Pulling ridiculous faces whilst playing!

**Trevor Thomas** · Jun-01-2012, 8:52am

“Better to present good music and poor stagecraft than the other way around, right? Right? Right??”
Well ideally, yes. I think it’s better to cover up your poor stagecraft by being an awesome musician. However, this isn’t always an option. In my case, it’s sometimes the other way round.

In the 90s I joined a band about a week before they went on tour. I had to learn something like 40 of their songs in a few days. At the first gig I played, there was a song that had a complicated middle eight, that I couldn’t for the life of me remember. So I simply stopped playing, leapt in the air and did some frenetic dancing. And there may have been a bit of gurning involved. To my great surprise, nobody in the band took me to task for forgetting the song, in fact nobody said anything.

In retrospect I realise that I’d not replaced anyone else in the band – I was added to an existing lineup. As such, while they knew the material, they didn’t know what the ‘mandolin parts’ were. I never bothered learning the middle eight in that song – it was always ‘the bit where I did some jumping about’. It became part of the arrangement, and nobody minded.

**journeybear** · Jun-01-2012, 9:35am

Ha!!! That IS the other side of the coin - when in doubt, put on a big show! After all, you are still being entertaining, and the crowd does often love it. There's a bit of acting that goes along with the musicianship in a live performance, and sometimes that will carry you through. There have been a goodly number of times I have had to struggle through with faulty equipment or a just broken string, and acting like everything is all right -or better yet, the best ever - really does give the crowd the impression things are going well, even spectacularly. Funny how well this works sometimes.

**CES** · Jun-01-2012, 10:41am

Thanks for the Thile/Marshall post...I've just spent the last 30 minutes lost in youtube...gets me every time...

Having no talent and trying very hard not to screw up, I tend to look very, very serious...concentration...not pretty at all!

**greg_tsam** · Jun-01-2012, 12:59pm

Originally Posted by Trevor Thomas

...they didn’t know what the ‘mandolin parts’ were. I never bothered learning the middle eight in that song – it was always ‘the bit where I did some jumping about’. It became part of the arrangement, and nobody minded.

I call this technique "Fake it till you make it."

**Gerry Hastie** · Jun-02-2012, 6:39am

My wife and I constantly notice this phenomenon at gigs. We have a simple nomenclature system corresponding to each type of instrument being played when the musician is inspired to such unconscious facial contortion. Many times have we witnessed normal looking human beings afflicted by:
Banjo face
Accordion face
Guitar face
Fiddle face
I could go on...

**journeybear** · Jun-02-2012, 7:28am

I see you have no "Mandolin face" category. I assume that's because (generally speaking, all examples so far put forth heretofore notwithstanding) mandolinists are too classy, well-mannered, and, well, cool.

**allenhopkins** · Jun-02-2012, 12:09pm

Thinking about the "face making" situation, and noticing (not for the first time) that I tend to clench my jaw when starting a break, even though I'm much "looser" when singing or playing back-up. And the tension in the neck and jaw is probably bad for my lead playing... Gonna try to avoid doing that so much in the future.

**billkilpatrick** · Jun-02-2012, 12:29pm

my mandolin foible is an involuntary little kick of the right leg - as if i'm about to dance a highland jig (which i ain't.) happens when i'm finishing a phrase - weird and entirely involuntary.