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Music Stands on Stage

Should musicians use a music stand on stage? [results will be displayed after you vote]

  • No

  • It doesn't matter -- use one if it helps you play better

  • Depends on the kind of band or performance

  • It's OK if you minimize the visibility of the stand

  • It's complicated -- defies a multiple choice answer like this

Results are only viewable after voting.
#101
corinpills said:
What if the gig requires actually entertaining the audience? Too many musicians just never get this part. They'll bitch forever about how many gigs there used to be and it's all DJs now. Yeah, nobody is intetested in paying to watch guys read. It's exactly exciting as it sounds.

Of course, I don't know. Maybe you are gigging 5 nights a week and raking in dough hand over fist.
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If it's a gig that doesn't require the musician to read the music, in other words if he's memorized it, then this frees him up to sing, dance, smile, whatever. I'd say the vast majority of the work I do is this type. This may be different for others but I can tell you this: the ability to read music, write charts, transcribe lines, etc., has saved my butt on many occasions.
 
#102
People can do whatever in their gigs and whatever settings they play in. That's none of my concern.

It just won't happen in my band. If I can remember 4+ hours of music for a gig, I expect my other band members to as well. I played with a drummer who used a cheat sheet on his floor tom to 'remember' the songs and their changes...it was just a crutch for him not to put the work into remembering the song. Half the time his notes were wrong anyway.

Sit-ins are free to make setlist annotations including keys and prompts if they want.

I've been to so many many concerts and clubs and shows over the year and I can remember about 2 of those having stands/prompts on stage. Frank Zappa was one. The other was the Grateful Dead, and that was 20 years into Jerry being a brain addled hardcore junkie.
 
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#106
2 Praise and Worship bands, each with over 400 songs in the book (the nature of the game), each with an average new one every week, both set lists come Sat. night in email, all sets entirely change every week. I often cannot remember what I had for breakfast, I'm using an Ipad with Onsong, on a small stand, it's not gonna happen for me without it. (everyone else in my bands uses one too.
 
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#107
bassrich said:
I say no. I don't know why jazz and orchestra players get a pass I mean they are supposed to be the best of the best in the music world they should be able to remember their lines
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OK, take the Philadelphia Orchestra as an example. Over the course of 15 days in July, they're playing nine separate concerts, each with a completely different repertoire. Let's conservatively estimate that each concert involves 2 hours of music. That means that over the course of 15 days, they're performing 18 hours of music. Now, consider that the Orchestra is comprised of 50+ world-class musicians who perform seated. What possible benefit would there be to having those musicians perform without stands?
 
#112
Im usally against, but the guy who sets up my stuff, he recently joined a band, that plays alot of bar gigs, and parties and his band plays like over a hundred covers and they still have shows as he is learning them, so he has a ipad set up that basically just if he forgets it has what key or chord he should be playing Im fine with that
 
#113
PauFerro said:
My answer -- I think stands are OK in all band situations, except situations where the band has had sufficient rehearsal time to perform flawlessly without stands.

But it's not always possible to do this when I have so much else to do. Or if I have a lot of complicated songs with sheet music I don't have time or ability to memorize. Plus, my memory is not great. Having a stand helps me play better.
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I don't think the audience cares if the band or an individual had time to prepare; they see someone focussing on a sheet (or screen) and not on the audience.

I agree that it depends on the type of band, type of music, the venue and even what instrument you are playing. Horns tend to get away with having sheet music more, whereas a lead singer having lyric sheets is more off putting, especially if it is not done discretely.

I'd prefer to hear a great band that is reading than a crappy band that doesn't. But I'd rather see a band put on a good show, which would mean memorizing the music, playing it well and paying attention to the audience.
 
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#114
bassrich said:
I say no. I don't know why jazz and orchestra players get a pass I mean they are supposed to be the best of the best in the music world they should be able to remember their lines
Click to expand...
Because they are probably so used to using charts not much effort goes into 'storing' songs into memory. I do feel it's absolutely great and a necessity to be able to read music but I personally feel it's also a necessity to have a great ear and memory recall. I think they should teach this in schools. Give students a chart to learn and memorize and have them perform it without having the sheet music. But that's a whole 'nutha thread. I was in a band with a really good reading keyboard player (classically trained) but he had a horrible ear. We were learning Through The Fire by Chaka Khan. Toward the end there is a 6 chord turnaround that he was just not getting. Kept playing it wrong. We argued and argued until I decided to go buy the sheet music. When he saw what I was telling him, then and only then did he admit he was wrong. Fantastic player......when he has the music in front of him.

Hey...whatever works for you.
 
#119
I used to be in a School of Rock (if you don't know what this is look it up, not the movie either, its an actual club sorta thing for highschoolers) cover group for Iron Maiden. One of the bass players wrote some of the riffs in sharpie on their arm, I was like, "seriously, we had almost two months to learn a small handful of songs and you need that". I did applaud her creativity however.
 
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