One experience that i'll never forget,is one that i had when i was over in the US at the IBMA Festival in Owensboro in 1992. During the week,a few of the bands played at venues around Owensboro ie.a school,giving little concerts for 'whoever'.
There was one band that i spoke to - ''Kentucky Rose'' from Eugene,Oregon,who were due to play at a local children's primary school. Me & my works colleague,Andy who was over with me, drove out to the school to watch.
The audience,only about 20 or so adults were seated on chairs & then the children came in. They aged from around maybe 3 1/2 years of age, to around 5 years of age & they were seated on floor mats.
When ''Kentucky Rose'' began to play,all the children began clapping - totally out of time & all over the place as you can imagine,which in itself was very funny to listen to. One of the teachers showed the children how to clap using the first 2 fingers on each hand = 'silent'. The kids got it right off & began clapping with renewed enthusiasm - which lasted all of around 5 seconds,then it was back to 'whole hand' clapping. The teacher just gave up !!. It was one of the funniest things i've seen at any concert,& the children loved every second of it !!,
Ivan
Weber F-5 'Fern'.
Lebeda F-5 "Special".
Stelling Bellflower BANJO
Tokai - 'Tele-alike'.
Ellis DeLuxe "A" style.
I like the way different genres and cultures expect different reactions. In Irish trad it is very much accepted that you’ll show your appreciation for a singer when you are moved by their craft. Similarly during a session where there are one or two players. Comments like ‘good man’, ‘powerful stuff there’ are often offered up to let the singer or player know they’re taking the people with them. Even during a quiet moving lament you’ll hear the murmurs and expressions of approval. In those situations the people interjecting often pitch it in a complimentary way to the presentation of the song or tune.
I like the round of appreciative applause after bluegrass breaks as long as they're not too formulaic or routine. They can muddy over the next break if they’re not kept short, but most players coming in after seem to crack a smile to hear their bandmate getting a bit of recognition. It always goes a bit ‘dribbly’ and does become a bit worthless if it’s just being done as a routine. But off the back of a great solo it makes the whole thing seem very social and a smile from the players in return helps to form a bond between the audience and band.
With a classical or baroque piece it just seems out of place to hear applause between movements. They're supposed to build and progress across the whole piece, each setting the mood and leaving the listeners in a particular place, before moving on through the next progression towards the culmination. It could ruin that setting and feeling to jump in with a racket of applause there. I love when there is prolonged silence after a moving piece with the applause only erupting once people have come back down to earth.
I think it’s great that there are so many varieties of norm and expectation defined by the cultural context around each style.
Here’s one that Stillgoe & Skellern must have made just for you JL277z
Last edited by Beanzy; Mar-04-2018 at 8:24am.
Eoin
"Forget that anyone is listening to you and always listen to yourself" - Fryderyk Chopin
I have never let my schooling interfere with my education - Mark Twain
"get over it", one of my all-time favorite phrases. Thank you for that, tells me all I want to know about the author.
"Adapt, tolerate, and thrive, I say!"
Ditto my comments above.
I am attending a music venue to hear the musicians . I am not there to be entertained by an audience.
Want to be a "participant" ? try karaoke (sp) but don't harsh this gig and interfere with my enjoyment and waste my hard earned bucks.
Worse, when the musicians encourage audience participation, a sure sign they are losing the adoration which apparently is their motivation for being there. That is a an exit call for me.
Audience hooting and hollering and clapping "in time" with the performers.. this is simply bad behavior. .. the new norm.
Consider this ...... R E S P E C T... a basis for your behavior....whether a musician or in the audience.
Why I do not go to many events, and buy a CD instead... the audience. Sometimes the performer.. too much emoting and gyrating and feigned "grooving". That is a learned affectation.
I look at performances of famed musicians and compare their actions on stage early in their career and then when they hit the charts.. completely different stage presence. Annoying and artificial, and in my opinion.. "trains" the audience to do the same.
Now, get off my lawn !
When I was in high school,me and some friends went to see the Flying Burito Brothers,,they were recording a live album,,when it came to a instrumental,the crowd was so loud,the tech said he didn't get it and for the crowd to quite down and they played it again,the crowd wouldn't pay attention and got even louder,,that poor band played that same tune 11 times until they finally got a good recording..
