Performance advice

[Chris Prieto]

I've been presented with the opportunity to play my banjo at an art show event. However the amount of time is 3 hours which seems insane. I can with no issue play 3 hours or more but this is usually in my living room in front of my wife who is totally nonplussed lol to play in front of actual humans for that long seems a bit daunting.

I figure with some allotted breaks it is two or three chunks of music? I am in the process of putting together a set list but its a pretty overwhelming list at this point. I am trying to convince my buddy to play a small tambo and the jawbone on a some of the tunes so I don't bore folks to death. I will prolly bring two banjos.

Any advice to help this go as smooth as possible?

[Al Smitley]

I am probably the last person who should offer advice for playing in public but...... I can't believe that the venue expects people to sit (as an audience) for three hours.  I would assume people will come and go.  Therefore, while it's always a good idea to mix up the tunes and songs and tempo changes, etc., I doubt you can worry too much about entertaining the same people for 3 hours.  Of course, if there are people who are so mesmerized to stay for the full 3 hours, you really must be a phenom!!  No doubt, you can replay some of your more comfortable pieces.

[John Masciale]

Definitely take breaks.  Spend time talking to your audience, talk about the music you are playing. We have played at all day events, the audience comes and goes. We did 3 days of Christmas music in December, each one 6 hours. This was in a historic home which could be very different from the venue you are playing in. If the audience is always in flux you can repeat music.  There is not that much 19th century American Christmas music, we have a set that is about 3 hours long with breaks, etc. Have fun. The audience picks up on that.

[Chris Prieto]

Cool, will be very relaxed in a front yard of a historical landmark house here in San Diego. While five or so artist display their work. Thanks for the feedback, good points. My main fear is that I'm gonna practice the set at a decent tempo and then rip thru it at double time while actually there.

[Al Smitley]

Are you sure you didn't post the inquiry as a way of rubbing in our freezing faces, what nice weather you have in San Diego?!?

[Chris Prieto]

Haha I deff. did not. I am a space cadet and had to look up the stormage. Hope everyone is staying safe and warm!


Al Smitley said:

Are you sure you didn't post the inquiry as a way of rubbing in our freezing faces, what nice weather you have in San Diego?!?

[Chris Prieto]

So just to follow up. This went okay. It was only two hours and it friggin flew by. Last minute I became overwhelmed and decided to scrap the set list I had been working on since my friend flaked on me and I no longer had any accompaniment. And instead I just did cover to cover Briggs and yellow converse and the rest was rice and Buckley tunes.

I really blew it a few times and just straight messed up and stopped haha I then had two beers and got loose enough to save any screw ups by just faking notes and adding parts to the music that aren't there. It was pretty shady stuff. I feel the fact that I'm a small hairy yeti, holding a huge banjo playing weird old music really worked in my favor but man it was not my best moment.

But it was a good lesson on repertoire, really need to work on a few hour long sets or some way to make sure I can nail all the tunes I play. There is so many tunes and it feels like I know them all but its hard to keep the dust off of all of them. Also next time I will stick to the damn set list and not be such a spaz.

[Strumelia]

Chris, it sounds to me like you did a great job.  Don't worry so much.  ;)

Things to think about for next time-

Three hours is a very long time for a non-professional to play through their repertoire all alone without repeating tunes.  Keep in mind that in an outdoor art show or craft fair where people are walking by and stopping to listen for a little while and moving on... that if most of the tunes are instrumental and all in a certain genre (minstrel tutor material in this case), the audience is not going to be standing around listening to you for two or three hours so they certainly wouldn't notice if you repeat some tunes.  Most all the tunes probably sound alike to them anyway...lol.  --> In a 'wandering audience' venue, feel free to repeat the tunes you find especially pretty or appealing at least once during a two hour stint.

Also keep in mind that 80% of the playing mistakes you make will be cringe-worthy to you, but will go completely unnoticed by the casual observer.  Smile instead of cringing whenever you flub up, and turn your mistakes into great moments of 'connecting' with the audience!  They will absolutely smile back at you and everyone will feel good.  Make particular effort to connect with little children who come up to you...be someone special that they remember.   :)   Little children are thrilled when a musician acknowledges them in some way while performing.

Taking ten minutes breaks not only helps the time go by but it also gives the audience a chance to ask you questions about your music and your banjo- I find people have LOTS of interest and questions.  And when people see you talking to a bystander and showing them your banjo, they too then feel ok with coming up to ask a question.

Make a little sign that you can set up next to you- something like "I'm playing mid 1800s/Civil War era American tunes on a reproduction banjo of that period."  or some such description. I find people point out the sign to each other and appreciate the little mini-bit of historic background- they often then listen for an extra minute once they 'know' what I'm doing.

[Chris Prieto]

yeah I did notice people were very willing to just come up and chat however it resulted in me tensing up anytime any one came near. I had all my gourd banjos on display too. I believe they will be doing another one soon so i will have time to get a nice lil one hour thang together. I guess it is better to play the same songs twice and pay them well than to play a buncha songs and flub a few especially when most people wont even really notice since it mostly all sounds the same to them.

My buddy was gonna join me and we were practicing with a melodica and a foot tambo which sounded pretty dang nice even tho i know some of you cringe at such a thing haha but I do feel *some* type of percussive element would deff help spice things up a bit. I find it really hard to sign up any of my musical buddies to play along with me because as much as they claim they want to just clack along they eventually start trying to change what Im doing to match their genres of music ie: try to "jazz" it up by adding solos or "folky" it up a bit so "people can relate". Deff need somebody who is okay with not being lead I guess :\

But hopefully overtime i can loosen up a bit and casually be able to introduce all the ideas ya'll have suggested. Should make for a nice seamless experience :)

[Strumelia]

Foot percussion...imho musicians have been doing this since forever when they don't have enough people playing percussion.

they claim they want to just clack along they eventually start trying to change what Im doing to match their genres of music

Yep, it's a problem.

[Tom Taggart]

There are some great tips in this thread for all of us "new performers" who have little or no experience in front of a live audience.  Thanks.

[Brian Kimerer]

I was once asked to sit for a portrait in my "banjo outfit", which involved sitting still for two one hour sessions on two separate weekends. There were at least a half dozen artists there painting. I said that I would do it, but that there was no way I could just sit there and hold the banjo without playing it. That would be torture. So they agreed that I could play while they painted.

After I got started, the time just flew by. The "audience" disappeared into the distance, and I just played through all my tunes like I was sitting at home by myself. I don't know what happened to the butterflies that I usually get, but they were nowhere to be found. My artist friends said that it was the most unique sitting they had experienced. I wish I had photos of the paintings they did.

Since then, I have been trying to figure out how to bottle that composure for future performances, but it still eludes me. I think that performances would go much better if I could just forget that I am performing.

After the portraits were done, one of the artists gave me some reference photos that she took while I sat, so I did my own portrait of myself playing that banjo. Here is the self portrait.

[Strumelia]

Brian, that's wonderful, the story and the painting.