General Music Chat

For musician to successfully build a fan base, he/she has to actually abandon all the romantic notions that fans typically associate to his/ her performances... and actually focus on the technical delivery of the show. Let the fans make of it whatever they will ...

In a logical world, yezzz.
In our world, its more about kissing hands and shaking babies.

Much too political.

1) have decent songs
2) have decent performance
3) be a politician and network

95% of music fans just like 'what they hear', and wouldn't know techincal delivery from the hole in their .....

Kinda funny there are times when I have concentrated my ass off on a solo, nailed it just like in my head note for note, and noone even noticed.

On the other hand Ive played awful solos with my teeth or behind my head or back and people freak out and say man you were really on tonight.

The one thing about performing live, you know after the first or second song how you are going over, the crowd never lies! LOL!

In a logical world, yezzz.
In our world, its more about kissing hands and shaking babies.

Much too political.

1) have decent songs
2) have decent performance
3) be a politician and network

Or perhaps A$$ rather than hands.

I was in an outfit in the seventies that had a following but it may have been because we were out of Baltimore and had very little competition - it was cool for folks to like us. That was original stuff and worked fairly well.

I also did some country work with Billy Carroll Whiteman and people hated us with a passion. Admittely, we sucked. But part of it was that we were rockers backing a fairly decent country artist.

Before each tune he'd lean over to me and say, "Mike - this one's in D!"
Yep. They all were....

Talbot

The mases are continually baffled by B.S. How good the music is really doesn't matter. What matters is what you look like. How many tattoos you have, whether you can show off your belly button, can you dance in a synchronized fashion, etc. I'm with jw on this. I can't remember how many times we really nailed a song and got no crowd reaction and other times sounded like crap and people go wild.

The more the audience drinks, the better you sound!

Now I know why all the bands I heard back in my heavy drinking days sounded so good - $1.00 drink specials before 10pm!

"Free drinks all around"

If you look like your having fun the crowd will have fun.

People want to be entertained but you must entice their participation.

That's my perspective.

Not speaking from personal experience
but...
It seems a fan base isn't built on-line, but rather in person - you go to a show, you gain a respect for the artist's ability to entertain, and you're like "oh yeah, that band rocks", regardless of technical ability, though ability doesn't hurt.

I know that I want to be entertained (like what Sans and Bob said). I think the ability to cut loose and get the audience into you by your entire presence on stage is what really attracts people to your band. The overall sound too, of course, but I'd say it's 50/50 IMO.

But again, I don't have fans so

I have a fan story. Sadly it's ownly one fan.

Several years ago I was writing columns for a libertarian web site called LewRockwell.com. I got an email from a kid in Tokyo who asked me if I was the Mike Talbot who played on the Millard and Dyce Album.

Yep.

He said he'd found our album in a close out bin in a store in Tokyo and he and his friends liked it so much they actually wore it out. Could I please send him another?

I only had two copies but by golly you can bet I sent one to him!

That was one of those little things that can really make your day.

Talbot

I'm with SirJamsALot. I've delivered performances that have been abyssmal from a technical standpoint, but if I'm doing a good job moving around the stage and engaging the patrons of the venue, they seem to be largely forgiving of missed notes and technical missteps.

The best vocal performance I ever delivered saw me a few days after finally getting over the flu, but I could still hardly get around stage for sweating to death. I was probably as close to technically perfect as I have ever been, but they could have cared less. I was just singing well, but not really doing much of anything else.

Exactly. Our bass player's wife came up to me after the TV studio thing the other night and told me I was the only one who looked like he was enjoying himself up there. I knew that musically we sucked - no one could hear each other in the monitors, and unbeknownst to us, the broadcast audio was worse, and we were all nervous, and unprepared with virtually no soundcheck, and all making mistakes left and right - but that's how I am on stage, I will make it look like we are doing great, rocking away. Only the musicians in the audience will ever notice the technical flaws.

Ive learned to grin a lot playing and if we do have some major screwup we just make a joke out of it.

One of my fun things to do and I know its really stupid is say Im in the middle of a solo and I get hung up on a lick, I will look at our bassist and say Help Im Stuck, and he will come over and bump into me.

One night on my delay pedal it has a sampling function, I wasnt paying attention and hit sample and it starts repeating over and over at the end of a song, so Im scratching my head, and I get on the mic and say Donn(our old soundman) I have a problem, so he comes up with a flashlight and we are examining the pedal, and he finally just kicks it off. Im like thanks Donn, its not like I didnt know how to cut it off. I say to the audience thanks to Donn our soundman for averting a major disaster. The crowd has always eaten stuff like that up.

Thru the years when I would play the solo to Rock N Roll All Nite I would lean back on my knees to my back and play the solo, well at this point sometimes its kinda hard to get back up, so our singer will always get behind me and help me get up ala Spinal Tap, its always good for some applause and giggles.

I think thats the key to make a mistake look like it was planned and to make the most of it. When you are in front of people you are the entertainment, people pay us to be entertained so we try to deliver, but I might have to give up lying on my back!

Ive learned to grin a lot playing and if we do have some major screwup we just make a joke out of it.

One of my fun things to do and I know its really stupid is say Im in the middle of a solo and I get hung up on a lick, I will look at our bassist and say Help Im Stuck, and he will come over and bump into me.

One night on my delay pedal it has a sampling function, I wasnt paying attention and hit sample and it starts repeating over and over at the end of a song, so Im scratching my head, and I get on the mic and say Donn(our old soundman) I have a problem, so he comes up with a flashlight and we are examining the pedal, and he finally just kicks it off. Im like thanks Donn, its not like I didnt know how to cut it off. I say to the audience thanks to Donn our soundman for averting a major disaster. The crowd has always eaten stuff like that up.

Thru the years when I would play the solo to Rock N Roll All Nite I would lean back on my knees to my back and play the solo, well at this point sometimes its kinda hard to get back up, so our singer will always get behind me and help me get up ala Spinal Tap, its always good for some applause and giggles.

I think thats the key to make a mistake look like it was planned and to make the most of it. When you are in front of people you are the entertainment, people pay us to be entertained so we try to deliver, but I might have to give up lying on my back!

LOL Sounds like you guys handle it very well... I love the comedy in a performance.. If I get to a point where my own confidence becomes stable (and it will) , I'm inclined to have a lot of fun on the stage...

This also illustrates something very key, to successful fan building... We have tyo be masters of what we do, but at the same time , convey how easy it seems and how much fun it really is... To me, that seems to be the winning combination, that elevates a band into the arena one day.