I like the description that we're all talking past each other here because I does seem like it, opinions aside. What I like and what the audience does -- or doesn't -- depends on me as much as the situation. I've played in classical settings where I don't care about the audience because I'm personally communing with the music; I've played at schools where a member of our group (spits between two fingers) decided it would be a good idea to encourage a bunch of second-graders to slap their hands on the floor as we played; yesterday, we were playing at a nursing home and one of the residents sat in one of the chairs reserved for the band at the front of the room (so someone or two of us had to sit in a back row in the corner) and kept up a running commentary ... and I've also played where the audience waited until we were done before they applauded and we got our energy by looking at each other ... if I had my druthers, I'd have appreciated a different audience reaction -- and sometimes a different audience! -- but you get what you get so you just have to push through, is my experience.
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1920 Lyon & Healy bowlback
1923 Gibson A-1 snakehead
1952 Strad-o-lin
1983 Giannini ABSM1 bandolim
2009 Giannini GBSM3 bandolim
2011 Eastman MD305
I guess this is a personality thing, maybe related to introversion / extraversion? I'm totally baffled by comments such as "I'd rather hear the live performance without the audience." For me, a huge part of the appeal of seeing something live is experiencing it with other people and being connected to others through that experience. It's what I love about teaching, too: the opportunity to commune with others about ideas I love. When I perform, I'm just as interested in how the audience reacts as I am to what I'm playing. But I recognize that I'm probably describing someone else's hell.
Amanda
-2007 Duff F5
-2001 Stiver F5
-Blueridge BR-40T Tenor Guitar
-1923 Bacon Style-C Tenor Banjo
This thread is sure revealing some stark differences among Cafe members! Wow...
I'm guilty of so many of the things that others complain about, I almost (not quite) feel embarrassed. Getting the audience to sing along; encouraging audiences to clap (I'm gonna be doing Wild Rover all over the place between now and St. Pat's, and there are those four claps after "No, nay, never..."), stopping my vocals and getting the audience to sing with my instrument accompanying them -- jeez, I'm a multiple offender!
So much has to do with different attitudes toward musical performance: is it an art form, or a social occasion, or some of both -- and if the latter, what's an acceptable mixture of respectful attention and enthusiastic participation? We can all draw the line at disruption, I guess, but when does participation become disruption? And, ain't one person's "disruption," another person's "just joining in?"
I'm sure my enthusiasm for joining in has bothered others from time to time; guilty as charged. And I'm sure others in my audiences have thought, "Why's he encouraging people who can't sing to do it anyway, especially that guy bellowing behind me?" I often lead off my seniors' gigs with the quip, "The louder you sing, the better I sound," which probably isn't strictly true, but gets across the point that participation's welcome.
I don't want to hear the audience clapping rhythmically through the William Tell Overture if I go to the symphony, and I'd be surprised if they applauded a well-played French horn solo in the middle of some orchestral work. But IMHO more "folk-based" genres are qualitatively different -- and I include rock, bluegrass, blues and Celtic "trad" among them. It's "people's music" in some ways, and it often directly engages audiences in a manner that most classical music, which is meant to be appreciated, doesn't -- at least not in this era. Doesn't mean we shouldn't appreciate a bluegrass band or a rock group, just means that the distance (not necessarily physical) between performer and audience is less.
I try to shrink that distance to a minimum, but I don't hold this up as a template everyone should adopt. I like performing without mics or sound system, in small rooms without stages or stage lighting, so I can look right at the audience and, I hope, get them involved. Not all the time, but that's sorta "how I roll." YMMV, of course.
And by the way, we should be nicer to each other in this thread. There are some very good points being made, important issues being discussed, and getting snippy and/or defensive doesn't help.
Allen Hopkins
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Just to be as clear as possible, I don't mind people singing along at a concert. I LOVE singing along. I just don't like when the artist moves back from the mic and lets the audience take over. This usually happens during the most popular song too, the one I probably want to hear the artist sing the most.
