Affected performances... visuals

[TubaRay]

I think that there should be just enough small movement (body/eyes/heart/bowels) to get across the point you are trying to make musically.

I don't believe I have ever had all of these move while playing. In fact, if that is a requirement to be musical, I would hope that I am never musical. There are some things that just don't seem appropriate.

[tubatooter1940]

Visual movements can help or hurt a performance greatly.
Most bands would do well to to emphasize visuals that will help.
I you perform in front of a sit down audience - staring at you, you better have something going on worth seeing or they will move away from you quickly. Watching a player sit there playing an instrument gets old fast.
Tim Olt, a tubenetter, brightens up classics with a bit of light comedy.
We Creekers include several silly songs in each set. We then do a "tear jerker" change up for the ladies calculated to rip out your heart and stomp a mud hole in it.
I see popular bar bands holding up signs, wearing wigs, doing comedic bits (rubber chickens) and encouraging audience sing-a-longs to spice up the show.
It's not easy to play at a level to inspire a crowd while doing visuals at the same time but if you like to eat regularly from music income, you will find a way.
Dennis Gray
http://www.johnreno.com/" target="_blank

[Rick Denney]

It's not easy to play at a level to inspire a crowd while doing visuals at the same time but if you like to eat regularly from music income, you will find a way.

There is a difference between emoting through motion and visual schtick. The choice of music greatly affects how much schtick might be appropriate.

For example, I once had a ring-side seat for a clinic concert put on by the Canadian Brass. When they played schticky tunes, they danced around and engaged in humorous drama in order to entertain the audience.

But they also played a new arrangement of Barber's Adagio. For that, they sat in chairs, read from music (!, but it was a new arrangement at the time), and did not cavort around the stage, or even move much at all. It wasn't funny, but it was fully passionate, and it firmly held the attention of that audience. And many in the audience were high-school kids who were attending the clinic--attention not easily held even though they were musicians. (On that occasion, the CB played with the San Antonio Municipal Band, of which I was a member. Believe me, your pulse rate will quicken if you are bonehead amateur like me and Chuck Daellenbach sits next to you without warning to read off your stand.)

When I pay $40 or $50 to attend a symphony concert, I'm not buying a comedy act. When I'm listening to a band at a bar or amusement park, the comedy is appreciated. One skill any performer must have is how far to go, and in what direction, with a particular audience.

But I put that in the category of stage entertainment, rather than whether large body motions enhance or detract from the emotional power of the music.

Rick "for whom the focus should be on enhancing vs. detracting for a given piece of music and audience" Denney

[Dylan King]

If one is going to play an instrument, they should give it all they have. Obviously too much movement in a group not traditionally suited for "dancing" instrumentalists is a bad idea, but if it is proper, I say go for it!

1 Chronicles 13:8
Then David and all Israel played music before God with all their might, with singing, on harps, on stringed instruments, on tambourines, on cymbals, and with trumpets.

[Mark]

When I pay $40 or $50 to attend a symphony concert...

You can get Symphony tickets for $50? The National Symphony?

[Rick Denney]

When I pay $40 or $50 to attend a symphony concert...

You can get Symphony tickets for $50? The National Symphony?

Not for the best seats in the house, but not for the worst, either. And those are when bought ad hoc. It's been a long time since I had season tickets to a symphony--too much business travel to make it a good deal.

Rick "who used to pay a lot less than that" Denney

[NC_amateur_euph]

Disco!

That's the answer to oldbandnerd's problem with unauthorized fishing by punk kids. Disco - at high volumes - triggered by trip wires.

If disco doesn't do it - oboe/saxophone/viola/insert-your-least-favorite concerti.

The tuba/euph practice following the hasty departure of the young'uns would be more celebration and less decompression. Still good for you, just different motivation.

[KevinMadden]

It's not easy to play at a level to inspire a crowd while doing visuals at the same time but if you like to eat regularly from music income, you will find a way.

There is a difference between emoting through motion and visual schtick. The choice of music greatly affects how much schtick might be appropriate.

For example, I once had a ring-side seat for a clinic concert put on by the Canadian Brass. When they played schticky tunes, they danced around and engaged in humorous drama in order to entertain the audience.

But they also played a new arrangement of Barber's Adagio. For that, they sat in chairs, read from music (!, but it was a new arrangement at the time), and did not cavort around the stage, or even move much at all. It wasn't funny, but it was fully passionate, and it firmly held the attention of that audience.

Rick "for whom the focus should be on enhancing vs. detracting for a given piece of music and audience" Denney

I agree with that.
IC has a Tuba quartet that plays at at local bar on Monday NIghts (Moonshadow's, if anyone knows Ithaca) and we ham up our show quite a bit.. nothing too extreme as space is at a premium, but we'll converse with the crowd, flirt, move a bit etc. It's great fun, the audience enjoys it.
On the other hand, the Tallis Scholars came to IC this year. They played a long concert (about 2 hours if I recall) and moved very little (extremely little for vocalists) and trust me.. not a one person looked away fro the stage the entire performance.

[bill]

If your movement is noticed more than the music, you probably move too much. If the movement is the same for Czardis as it is for a Sousa March, you probably are not feeling the music. Watch Wheel of Fortune sometimes and see how many of the people there (especially men) "dance" as they are talking. This movement is a way of releasing tension and, while driving the camera men crazy, probably helps the contestant as some movement will help an instrumentalist. But movement is a form of performance personalization so let it be; you have to be a live musician to do it and live music is best.