs under my belt to be comfortable walking into an unfamiliar band situation, pulling up #'s 17, 46, 201, and 300 out of the book and nailing the parts, using a chart.
 
#59
I grew up with sheet music being ok at the first rehearsal (piano, symphony, jazz on trumt), after that, they were a no-no...you had to have every part memorized for multiple pieces at the same time, including dynamics and style. Yes a conductor helped some with that, but basically they're an expressive metronome, and you couldn't count on them to be dictating your particular part lol...when I played southern gospel at church, it was improvisation on a key, no sheet music...I carried all of that forward into my punk/ska to metal to progressive choices with my bands from '92 when I picked up bass forward.
 
#60
Kmonk said:
I have been gigging and doing studio work since 1978 and have never used charts. I'm fortunate that I have a very good ear and can anticipate changes. I did a gig on Saturday night with a band that I had never played with. They called out 2 songs that I had never heard and I was able to follow along without any trouble.
Click to expand...
Dude. I was there. You sucked!


HAHAHA. JK. :)

You weren't that bad. ;)
 
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