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>At 05:49 PM 2/20/2005, Gary Lehmann wrote:
>>Now that the traffic has died down, time to clutter your mailbox again 8)
>>with a poll of the looping string players: how many sit and how many
>stand?
Kim answered:
>Interesting, I always meant to comment about this after these
>various loop festivals.
>
>Having watched many looper guitarists perform, I really, really
>think many of you need to learn to play standing up. Guitarists
>sitting down almost always look very lame. They have less stage
>presence, less energy, and less connection with the audience than
>guitarists standing up. Especially if you sit in a crappy looking
>chair instead of a stool, and do the big flappy-foot, legs-spread
>style of toe tapping. ugh.
>
>The only two people I've seen pull it off sitting down were Matthias
>Grob and Steve Lawson, and I think it is because they are both very
>tall, have good posture, and have the stage experience to engage the
>audience anyway.
oh, you are so kind, mate!
I have a specially made chair of the right size and soft top. So the
leg has no weight when taping switches. And the right leg is always
on the volume which I use a lot for expression.
yes, sometimes I feel like getting up when we go off, but I also hate
straps, so it really turns into a short show act, holding the
instrument somehow, or rather moving arround on the chair whitch does
not necessarily freeze us.
but I dont bring the chair overseas
but you saw me on a animated day with Jon Wagner and Rick, because
usually I am either shoe gazing or looking to the sky with closed
eyes :-)
Its a great challenge to play for dance, because it teaches you to
operate more without looking. Then again, to look into the public
usually rather distracts me... only sometimes I find somebody
interesting to play to. When they realized it and colaborate, it can
be very inspiring.
But it also happened to me that I was playing to someone in the
public and then finally look up again and the person was not there
any more LOL
>There are only three contexts where I think guitarists look ok
>sitting during a performance: a) big band jazz (at the end of the
>sax line), b) classical (with a stool), and c) when they have some
>apparent physical hardship (like being a 97 year old blind blues
>player).
d) deep music
I think there is music where the musician is not important. If he
builds a channel and the music is stronger than his way to make it,
the public will concentrate on sound and not worry about the visual,
he might even distract them by looking at them or moving arround.
I am not talking about ambient music!
e) ambient music
f) indian music ... :-)
On the other side, I discovered only after years how important it is
to dance to your music. even while sitting. It explains your music to
you and to the listener and Kim will not perceive you as low energy
any more!
besides it seems that the movement acts in the energetic level,
somehow similar to the music...
>Hide the cables. It will really really help.
totally agreed
a lot can be done by grouping the cables parallel and wind up the
rest in a space where its not visible.
Per used to put the cover in front of his rack. It somehow reminded
of that thing the priests stand behind :-)
If I were young I would make all cables black with color coded
connectors - almost has handy but a lot nicer
but since I love all my good old orange and green cables... :-)
--
---> http://Matthias.Grob.org