piano39 Posted January 5 Share Posted January 5 For some reason, fans take cell phone videos of my band's performance and post them on social media. I am in a three piece band- keyboards, drums and guitar/vocals. We are all aging boomers (~67 years old). I can't stand to watch the videos. The music sounds good, but we look like a bunch of bored, old guys on stage. I can assure you that we are not bored, we are having a blast. I am sitting (or standing) behind a keyboard. I am very busy playing, so I am looking down at the keyboard most of the time. I notice that most successful pop stars are smiling constantly. I am told that I always look serious. Oh, well. 3 Quote Yamaha Motif XF6, Yamaha AN200, Logic Pro X, Arturia Microbrute, Behringer Model D, Yamaha UX-3 Acoustic Piano, assorted homemade synth modules Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BMD Posted January 5 Share Posted January 5 About a decade ago a guy called David Bash got in touch with me after hearing my songs on Myspace. He organises a festival called International Pop Overthrow, which happens annually at venues across the US and also The Cavern in Liverpool He wanted me to play the following year's festival at The Cavern. Two problems with that: 1) I didn't have a band, and 2) I'm too shy to perform. So with his approval I put a band together (I wasn't in it) and they played the festival I turned up with a camera and filmed the show. The band were (or was, if you're American) great. I uploaded the video to Youtube but removed it after a few weeks. My one and only claim to fame, unless you count the fact that Craig Anderton has covered a few of my songs 1 1 Quote Some songs I've written - https://www.soundclick.com/randomguy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lou Gehrig Charles Posted January 5 Share Posted January 5 We just played in November, and fortunately for the civilized would no one has put us up on Youtube. But I have seen videos our singer's father took..... I realized I need to raise my stand up a little with some spacers (it's at max height already). The upper keyboard is fine, but for my lower one I am too hunched over! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobadohshe Posted January 5 Share Posted January 5 It's always incredibly educational to see videos of yourself in action. It often stings! But you can learn what are good ways and bad ways to move your body on stage. What translates and what is actually distractingly bad. I'm still figuring it out to be honest. 8 1 Quote Kawai C-60 Grand Piano : Hammond A-100 : Hammond SK2 : Yamaha CP4 : Yamaha Montage 7 : Moog Sub 37 My latest album: Funky organ, huge horn section https://bobbycressey.bandcamp.com/album/cali-native Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CHarrell Posted January 5 Share Posted January 5 10 minutes ago, Bobadohshe said: It's always incredibly educational to see videos of yourself in action. It often stings! But you can learn what are good ways and bad ways to move your body on stage. What translates and what is actually distractingly bad. I'm still figuring it out to be honest. Very true, but it's always important to also consider that single-angle footage--from phones usually, let's be real--can be a poor way to capture a live event. When we're there live, whether it's a concert, stage play, sports game, etc., there are so many dimensions we can instantaneously and simultaneously register, but when translated to video, so many of those dimensions are either nerfed, or completely lost. Imagine if ESPN just had a stationary camera for NBA for the court, no hoop angles, no swoops, tracking, nothin! Honestly, the most valuable info I've usually gotten is that my emotional state can greatly influence how I feel about any given performance, and especially in the past, that would be a negative influence. 😂 I resist watching the video, expecting to cringe at my awful performance, but then I see it, divorced from the emotions I had at the time while playing, and think, "Huh, that was actually pretty good!" 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stoken6 Posted January 5 Share Posted January 5 39 minutes ago, BMD said: were (or was, if you're American 👍 Cheers, Mike. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe P Posted January 5 Share Posted January 5 I always seem to look too serious. Look at my avatar.... I'm not a vocalist but lately I've been singing along anyway. I've seen drummers do it and the joy starts to come through a little bit. I try to channel any amount of Richie Hayward that I can.