Useful reminder for anyone with performance nerves

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Jon Boyes

Posts: 1377
Joined: Jul. 10 2003

Useful reminder for anyone with perf...

..no-one knows your music as well as you do...

Lats Friday I played Paco Penas Sevillanas (I posted my recording here a few weeks back) for the first time at restaurant gig. It was (I thought) a complete shambles - I had recorded my palmas backing far too quietly, and consequently couldn't hear the backing or any of my cues. I kept losing my place in the compas, forgetting the falsetas under the pressure of it all (letras in Sevillanas? - excuse my ignorance) and had to hastily improvise just to keep going and cover over my mistakes.

Anyhow, to my surpise when I finished everyone starts clapping, and I get loads of questions - "that's pretty, what is it?" etc, etc. It ends up being one of the evening's most popular pieces.

Just goes to show, eh? Sometimes we forget that the audience hasn't spent hundreds of hours going over and over the material as we do.

Jon
(PS I would of course been completely stuffed if I was playing to a roomful of flamenco aficionados, but luckily for me your average British restaurant does not have any

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Feb. 25 2004 11:50:59

Miguel de Maria

Posts: 3532
Joined: Oct. 20 2003
From: Phoenix, AZ

RE: Useful reminder for anyone with ... (in reply to Jon Boyes)

Jon,
this is true. last night I played my first solo gig (before I have played in duos and trios), and it was a hearty four hours long! Four Seasons lounge. Now, I have been steadily building my repertoire, but four hours! I know there was going to be some improvisation, some repetition, as my friend Miguel calls it: "repitorio." I played okay, some pieces well, some horrible. I played a John Williams piece and screwed it up so bad, I got kind of mad and kept repeating this one section until I got it right. A few times I felt I was floundering and about to go under. And for some reason in the third set, my fingers started to get dead tired, right in the middle of some rather energetic, picado intensive pieces!

What I played would not have served flamenco aficionados well, but apparently it went over okay to the patrons, as I got two tips, several compliments from the staff, and my wife, who lovingly accompanied me, said I sounded good!

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Feb. 25 2004 18:05:17

Jon Boyes

Posts: 1377
Joined: Jul. 10 2003

RE: Useful reminder for anyone with ... (in reply to Miguel de Maria)

FOUR hours for your first solo spot? Wow Mike, thats nuts. Most of my gigs involve two one-hour sets with a break in between. Anything over two hours and I'm repeating material (actually, I sometimes do that anyway, depends on the circumstances).

Yeah the tips make it all worth while, don't they? Getting paid a decent amount is important of course, but to get a tip from a customer is really special - shows they really enjoyed it. I picked up a ten pound tip from someone at that 'bungled Sevillanas' gig (about 19 dollars).

I'd be interested to hear what proportion of your set is flamenco Mike - I can't see me ever really doing more than a handful of pieces in these solo situations.
Cheers

Jon

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Feb. 26 2004 8:17:20

el ted

Posts: 466
Joined: Nov. 13 2003

RE: Useful reminder for anyone with ... (in reply to Jon Boyes)

How true! I played like a drain in front of a packed pub at Whitby folk festival a couple of years ago, and when I had finished TWO people came up separately and asked me if I was Spanish!

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Mar. 22 2004 15:46:42

Miguel de Maria

Posts: 3532
Joined: Oct. 20 2003
From: Phoenix, AZ

RE: Useful reminder for anyone with ... (in reply to Jon Boyes)

Jon, sorry I didn't see your reply. In my set I play a bulerias, a sevillanas, several rumbas, a columbianas, a siguriyas, and a solea. I'm adding another columbianas, a farruca, and an alegrias, hopefully before this summer.

Actually I can email you my song list if you want.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Mar. 22 2004 16:58:40

Miguel de Maria

Posts: 3532
Joined: Oct. 20 2003
From: Phoenix, AZ

RE: Useful reminder for anyone with ... (in reply to Jon Boyes)

Actually, Jon, this reminds me of something I recently observed. I played a 2-hour gig at an art gallery on Thursday, it's this thing in Scottsdale called the Artwalk where lots of rich people walk around and look at art and drink free wine and stuff. Anyways, I was playing outside and as a result a lot of people stopped and listened for awhile. This gig was harder and more demanding than the 4-hour lounge gig. I think it was because when you are just filling the room with guitar sound, you can repeat to your heart's content, you can improvise, and a flub here or there never hurts anyone. When people are watching, there's much more pressure, to play well and also be entertaining. I found myself in a bit of a panic and running out of material for the 2 hour gig! And then on Saturday I got another 4 hour gig, and didn't repeat a single thing.... weird....I guess giving a 45 min. concert is much more intense and harder than a 4 hour lounge act.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Mar. 22 2004 17:11:23