for many years for that reason partly I chose to perform standing than sitting. When the instrumental guitarist sits generally between posture and focus on the neck as well as the idea of playing an instrument is already introspective, the formula leaves the audience to have to go beyond the half way point unless you the musician are dancing all around the stage. all this aside as I've been reminded more than once it is 'entertainment'. the whole issue is hard as we tend to want the audience to cross that line of doing some work and listening and responding to this 'art' we've created. it's always a joy when someone listening 'gets it' but in the end it's partly our responsibility adn I don't live up to this very well but to a degree it's partly our responsibility to entertain but there are a number of ways to approach that. It doesn't always mean Buck Owens 'pickin and grinin' but our western society has come to expect a bit of that I think.
total spin here one of the patriarchs of the list impressed me the most at loopfest last year in that he came to the stage with a bazillion instruments some toylike. That was Rick and he took his muse from texture to texture in a sense to me that was the 'loop'. An early influence of mine was ex-Incredible String Band founder or co-fo0ounder Robin Williamson. A very memborable show that I've seen in recent years was seeing Robin in his solo bard performance essentially doing the same, multi-instruments multi-textures all enhancing the wonderful stories of King Arthur and other Celtic myths.
this is a very wide open area and these are random thoughts but George's point is well taken and seomthing that I often think about but not quite sure I'm ever able to quite answer other than I do really try to go beyond my own muse when I perform and some way meet the audience a bit.
Jim
On Sun, Sep 14, 2008 at 11:54 PM, George Ludwig
<sfmissionman@yahoo.com> wrote:
The NIN thread got me thinking about one of the drawbacks of solo performance, which is that the visual effect tends to lack a strong impact. As a guitarist, it's pretty easy to just sit on the stool and work the guitar and pedals. And that's not too interesting to watch, even when it's Fripp. It's tempting to invite other musicans, especialy percussionists who could hang with anything I might be doing without a lot of rehearsal, to sit in if only for the added visual impact.
So what are your thoughts regarding how you approach making your solo looping gig more visually engaging?
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