🙂 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stokely Posted January 5 Share Posted January 5 I'm that serious guy as well. Oh well. It's not in me to turn into some dancing, pointing happy entertainer. If that was part of the job description I'd just hang it up. Best I can shoot for is "intense" I hate, hate, hate pics and videos of myself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jose EB5AGV Posted January 5 Share Posted January 5 1 hour ago, piano39 said: I am sitting (or standing) behind a keyboard. I am very busy playing, so I am looking down at the keyboard most of the time. I notice that most successful pop stars are smiling constantly. I am told that I always look serious This describes exactly my situation!. 100% accurate. Yes, I am trying to smile and look less to the keyboard... But with little success so far 😅 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mighty Motif Max Posted January 5 Share Posted January 5 I always appreciate performance videos because they're great for learning from. I will often do videos of my own band's shows and my own solo gigs to analyze later (same logic as recording my monitor mix direct). It's also really good for the rest of the band to be able to hear what actually "works" and what doesn't work so well. Like excessively harsh guitar tones, or a rushed fill on the drums. I find it ups the quality of the subsequent performances substantially. 1 Quote Yamaha: Motif XF8, MODX7, YS200, CVP-305, CLP-130, YPG-235, PSR-295, PSS-470 | Roland: Fantom 7, JV-1000 Kurzweil: PC3-76| Hammond: SK Pro 73 | Korg: Triton LE 76, N1R, X5DR | Emu: Proteus/1 | Casio: CT-370 | Novation: Launchkey 37 MK3 | Technics: WSA1R Former: Emu Proformance Plus & Mo'Phatt, Korg Krome 61, Roland Fantom XR & JV-1010, Yamaha MX61, Behringer CAT, Kurzweil PC4 (88) Assorted electric & acoustic guitars and electric basses | Roland TD-17 KVX | Alesis SamplePad Pro | Assorted organs, accordions, other instruments Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baldwin Funster Posted January 5 Share Posted January 5 I don't like to see them or hear them. In my mind I'm 25, look like a long haired leaping gnome, and sound like all the greatest B3 players put together. Cell phone video recordings reveal the cold reality that I have no reason or desire to accept. Don't wake me up, I'm happy in my fantasy. 2 Quote FunMachine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CHarrell Posted January 5 Share Posted January 5 If you wanna lead the orchestra, sometimes you gotta put your back to the crowd. 😉 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CEB Posted January 6 Share Posted January 6 I have bouts of grumpy face. In the large gigs it wasn't a factor. I was usually on a riser on upstage left. I just dress appropriate and try to not clam. No one cares about the piano player. Everyone is watching the women, the rapper and guitarist that are down stage. In more intimate settings there are things you can do to combat grumpy face. Masks work. Beware, sounds get really loud inside a latex mask. Or you can embrace grumpy face and wear hat and shades that play into the character or wear a billboard graphic Tshirt that says Grumpy. LOL Embrace Stoicism. 1 1 1 Quote "It doesn't have to be difficult to be cool" - Mitch Towne "A great musician can bring tears to your eyes!!! So can a auto Mechanic." - Stokes Hunt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
16251 Posted January 6 Share Posted January 6 When I played dance music/weddings, I preferred to play sideways, like I was playing a grand. I never cared for looking at the dance floor, if possible. This way is also how I prefer when video is taping. 1 Quote AvantGrand N2 | ES520 | Gallien-Krueger MK & MP | https://soundcloud.com/pete36251 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TommyRude Posted January 6 Share Posted January 6 Some recent gigs I had there were numerous photos/videos. Thankfully it was a large group populated with young energetic good looking people, all of them in front of me…. perfect! 1 Quote Some music I've recorded and played over the years with a few different bands Tommy Rude Soundcloud Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
o0Ampy0o Posted January 6 Share Posted January 6 Here are some ideas: Watch videos of famous old timers like Michael McDonald, Richard Wright and Elton John. Notice how they look and don't look. Practice relaxing and imagine you look like them instead of you. Really feel it throughout your face, eyes and mouth. If this doesn't work wear a hat which casts your face in shadow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AUSSIEKEYS Posted January 6 Share Posted January 6 12 hours ago, piano39 said: For some reason, fans take cell phone videos of my band's performance and post them on social media. Pictures or it didn't happen. Or should I say video evidence? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
