Love this thread
I just look sort of gormless, I have to remember to try and smile once in a while!
Love this thread
I just look sort of gormless, I have to remember to try and smile once in a while!
I believe that any mannerisms exhibited that seem weird or uncontrolled means that you are in "the" or "a" zone and should be embraced. Never change to suit others.
Sometimes I'll screw up my face like I'm a 5 year old faced with a big problem. Try not to do that during performances, but it'll just come out sometimes. Will also occasionally purse my lips. Started doing it after seeing a friend do it while playing some guitar solos. Another habit to break. Then again, have spent the last 30+ years trying to break free from my classical music history where there was no smiling or other enjoyment of the music allowed.
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I used to have a bad habit of playing with my mouth wide open. I wasn't aware of it until people started teasing me and I saw some videos. I don't know why I did that, perhaps it's because we hear a bit better with our mouth open?
So now I'm acutely aware of that habit, but tend to keep my lips tightly together while moving my bottom jay in weird motions. On video, it almost looks like a have a strange neurological condition. It's worse when I'm improvising, and I can control it if I know the song.
A quarter tone flat and a half a beat behind.
There's one specific tune that goes up to either a B or C that I feel my eyebrows raise as I hit it... The interesting thing about ITM sessions is, when you get familiar enough with the tunes that you can just play them, it gives you a chance to look around at everybody else. I have a photo somewhere of a gig we did where there are, dunno, six of us stretched along a wall and not a single one of us is looking in the same direction (including the camera) or looks like a normal, relaxed person. Eyes on the ceiling. eyes on the floor, mouths open, frowns, tilted heads, legs stretched out, legs tucked under ... you name it, we did it. If I can find the photo, I'll post it. From the photos I've seen of myself, I mostly look down at some vague place just off my mandolin but before my feet. If I'm looking around, I'll remember to smile, though, at everybody else looking down!
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aka: Spencer
Silverangel Econo A #429
Soliver #001 & #002: A double stack of Pancakes.
Soliver Hand Crafted Mandolins and Mandolin Armrests
Armrests Here -- Mandolins Here
"You can never cross the ocean unless you have the courage
to lose sight of the shore, ...and also a boat with no holes in it.” -anonymous
Yeah, but no one makes noises when they play like Steve Wariner does.
David Hopkins
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The older I get, the less tolerant I am of political correctness, incompetence and stupidity.
I like to wear clogs whether I'm playing at home or out in public - I'm not a clog dancer, but I notice particularly when I'm on a wood floor or other hard surface I often immediately tap loudly with my foot - guess i play a lot of dance tunes. I Iike the way it sounds. Often I just move my body in some counterpoint fashion. When others are dancing I tend to move around more probably. In fact, that's something I really like about playing music - the body dancing.
Moving mouth (more like clenching teeth and grinding ) is usually a symptom of body tensing up with me, so I try to breathe naturally and not clench my teeth, relax the muscles and hopefully play a bit more naturally.
Back in the early 80s, pianist and guitarist in a band I was in used to stand behind me and mimic my mouth movements when I took a solo.
I only found out much later. I thought the audience were grinning with delight at my wonderful playing!
Bren
The section of the brain that handles fine motor control is adjacent to the section of the brain that handles facial control. SO when you're doing something with your hands that requires a lot of concentration, the face gets pulled in as it were. At least this is the explanation given to me by my psychologist ex-wife.
I suppose the only way to avoid making faces is to practice enough to reduce the concentration required.
:-)
Daniel
aka: Spencer
Silverangel Econo A #429
Soliver #001 & #002: A double stack of Pancakes.
Soliver Hand Crafted Mandolins and Mandolin Armrests
Armrests Here -- Mandolins Here
"You can never cross the ocean unless you have the courage
to lose sight of the shore, ...and also a boat with no holes in it.” -anonymous
For some reason I am unable to sing into a microphone with out standing on tip-toes, Lowering the mic stand doesn't help, I still find myself on tip toes, but then have to lower my head to get close to the mic!
I know, it even annoys me!
Even at the age 56 I still have a tendency to stick my tongue out when doing something the requires fine motor skills - luckily I have not seen any photos or video of me doing it while playing. Potentially worse is the fact that I was doing some recording last night and had to scratch the mandolin track because I could hear myself grunt a couple of times - THAT is something new for me.
Wonderful . . . .
If you get successful enough, your ticks when playing may become the stuff of memes https://www.facebook.com/pg/jeffaust...=page_internal (memes are more than a picture with text).
Almost all musicians do it. Someone pointed out to me back in the high school orchestra that I make weird expressions with my mouth throughout every piece of music. I still do it 10+ years later. Just be able to laugh at yourself and don't take life too seriously.
I used to drool when I was concentrating on playing. Actually it started with just a slack jaw, but if a solo went on long enough the spit would eventually over flow. Eventually I gained enough confidence keep the instruments and myself dry.
Steve Lavelle
'93 Flatiron Performer F
Customized Eastwood Mandocaster (8str)
I read somewhere that facial ticks and the like while playing a musical instrument are due to the facial muscle controlling circuits are right next to the finger controlling circuits and to one extent or another in some folks there is a bleeding over or induced pickup from one circuit to the other. Something like that. It is involuntary.
I know a guitar player who fights this by smoking a pipe while playing.
That would negate the fact that Thile is proficient enough in his playing not to require a lot of concentration...?? Unless of course it actually helps him ?? (I tried it, didn't work..!??!), on the other hand, maybe he just enjoys practicing facial contortion...??
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I see Daniel beat me in describing the involuntary part of this.
There is another part though, which is the conscious expression of emotions appropriate to the tune being played. In the past i never paid much attention to this, but my violin teacher really emphasized it. Her point was two fold, one that the deliberate expression we make will influence how we play. The two are connected. And second, that every performance is a performance, meaning that the expression on your face and how you behave on stage is part of the deliberate manipulation of the audience's emotions which is a performance.
So we all know that in many cases high notes signal intensity, (like in trumpet and cornet), in guitars and mandolins playing up high does not require or necessarily correspond to actual intensity, but if we put on our intensity faces, the audience gets it.
I first figured this out years ago when i watched a training video for electric guitar. It was an advanced lesson, and the player was all over that thing, spending a lot of time way way up the neck. But his face was relaxed with a easy smile. In the case of the video he was trying to communicate "easy peasy" "no big deal". The independence of the deliberate face from the playing was a revelation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQua5ZNd9PQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bp7evCQWBgU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLc8_AKG0KA
So funny! I've two faces mostly; the stern concentrated one when I'm struggling to find fills/embellishments or solo's in songs I've no experience with or cannot hear myself in the din; and the sublime smile when all is flowing with no worries over technicalities just in the moment. If I start to look like Joe Cocker in his prime hopefully someone might mention that to me...but what could I do to change that anyway?! It's all good, be who you are!
So I was scrolling through the past "Mandolin Mondays" recently and LOVED this guy,... both for his playing and for his JAM FACE... couldn't hep but think of this thread!
Right around 2:35 are some good faces!
This guy is incredible!... really good stuff all around
aka: Spencer
Silverangel Econo A #429
Soliver #001 & #002: A double stack of Pancakes.
Soliver Hand Crafted Mandolins and Mandolin Armrests
Armrests Here -- Mandolins Here
"You can never cross the ocean unless you have the courage
to lose sight of the shore, ...and also a boat with no holes in it.” -anonymous
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