You guys are live music lovers and I need some opinions from the experts. So, I'm in this band with some guys (great musicians!) who I've known a long time. We've played together in just about any combination you can think of for years. But there is one thing that I have finally realized. As long as they have free reign to do nothing but improv, they are frigging fantastic. But as soon as you try to get them to do anything with some structure to it, they get rebellious, confused, loud, and basically the talent level gets destroyed. Now, I love improv as much as the next, but I happen to be a lead singer and I THINK that most audiences WANT to hear a few actual songs, something recognizable as songs, sprinkled somewhere in between those WONDERFUL 45 minute jams. But it's almost impossible to reign in these guys long enough to pull off one "song". And ultimately, due to personalities and habits and such, it is imperative to keep these guys happy so that they don't lose interest. So, what do the experts think? The first 4 vids - Stone Soup - There is a "song" in there - "3 Dollar Bill". The rest is.......... http://lostincalhouncounty.wordpress.com/category/sunny-cal-music-channel/
I don't know. I think you could probably go Grateful-Dead-style and just have basic song structures, but base your performance around improv that's centered on the basic song.
Earthmother, I'm not going to make any judgments about your band here, but I think you are more than right on about this. If your musicians don't have the discipline to play just as well on structured compositions, then they are nothing more than accomplished noodlers and not real musicians. With this attitude they are doing a serious disservice to the audience as well. I hate to be harsh about it but, you can play the hippieshake till the cows come home, but if you want your audience to remember you, they need among other things, a distinct melody with lyrics and a story. For most folks (non musicians) these are the things that stick in the memory. They become artifacts or souvenirs in the mind, and the next time that person hears even a scrap of that melody, they are reminded, (hopefully) and they feel a part of it. People want to feel they are a part of the music themselves, even though they may not be musical in any way. People want to sing along, dance or maybe play the drum beat with their hands, or play "air guitar" or just tap their foot and humm.. Jamming is cool, and I built my own success on my ability to improvise entertaining guitar solos, but if there is one hard lesson I learned over the years, it is that as a musician and entertainer, I must be in service to my audience and at the same time not pander to them. I must give them what they want as well as what they need! Purely Improvised music is appreciated mostly by the musicians playing it at the time. I find it a bit selfish. Not to say that non-musical people can't appreciate improvised music, but other than the so called jam-band thing,(a dead or dying genre in my opinion) and improvised jazz, I think majority of people really want to hear more song than improv. Way more song with a just a tasty sprinkling of improv, I'd say! I could rant on, but this was supposed to be a 'quick reply"... (O.K. tiny rant: All you Greatfull Dead coat-tail ridin' jam bands need to get your own sound already!). No offense intended Earthmother, just my opinion. Goodluck! ZW eace:
It's all a battle between staying true with yourself, enjoying what you're doing and being succesful, but these things doesnt really have to oppose each other either.. I say, fuck the audiences. It's all about what you wanna do yourselves.
That has pretty much been my philosophy, as in a happy band is a GOOD band that people WANT to go see... Actually, I think things are finally starting to settle a bit now that the Adderall has worn off.... Fuckin' babies. 'Swat you get when ya play with kids.... I'll have more to post soon.
You don't really owe people more than a good show, and it's hard to be good on stage if the lot of ya are bored out of your skulls. What you play and and how you play it is secondary. The stuff of my band is usually the regular four minute "pop song" thing, but after the second chorus, aka the famous guitar solo, there's still room for us to mess around as much as we like. But then we're more from the The Who/Led Zep neighbourhood than the Dead one.
You know about Herbie Hancock jamming with Miles Davis? Miles calls and tells him, come jam. When Herbie shows up he plays the same song with Miles band for a week, then Miles announces they will be recording. More practice on the song, down to the studio and Miles announces that they will be doing a DIFFERENT SONG! He wanted them to get tight together with rehearsal, but he wanted the recording to sound "fresh". Whenever we play, I try to borrow a little from Miles, and get tight but there is such a thing as over-rehearsed. So we practice a lot and always do the songs the same way in rehearsal but once we get onstage the improvisation starts! It provides a base to work from and gives the vocalists a chance to groove but not locked in note for note. In football, its called an audible at the line... a change from the original plan but not something the folks out there can pick up on right away. I like to play by ear and feel instead of writing it out for the band, so there I give the look and away we go!
