The reason some of us are traumatized over this and some of us aren't
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Old guys watching their left hands
- Thread starter BigLakeBass
- Start date
I never realized how much I looked at my left hand until I tried to wear gimmick sunglasses for an 80's themed gig.
What a silly thread how does age factor into whether you stare at your fretting hand or not? It’s like you’re using age as an excuse for bad habits…
Entertainment.
Stagemanship.
Connection with the crowd.
Cool stage moves.
I'm guessing this is more your speed.
Rock and Roll clowns.
If these guys are wrong, I don't wanna be right
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Jazzdogg
Less barking, more wagging!
I'm a visual learner. When I look at my fingerboard, I see an "overlay" of the next two or three phrases I will play.
To me, looking at my fingerboard is no different from any other visualization skill that serves to help me turn my ideas into something I can share with others.
I would liken it to the way I view a piece of wood that I am about to carve.
I have no difficulty playing without looking, but I find that my ability to play "with my turn signals on" improves when I visualize tone centers and chord changes using my fingerboard as a planning template.
To me, looking at my fingerboard is no different from any other visualization skill that serves to help me turn my ideas into something I can share with others.
I would liken it to the way I view a piece of wood that I am about to carve.
I have no difficulty playing without looking, but I find that my ability to play "with my turn signals on" improves when I visualize tone centers and chord changes using my fingerboard as a planning template.
No.
But I did see John Entwistle at a bass clinic in Ventura Ca at Fancy Music in 1981.
He looked at his left hand while he played.
(See post #46)
But I was never into music for stage moves and entertainment.
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Haha!The reason some of us are traumatized over this and some of us aren't
I actually paid attention this morning and apparently I don't stare at the fretboard as much as some on here.
The other three made up for it, in fact, that was their visual shtick…he remained motionless in the middle of all the anarchy, and in a way, that’s what made him stand out.
But to pay money and stare at four, five, or more statues, that’s lame and boring. I don’t care if it’s a name act or local wannabes, why should I care about them if they don’t care to put an effort into it or are self-absorbed? Whether you like it or not, music is entertainment, and maybe outside of classical or jazz, where everybody is so damned serious, I want to see some sort of enthusiasm and razzle dazzle, even it’s just the frontperson and maybe any of the guitarists moving around, to whatever degree. Even if they’re staring at their hands. If the bassists or keys are feeling it and do anything, that’s gravy. Especially if it’s some sort of rock, it’s supposed to be unhinged, that was the whole point.
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I did notice this morning I spent a lot of time staring at the drummer and not the congregation. However, there it really doesn't matter.
With the exception of Prog Metal,this is where I reside.
Musicianship.
Not a circus act.
I came to ProgMetal by way of Fusion.
So I see it through a musicians eyes.
Not a stage performance.
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There is such a thing as overdoing it for your particular situation. Posing and strutting and so forth are best left in the 70's, but showing an honest level of enthusiasm for what you're actually doing is fine with me. I don't think it's fair to accuse someone of wanting to strut like Mick Jagger just because they suggest we might want to look awake and aware and engaged in what we're doing.
I see a middle ground between both. There's no reason to put a lid on your enthusiasm for what you do (also pretentious - false humility), and there's also no reason to dumb it down, musically. Honesty wins my vote, here. If you can't honestly look like you're having fun, maybe you're not having fun. And if you can't honestly play what you're attempting to play, maybe you need to drop a few notches and woodshed. There's no need to pretend about any of it, but if you're miserable up there you might want a different way to spend your time.
Not everyone presents their best to the world in the same way. There are players who are happier not moving, and there are players who are happier while animated. I don't expect to see Robert Fripp jumping around and I don't expect to see Jagger all morose and still. Both do what they do in the way that suits them. I just don't want to see fakeness.
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I'll say one other thing about this before I shut up. The other thing I don't really want to see (and I'm not sure how to get around it) is boredom.
A few years back I went to see a legacy act that you'd all recognize; I don't want to name names because maybe this was just a tired night in a long tour and I don't mean to paint the act in a bad light. But the lead person, who has a long string of hits as a solo performer, was kind of walking back and forth from the mic to the edge of the stage, and his motions seemed very scripted, like, "OK, for the 2000th time in 40 years I'm going to walk over to this side so that this part of the room gets a closeup, and then I'll walk over to the other side, just like I always do..."
It's hard to quantify but there was a level of "this is just what I've been doing for 40 years" that I was picking up on, perhaps I was imagining it, but I just had the overall sense that this guy is TIRED of doing this and would just like to be home at this point in his life.
I can hardly blame him, he's older than I am and he's earned the right - and likely the money - to be retired. But when I see someone who seems to just be going through the motions, whether it's a well-known performer like this guy or a local act in a local bar, it does come across.
Not sure what can be done about this, though. If you're bored or tired, that's just how it is. They did seem to pick up energy during the evening, which I was thankful for. All in all not a bad show.
One night the Ex and I were watching Saturday Night Live and Clapton was just phoning it in (had to be around 3 decades ago I despise that show now).
I was making some of the same assessments about Slowhand and the Ex said "look closer- he has the flu".
And so he seemed to.
On a 300 venue tour, mofos go through the entire ringer. Your boy may have had a temperature of 102 farenheit.
I played on and off for 10 years with Johnny Winters touring drummer from the 1970s. I asked him about that period twice, same response twice- "almost killed me!".
We are all very human. I suspect a tour bus exacerbates this to the extreme.
***? How on earth did you read what I wrote and come up with that as a response?
This is one of the dumbest responses I've read on here.
That's only because this morning you were aware and paying attention to that.
