Music Stands on Stage

[BlueTalon]

I once saw a band at a bar where the husband & wife frontmen (front-people) did the entire gig without looking up from their music stands. It was so sad it was funny. The lady was obviously reading both the lyrics, and the notes she had written to herself about the song, as she was singing.

"One of these days these boots are gonna walk all over you." A split second after singing "you", she apparently read her note that said "point to the crowd" and pointed out to the barflies without looking up from her notebook.

 

[40Hz]

Haven't you ever seen the little clip on stands?

I have. but I think they'd be hard to see if you put them on stage.

Might work if you clamped em' to your headstock though.

 

[MD]

^^^
I could squint and get a stiff neck.

 

[elgecko]

Haven't you ever seen the little clip on stands?

Lyres. They actually make half-page music specifically for them. Usually marches.

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[Jhengsman]

Haven't you ever seen the little clip on stands?

On my last marching band we used to get our music on Wednesday, block out the marching routine on Thursday and dress rehearsal on Friday for the game on Saturday. I would write in the marching instructions on the sheet music and since the tenor sax section almost always doubled the bass line I would memorize the music and play while reading my squads's marching directions. Some did the opposite and often the squad leaders would fake playing and call out marching instructions to their musicians

 

[zontar]

^^Thanks guys for sharing from your experiences.

 

[cheezewiz]

"No; it's absolutely horrible to use music stands on stage but I will gladly post large photos of me wearing shorts on stage!"

Only on TB....my source of endless entertainment.

Spot on! Nothing wrong with shorts on stage for outdoor summer gigs. Of course, not worn with man-dals or white new balance and tube socks. Clearly, your legs are nowhere near as attractive as mine.

 

[jasonrp]

Both shins are tattooed, I'm supposed to wear shorts on stage!


kidding

 

[cheezewiz]

Both shins are tattooed, I'm supposed to wear shorts on stage!


kidding

Kid not! I have one shin completely covered with a tat.

 

[jasonrp]

I was only kidding about the shorts, the shins are inked

Not ashamed to say it hurt...alot

 

[cheezewiz]

"No; it's absolutely horrible to wear shorts on stage but I will gladly post large photos of me with a big stupid looking music stand directly in front of me because I can't remember the words to "gimme three steps".!"

Only on TB....my source of endless entertainment.

Fixed it for ya

 

[RoadRanger]

Notice our front guy hiding behind a bigarse stand and his harp stand . Can you even spot my iPad? it's down below my waist :

 

[tonybassman]

I wore shorts onstage on the 4th of July. We played at a pool bar in a very large resort. I also used a stand. The crowd loved us.

Do I win?

 

[zontar]

I wore shorts onstage on the 4th of July. We played at a pool bar in a very large resort. I also used a stand. The crowd loved us.

Do I win?

Were you playing metal or Albanian Farming Dance music?

 

[ChrisB2]

I wore shorts onstage on the 4th of July. We played at a pool bar in a very large resort. I also used a stand. The crowd loved us.

Do I win?

No. The guy who won did all that and also wore a backwards baseball cap, white socks with grass stains from weedeating earlier in the day, had a microphone set up but did not sing, used a 410/115 stack and an active 6 string bass.

Nice try but you got some work to do young man.

 

[FretNoMore]

No sunglasses? Amateur.

 

[Pacman]

You're not allowed to wear sunglasses? Why was I not told?

Link Removed

 

[FretNoMore]

You're not allowed to wear sunglasses? Why was I not told?

Link Removed

Tell me something that doesn't annoy some group here.

 

[Owens W]

for orchestral compositions and large symphony arrangements yes. For "gigs" or bands, absolutely not!!! Learn your material. Practice! It should be second nature if you're in it for the love of playing. plus, its ugly, and an unnecessary waste of space.

 

[tfer]

My iPad has over 1500 songs loaded into OnSong that we could be expected to play. We have a standard opening set that we use to read the crowd, then at the set break we decide on 15-20 songs for the next set. This continues until we have finished our 4th set - and any extra time that we want to play depending on how respnsive the crowd is. Our last set usually contains 20-30 songs that the BL could pull up easily.

Saying that you know 30 songs and don't need any help on stage is great, but we are playing different shows to entirely different age groups. One dance might be people in their late 40s to their 70s who want an evening of Patsy Cline, Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard and Waylon Jennings. The next night might have 70% of the people in their mid 30's who want Bob Seger, Tragically Hip, Tom Petty and Robert Palmer.

We can choose anything from some late 40s swing (we do a stripped down version of Glenn Miller 'Moonlight Seranade' for our oldest listeners) and 50s rockabilly, to 70's classic vinyl, through 80s-90s rock. We do a handful of rock and pop tunes from the new millenium - not much admittedly; maybe 30-40 songs that we pick from. But our meat and potatoes is classic country from the 60's through until today, depending on the artist. We don't do Bro-country, but pretty much every other genre is wide open. But there is zero chance that I could ever remember all the songs that our BL will pick - in some instances, I've never heard the song before, but I'm expected to find the tempo and the feel, and read the chart without the audience knowing that I've never heard it.