Musicianship + stage presence is better than musicianship without it.
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Stage presence ?
- Thread starter DAVEYC
- Start date
I use the headstock of my bass like a conductor's baton. It helps the drummer hit some of the cues. To someone in the audience, it might look like I'm beboppin', but I'm really just trying to tame a wild drummer.
Speaking of local bar bands...I think that a band should be lively and entertaining. To me it's as important as the music. Then there are the bands that need to be lively to make up for the music being...well...not the best.
OTOH when I see a local band that is just blowing everyone away with song selection and song performance not much else matters does it? Hmm. I think that so many bands get into the doldrums of playing in stinky bars every week and just go thru the motions. Just get thru the set list, get paid and get out. Us musicians can see that, not sure if the general public can.
OTOH when I see a local band that is just blowing everyone away with song selection and song performance not much else matters does it? Hmm. I think that so many bands get into the doldrums of playing in stinky bars every week and just go thru the motions. Just get thru the set list, get paid and get out. Us musicians can see that, not sure if the general public can.
IMO stage presence/entertaining is more important than the quality of the music or musicianship. Absolutely you should have a tight kickass band but it's true what tb-player said, "the crowd doesn't care how well you play. They care about how you make them feel."
At the end of the night you'll have half a dozen guys saying, "damn that was tight how they came out that bridge"
At the end of a show you'll have dozens of girls smiling, happy, and wore out from dancing all night long.
Come on, that Jonas kid doesnt have the chops, he owns the stage, the show, he entertains.
mambo4 said, "Musicianship + stage presence is better than musicianship without it." Now that's the best of both worlds!
Be a great musician, be a better entertainer.
my 2 cents.
At the end of the night you'll have half a dozen guys saying, "damn that was tight how they came out that bridge"
At the end of a show you'll have dozens of girls smiling, happy, and wore out from dancing all night long.
Come on, that Jonas kid doesnt have the chops, he owns the stage, the show, he entertains.
mambo4 said, "Musicianship + stage presence is better than musicianship without it." Now that's the best of both worlds!
Be a great musician, be a better entertainer.
my 2 cents.
Way back in the late 80's I was in a 10 piece covers band with 4 piece brass etc.
We used to get a lot of work, usually 3-4 gigs a week, every week. We also had a few hundred songs between us and the ability to improvise (remember medleys) at any moment. We also never rehearsed and made up song lists on the spot according to what the room/people "looked" like they would like to hear.
I remember one gig in particular where the room DJ was playing house techno stuff, the audience looked like they were too cool to move to anything
We started playing, after the first song in the set the crowd was stone cold dead
Kind of like the Blues Brothers at Bob's Country Bunker.
Our singer jumps off the stage and grabbed a bar stool, gets back on stage and sat down with his back to the crowd. So the rest of us turned to face the drummer and started jamming and having a great time doing what we did best.
Before the end of that second song the audience was warming up. We had them jumping around not long after that and continued for three sets
.
The best shows are when you interact with the audience and they repay the favour, sometimes you just got to make em do it
We used to get a lot of work, usually 3-4 gigs a week, every week. We also had a few hundred songs between us and the ability to improvise (remember medleys) at any moment. We also never rehearsed and made up song lists on the spot according to what the room/people "looked" like they would like to hear.
I remember one gig in particular where the room DJ was playing house techno stuff, the audience looked like they were too cool to move to anything
We started playing, after the first song in the set the crowd was stone cold dead
Kind of like the Blues Brothers at Bob's Country Bunker.Our singer jumps off the stage and grabbed a bar stool, gets back on stage and sat down with his back to the crowd. So the rest of us turned to face the drummer and started jamming and having a great time doing what we did best.
Before the end of that second song the audience was warming up. We had them jumping around not long after that and continued for three sets
.The best shows are when you interact with the audience and they repay the favour, sometimes you just got to make em do it
i like to let the music decide what im gonna do, I like moving about,,and if im confident I wont gibble my bass line,,ill mosh with reckless abandon..
I nod my head a lot. I'll walk a few paces forward to see what it's like three metres closer to the front of the stage. Some of the local bars we play don't have much space, so three metres pretty much puts me on the dance floor. I'll look out over the audience and see if I can spot any fellow bass players; they'll be the ones who have noticed I'm there. Then I'll walk backwards to my spot, slightly in front of the drummer to his left.
