From: Barry Schaede Date: Sat, 20 Apr 1996 09:39:47 -0700 (MST) Subject: playing environment
I just recently played a gig with an acoustic bass player. He spent the entire night being frustrated and angry. Why, he was told he was playing with 2 acoustic guitars and a harmonica and found himself playing with 2 electric guitars and an amplified harmonica. Sure he had the PA to play through but what he really wanted was his amp. He told me later that the PA monitors didn't really do a good job of amplifying bass and the he uses the overtones and harmonics to establish the pitch on each note. Without this information he was unable to confidently play. Sounded fine to me but he was the one playing the bass, which brings me to my larger harmonica related point.
Oftentimes playing out you can have a bad set or a bad night. I can't stress enough how important to me it is to figure out what happened when things go wrong. Like a fretless acoustic bassist I too am bringing every note in to pitch on the fly. Being able to hear is extremely important. Rather than seeing the process of figuring out as a way of making excuses for my playing I see this process as an improtant part of the letting go because once I figure out what went wrong and how to prevent it next time around I can make the changes necessary. Sometimes it is a matter of practice practice practice. Othertimes it's getting more sleep the night before. Room acoustics and amp placement, others tuning, or my posistion on the stage can also do it.
At the end of what was a bad set for me people often come up and tell me how much they liked my playing. It's taken me a long time to stop telling them how bad it was and why it was bad. I finaly realised how imploite I was being by telling people who were complimenting me on my playing that no they were wrong and I really sucked. Now I thank them and talk about what they liked and harmonicas in general if they're players. It's a tenuous thing playing a musical instrument. Sometimes I think it's all an illusion. You go out one night play 3 awesome sets burn up the stage then listen to a tape of the sets a week later only to find how bad you were. I've also had the experience of thinking I was terrible then hearing a tape of the performance and liking it. So much of playing for live audiences is convincing them that you are having a good time up on the stage.
I saw Michelle Shocked last night. She's recently emerged from a protracted fight with her record label. She's touring smallish cities with absloutely no corporate support. Just her and a guitar player. No band and they haven't been playing together very long. If you were to evaluate the show on musical content it would have faired poorly. The endings mostly weren't in sych and they stumbled through a lot of the songs. For me though, this was the second best live show I've ever seen. She was having a good time up there on stage. Her rapport with the audience was incredible. There are so many intangibles that exist when we all play music. Practice, practice, practice, yes but I thank my lucky stars that Michelle Shocked just took her show on the road last night without the practice and that I was lucky enough to have bought a ticket. fjm
