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Looper's Delight
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Rick Walker was like: > > Lastly, there are times when I want to show the audience all the things > I > can do musically.... > ....to show off my entire skill set. This is a total mistake from my > experience and frequently > leads to a show that is too ambitious (particularly in terms of time for > set > up). > I keep wanting to do it, though, so I struggle with it. It's really > pure > petty ego and I know it, > but I also have a tendency to forget things like that in the insecurity > of a > performance. > I've seen a few people do this and you're right. It's bad for the musician for a few reasons: 1) If the audience thinks they've seen your entire skill set, they'll be less likely to need to see you play again. 2) When you do save some of your bag of tricks for a future concert, you remain "fresh" to the people who see you again. 3) The need to touch on all the techniques a musician has, like the need to use all the pieces of gear a musician brought to the show, distracts from the creative process of music making. When I've done it, I've found that it creates an alternative to actual inspiration. By trying to steer away from it, I kind of force myself to be more inspired. 4) Some of my favorite performances have been those where the musician focuses on a very narrow area of their repertoire. So, I couple years ago, I managed to stop doing the standard improvisation pitfall of playing non-stop for the entire set. Now I usually break it up into 10 minute songs with a break in between. The next big hurdle for me to try to get having patience with myself when I'm in front of people. When I play at home, I usually take the time to do that focus I talk about in #4 - and focus on a small range of sounds for 20 minutes or so. When I'm in front of people, I get nervous that I'm boring people, and change things up more often. However, when I listen to the recordings, i almost often think that I'm switching ideas too quickly. -- Matt Davignon mattdavignon@gmail.com www.ribosomemusic.com Podcast! http://ribosomematt.podomatic.com Rigs! http://www.youtube.com/user/ribosomematt