I jump up and down quite a bit. Well, "jump" might be overstating it at my age; "bounce" is probably more accurate. Quite often I'll wander over and see what the drummer is up to. When he sees me he'll try doing something weird to see if I can follow it. Sometimes, when one of our guitarists takes a solo, I'll walk over and see if I can put him off. I think I do, but he plays quite a few bad notes when I stay in my spot, so who knows? I don't go near the sax player though. He's a psycho. If I made him mess up I'd likely wake in the night to find him standing over me, holding my bass, with a pair of wire cutters poised over the strings.
I jump up and down quite a bit. Well, "jump" might be overstating it at my age; "bounce" is probably more accurate. Quite often I'll wander over and see what the drummer is up to. When he sees me he'll try doing something weird to see if I can follow it. Sometimes, when one of our guitarists takes a solo, I'll walk over and see if I can put him off. I think I do, but he plays quite a few bad notes when I stay in my spot, so who knows? I don't go near the sax player though. He's a psycho. If I made him mess up I'd likely wake in the night to find him standing over me, holding my bass, with a pair of wire cutters poised over the strings.
I think your argument is a bit flawed. You are suggesting that because some of the best players of all time didn't have much stage presence that it doesn't matter for the average joe. It would be better if you had suggested mediocre players who had little stage presence with success. It's not easy for the average joe to be Clapton or Entwistle.
Gotta move, but not at the expense of the performance. As many have mentioned, forcing it is lame. Luckily, we play guitar rock and my guitarist is one of the baddest dudes in town. He lights it up and I play off of him. I try to balance it so that my energy is enough and not too overpowering. Last thing I want to do is look like it's all about me. I've seen other bassists in town that do that and it's a little pathetic.
Also, here's some stage presence for you. You want jumps, I got your jumps right here. Please note that I must time my landings, otherwise it's a failure.
Also, here's some stage presence for you. You want jumps, I got your jumps right here. Please note that I must time my landings, otherwise it's a failure.
Stage presence has nothing at all to do with jumping around , I think.
Those people whom I think have fantastic stage presence are just very competent musicians , be that Steve Swallow, Anthony Jackson, Skuli Sverrisson etc.
There is something about a musician on stage who is focused and really good at what they do.
Those people whom I think have fantastic stage presence are just very competent musicians , be that Steve Swallow, Anthony Jackson, Skuli Sverrisson etc.
There is something about a musician on stage who is focused and really good at what they do.
I rock from foot to foot at an odd pace and stare at my fretboard, avoiding eye contact with the audience at all cost.
I was talking about /my experience/ from the /jam scene/. Your experience from totally different scene may not be the same.
I don’t “work” on my stage presence per se but the more I practice the songs the more I am relaxed on stage. Then I just go with the flow.
I think with the experience it became a natural thing to move around the stage, smile at the audience and my bandmates and show how much I love the music we are doing.
Also dressing up for the show helps me to get in character
I don’t do shows in short and flip flops anymore (unless it’s a Jack Johnson tribute band)
I think with the experience it became a natural thing to move around the stage, smile at the audience and my bandmates and show how much I love the music we are doing.
Also dressing up for the show helps me to get in character
I don’t do shows in short and flip flops anymore (unless it’s a Jack Johnson tribute band)
The band I played with tonight does an excellent job of imitating the statues on Easter Island. I usually move around a bit and smile at the people in the crowd, but it didn't feel right tonight, so I did my best Moai impersonation as well. I half expected birds to land on me.
- Oct 18, 2012
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My point was that being proficient is much more important than having stage presence. For some reason, most people think that they go hand in hand which is definitely not the case. Maybe if the "average joe" spent more time worrying about developing their playing skills and less time worrying about stage presence, they might have a greater level of success as a player.
Stage presence is about how visibly comfortable you are in stage. The Ox wasn’t known for jumping around, but he never looked like he was nervously trying to remember the songs, either.
Myself, one of the guitar players and Vox all get busy on stage. The other guitar player(my brother) isn't very animated but moves around somewhat. I'm large(fat) but move around on the stage like I was an in shape type person and have even been known to show off my vertical leap of 2 inches now and again, testing stages for their structural integrity. God help me if I find the weak spot in the floor of the stage. I guess I really get into the music
Here is something that can help!