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Thanks for this. Going to live music is more than just listening to music, it's about building a whole community, if even for the duration of the performance. In concert series, it's an ongoing community. Music just happens to be a common denominator. If all one really cared about was listening to the music itself, then yes, simply put on a cd. You'll get better sound, your choice of beverage at your hand, and a much more comfortable seat. As a presenter, I find an interesting correlation between those who come to events for music and those who come for community. Those who come simply for the music will come to hear a favorite artist and then never return until a similar artist appears. Those who come for the community come to all the shows, supporting the whole program, and also are the donors the education/workshop part of the program. They're the ones who stick around after the show, meet other people as well as the artists, and in general look for a comprehensive event. We've had marriages form, careers get jump started, kids get into the local university, all through connections made. When I take a chance on an unusual show be it classical/jazz crossover, or whatever, they're the ones who come and invite friends. They may cheer during solos, or during really fast or tough passages, but the artists always seem to look up and smile when they hear they're appreciated. When it's an Irish performer and I hear a whoop let out during a fast reel set, invariably there's a smile on the musician's faces. I know the musicians must be fine with it, they keep bugging their agents about return gigs.
Some of the US!
When I moved to Maine in '88, I was surprised at how - uh - taciturn audiences were (and still are). On the whole, Mainers don't like to dance, don't like singing in groups, don't like public displays of much of anything, and in general play pretty close to the vest emotionally.
I remember seeing Marcia Ball at a dance club. She's more used to the Louisiana/Texas chitlin circuit and thought she was doing something wrong because people weren't carrying on properly. (i.e. whooping and hollering.) Folks were either quietly eating and drinking or quietly dancing. And politely clapping at the end of each barnburner. My date and I tried to reassure her that she was doing just fine, but I'm not sure she really believed it.
The most instructive story I've heard comes from Maine comedian Tim Sample. When he did his first-ever sit-down-audience solo show, he was getting no reaction whatsoever from the crowd. And it was a full house.
So at intermission, he went around to the stage door near the lobby and cracked it open so he could evesdrop and get the scoop. And he heard one guy say to the woman he was with, "That Sample's so darn funny I almost laughed out loud a couple of times!"
I remember several decades ago playing at a venue, I was there for two weeks. The first night I played, and finished the first song, and nothing. I picked a song I might have normally played later in the evening, nothing. I played last set material., nothing. I was dying up there, trying my hardest. When I announced a break the whole house applauded. I thought they were applauding because I was quitting. During the break I ended sitting at a table in the audience. They told me they applaud the set at this place and not each song, as some people were eating. I was so thankful to find out that indeed they were enjoying the music, just a different audience than I was used to.
THE WORLD IS A BETTER PLACE JUST FOR YOUR SMILE!
Jim
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For those wishing to put all this discussion in perspective: an academic study Coughing and Clapping: Investigating Audience Experience.
mandogio
"And by the way, we should be nicer to each other in this thread"
What part of "get off my lawn" did you not understand ?
I love live music. Almost any live music. I get out to hear it way too infrequently. I enjoy watching the crowd and enjoying the music with them.
I remember a Jonathan Edwards concert quite a few years ago during which one woman was dancing strangely, acting out the songs. Distracting? Maybe, but I still smile when I think of the joy she was demonstrating.
I remember a Harry Chapin concert from more decades ago than I care to admit to during which he and his band played for four and one half hours, interacting, and I mean really interacting with the crowd the whole time. That is my favorite concert memory.
I am not a good enough musician that anyone ever actually wants to hear me. But on the odd occasion that people do hear me, I love it when people show me that they are 'getting' it. For me, music is about communication. Communication should be at least two-way. I love that communication.
Purr more, hiss less. Barn Cat Mandolins Photo Album
I saw Gordon Lightfoot back in the 60's in Hawaii, wow did I just say that. Anyway about 45 minutes into the concert he said" What do you want to hear, we are here to please you" For an hour he did every request including, Lion Sleeps Tonight. Not only did he do them, every request was superbly done. It was the most impressive concert I have seen a touring pro do. Now that's audience interaction and this was a very large auditorium.
THE WORLD IS A BETTER PLACE JUST FOR YOUR SMILE!
At the height of the classical and romantic period, audiences often applauded between movements. Sometimes they applauded enough to demand a repeat of that movement.
I do dislike when people applaud after every solo in jazz or bluegrass. Sure, spontaneous applause is great, but every time? To me it just underlines how athletic and self-indulgent much jazz and bluegrass has become. They are playing for the licks, not the song.
"Go ahead, stomp your feet on the floorboards
Clap your hands, if that's really what you came here for"
"Pick it solid, boys." -Claude Debussy
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