franky64 Posted January 6 Share Posted January 6 13 hours ago, Stokely said: I hate, hate, hate pics and videos of myself. "cheeeea - you are on non of the photos" "why should I ?" "????' "don't like" "not a single photo of you" "yeah - but look at the {monument|impressive cathedral|magnifigue landscape|lucky shot|ambient light|....}" "errr ja, nice ... [not looking at anything] - no photos of you and your friends?" "guess there is one , here" [photo of friends grinning into the camera like a horde of apes] "oohh how beeaaaaautiful [starring at the photo] - but where is you on the photo???" [starting to get pissed] "SOMEONE HAD TO HOLD THE CAMERA!!!!" "BUT no photo of you!" "Wait ... here - your photo of mine" "BUT you're wearing a motorcycle helmet!" "YESSSS !!!!" "No photo of you! Why no photo of you" "I HATE THOSE PHOTO 'ME IN FRONT OF BRIDGE, ME IN FRONT OF TOWER, ME IN FRONT OF BAR, ME IN FRONT OF THIS AND THAT AND THIS AND THAT...' " "You're an abnormal person" "Photographs are for the scene, not for having the same people grinning like apes and covering any photo" "There is something wrong with you" "You folks only want to adore yourself" "You're an associal person!" "Really? And you're are all just self-regarding egocentrics" "There is something wrong with you" "It's my thing, isn't it ?!" "....... but WHY are you never on photos???!!!" "AAAAAAHHHHHHH $*%T!!X}!& !!!!" (here happened the usual daily tragedy of a usual family) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jose EB5AGV Posted January 6 Share Posted January 6 In this era of selfies, I always prefer a nice picture of a landscape WITHOUT anyone disrupting that wonderful view. I read the other day that, when the largest amount of pictures featuring the Egypt pyramids are selfies, something very wrong is happening. And I agree. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Delaware Dave Posted January 6 Share Posted January 6 if you look look like a bunch of bored old guys in video then that is what you look like to the crowd. use the video to make changes, make it a show. No one wants to see a bunch of old bored guys, you'll eventually lose your crowd and your gig. 4 Quote 57 Hammond B3; 69 Hammond L100P; 68 Leslie 122; Kurzweil Forte7 & PC3; M-Audio Code 61; Voce V5+; Neo Vent; EV ELX112P; GSI Gemini & Burn Delaware Dave Exit93band Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
piano39 Posted January 6 Author Share Posted January 6 2 hours ago, Delaware Dave said: if you look look like a bunch of bored old guys in video then that is what you look like to the crowd. use the video to make changes, make it a show. No one wants to see a bunch of old bored guys, you'll eventually lose your crowd and your gig. This is exactly my concern. A cellphone video is honest in one big respect- it is the exact perspective that that particular audience member sees. The paradox is that the person taking the video is obviously very much enjoying the show. They do not see a bunch of “old bored guys”. That is what I see when I watch the video. Quote Yamaha Motif XF6, Yamaha AN200, Logic Pro X, Arturia Microbrute, Behringer Model D, Yamaha UX-3 Acoustic Piano, assorted homemade synth modules Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jose EB5AGV Posted January 7 Share Posted January 7 20 hours ago, piano39 said: This is exactly my concern. A cellphone video is honest in one big respect- it is the exact perspective that that particular audience member sees. The paradox is that the person taking the video is obviously very much enjoying the show. They do not see a bunch of “old bored guys”. That is what I see when I watch the video. Or... They want to share on social media that "old bored guys" show experience, hoping it gets viral, so they get plenty of views and attention 😉 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mididude Posted January 7 Share Posted January 7 Music-playing takes up too many parts of the brain to always smile on cue…I try to force one out though if someone has a camera. I don’t check back on the results later. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Losendoskeys Posted January 8 Share Posted January 8 Every show. Very honoured people want to photo/video a tribute band. We don't even dress up like Genesis! I too look very authentic - everyone comments that Tony Banks looked miserable all the time and so do i - its called concentration! 4 Quote Yamaha CP70B;Roland XP30/AXSynth/Fantom/FA76/XR;Hammond XK3C SK2; Korg Kronos 73;ProSoloist Rack+; ARP ProSoloist; Mellotron M4000D; GEM Promega2; Hohner Pianet N, Roland V-Grand,Voyager XL, RMI Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SamuelBLupowitz Posted January 8 Share Posted January 8 Since part of why I got into playing music was for another way to ham it up for people, I love seeing photos and videos of myself playing. Certainly, sometimes a video will capture a clam or otherwise less-than-pro moment in a show, but I enjoy getting to rest on the laurels of Having Done the Thing, and often I learn a thing or two about what does and doesn't work onstage. Every now and then you get something that looks professional, which I love, but there's something about having DIY audience phone videos floating around that lends its own air of legitimacy ("people like this, it's