One neat thing that happens here in Tucson is a local cable access show that is a one hour long live music format show. The guy who produces the show has been doing it for the last 13 years! As far as live music television shows go, this one is up there when it comes to longevity. The show is on Saturdays at midnight. Since I don’t have room in my budget for bail, I mix audio for the TV show. This keeps me off the streets and out of trouble on Saturday nights. Well, last Saturday I played the show. The performance was “eventful”.
The station did spring for a new mixing board and it is nice. Unfortunately it is not small furry animal compatible. (So easy to understand that a small furry animal could do it) Since I was playing I couldn’t set up the board. Well when the show started there was no guitar. I heard from a viewer that I sure looked impressive. That got straightened out about 10 minuets into the show. Remember this is live. Part of my show is that I play backing tracks that I recorded myself. Then I get to play all the cool show-off lead parts on top of them. As it turns out the backing audio tracks were not broadcast until about half way through the show. All of this was transparent to me as it sounded great on my stage. Finally the producer told me, after the show, the video record tapes stopped about 15 minuets into the show. It turned out that the record tapes were totally blank. (I’m in no hurry to get a copy)
As far as live performances go try this sometimes. Divide the number of people who tell you they will come to hear you play into the number of people that actually show up. You should end up with a number like 7%. For this show I had about 14 people that said they were going to come. Only one person showed. 7% was about right.
Now I did all of my stuff right. I practiced so hard that my hand hurt (then I practiced more (This actually does have me concerned and stretching exercises are being enforced)). Every note that wasn’t played to perfection was covered nicely. I had signal going to all the right places. My hair was brushed and my teeth were combed. I even wore clean underwear just in case of … well... you know. Thankfully it wasn’t necessary. Still there were several things about this show that went WRONG. So it’s just a local cable access show and I tell guest performing on the show not to get nervous because dozens of people are watching the show. Still so many things went wrong and no one showed up. So why do I even bother to play. The answer is so simple. Because I love to play! So what if you don’t show up when you say you will or if can’t run a mixing board. I still do the things that make me happy.
Finally, to paraphrase a passage from Steve Morse on performing
If you do a good job the people watching will love you. Two hours from now they will forget your name. Maybe you will get some more gigs from it and maybe you won’t. But at least you will have gained the experience of playing another live performance. If you do a bad job the people watching will hate you. Two hours from now they will forget your name. Maybe you will get some more gigs from it and maybe you won’t. But at least you will have gained the experience of playing another live performance.
Thanks for letting me share
norm
The station did spring for a new mixing board and it is nice. Unfortunately it is not small furry animal compatible. (So easy to understand that a small furry animal could do it) Since I was playing I couldn’t set up the board. Well when the show started there was no guitar. I heard from a viewer that I sure looked impressive. That got straightened out about 10 minuets into the show. Remember this is live. Part of my show is that I play backing tracks that I recorded myself. Then I get to play all the cool show-off lead parts on top of them. As it turns out the backing audio tracks were not broadcast until about half way through the show. All of this was transparent to me as it sounded great on my stage. Finally the producer told me, after the show, the video record tapes stopped about 15 minuets into the show. It turned out that the record tapes were totally blank. (I’m in no hurry to get a copy)
As far as live performances go try this sometimes. Divide the number of people who tell you they will come to hear you play into the number of people that actually show up. You should end up with a number like 7%. For this show I had about 14 people that said they were going to come. Only one person showed. 7% was about right.
Now I did all of my stuff right. I practiced so hard that my hand hurt (then I practiced more (This actually does have me concerned and stretching exercises are being enforced)). Every note that wasn’t played to perfection was covered nicely. I had signal going to all the right places. My hair was brushed and my teeth were combed. I even wore clean underwear just in case of … well... you know. Thankfully it wasn’t necessary. Still there were several things about this show that went WRONG. So it’s just a local cable access show and I tell guest performing on the show not to get nervous because dozens of people are watching the show. Still so many things went wrong and no one showed up. So why do I even bother to play. The answer is so simple. Because I love to play! So what if you don’t show up when you say you will or if can’t run a mixing board. I still do the things that make me happy.
Finally, to paraphrase a passage from Steve Morse on performing
If you do a good job the people watching will love you. Two hours from now they will forget your name. Maybe you will get some more gigs from it and maybe you won’t. But at least you will have gained the experience of playing another live performance. If you do a bad job the people watching will hate you. Two hours from now they will forget your name. Maybe you will get some more gigs from it and maybe you won’t. But at least you will have gained the experience of playing another live performance.
Thanks for letting me share
norm