not just savvy promo") when employed properly. One of the most helpful lessons I learned happened in the last few years, actually. I've always had a bit of a reputation for being an animated performer: throwing big cues as a bandleader, grinning big, swinging my hair around behind the keys. But as I had been developing my chops and beefing up my rig prior to the pandemic, I started to notice that those things were not reflected in the photos and videos I was seeing after gigs. Even though I was working really hard onstage to flashily cover the many parts and textures I had put together for my bands' recordings, most of that effort manifested in me staring really hard at my boards and gritting my teeth. The intensity was *internal,* and not really translating to the audience, even if the mix in the venue was good enough to hear the piano lick in my right hand, organ pad in my left hand, and sample triggers I was cueing with my foot pedals (as I scrolled through patches in Mainstage with my other foot to make sure I had the specific sound for each section of a tune). As I got back to gigging after the lockdown break, I decided to streamline my rigs and arrangements a fair bit and focus on playing Crucial Parts with more energy and intensity, rather than trying to multitask to the degree where I felt more like I was solving equations onstage. I might miss some of the textures from the recordings, but I was looser and more relaxed, which meant I looked like I was having more fun, and it seems like audiences respond to *that* much more than they ever did to me using three or four limbs simultaneously to frantically do a middling job covering everything I overdubbed in the studio one part at a time. I don't know if I would have come to that conclusion if I hadn't been seeing what I looked like performing after the gig -- though I might have burned out on it eventually anyway, it saved me some time! 3 Quote Samuel B. Lupowitz Musician. Songwriter. Food Enthusiast. Bad Pun Aficionado. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HammondDave Posted January 8 Share Posted January 8 I have always disliked watching myself play. I hear and notice every clam that usually only musicians hear. I prefer not to watch anymore. Quote '55 and '59 B3's; Leslies 147, 122, 21H; MODX 7+; NUMA Piano X 88; Motif XS7; Mellotrons M300 and M400’s; Wurlitzer 206; Gibson G101; Vox Continental; Mojo 61; Launchkey 88 Mk III; Korg Module; B3X; Model D6; Moog Model D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stgermain Posted January 8 Share Posted January 8 Yesterday I spent all day recording video for a bad promo, miming along to songs, over and over, and over again. It was the most tortuous thing that I have ever had to do as a musician, especially as I hate every video or photo of myself in existence. Luckily the comradery with the rest of the band made it slightly more bearable.... Quote Nord Stage 3 https://www.facebook.com/MisterSuperJuice/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wineandkeyz Posted January 8 Share Posted January 8 My biggest problem with cellphone videos being posted on social media is that invariably the person shooting the video and/or those around them are singing so loudly and out of tune that it makes us sound out of tune as well (which we sometimes are, but still). 1 Quote Live: Yamaha S70XS (#1); Roland Jupiter-80; Mackie 1202VLZ4; IEMs or Traynor K4 Home: Hammond SK Pro 73; Moog Minimoog Voyager Electric Blue; Yamaha S70XS (#2); Roland Integra-7; Wurlitzer 200A Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EscapeRocks Posted January 8 Share Posted January 8 The only cell phone videos of us I don't like are the ones where the person is standing right up at the stage, so the phone picks up the audio of the monitor. Invariably, it is a 'horrible' mix, as far as FOH, as it's what the particular band member wants dialed in. When it's posted, it makes it seem like the FOH engineers has no idea how to mix, or it makes it seem as we have no awareness of how own instrument levels. Other than that, I enjoy watching us play. 2 Quote David Gig Rig:Yamaha CK88 | Roland Jupiter 80 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SamuelBLupowitz Posted January 8 Share Posted January 8 49 minutes ago, EscapeRocks said: The only cell phone videos of us I don't like are the ones where the person is standing right up at the stage, so the phone picks up the audio of the monitor. A fun variation of this is when they're close enough to the stage that they're only getting a little bit of the mains, so they mostly pick up the onstage sound rather than the monitors -- usually that translates to DRUMS DRUMS DRUMS (and sometimes guitar depending on who you're working with). 1 Quote Samuel B. Lupowitz Musician. Songwriter. Food Enthusiast. Bad Pun Aficionado. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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