onewilyfool Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 Today it happened again at the cafe gig........people started LOOKING at me as I was playing....lol....I've been practicing playing without looking at my hands, but if I fix my eyes on another's eyes (especially if she is cute) my mind and concentration is affected, and I tend to lose it, forgetting words, making fingering mistakes or chord mistakes....lol....The feeling is familiar, like when I had to do public speaking in highschool....lol....this is the difference between open mics, or playing on a stage, and my coffee gigs, where I am pretty much background music....lol...any of you have this problem OR hints on how to get over it??? Thanks...Wily Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thejtl Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 There are a bunch of ways to get over this. One of the most popular ones is to pick a point in the back of the room just above everyone's head and focus there. Easy. Ultimately, you want to find a way to be able to make eye contact. It makes folks feel a part of the performance. There's no easy way to do this other than continued experience. Eventually you'll get to the place where being on stage doesn't feel too different than being anywhere else, a natural extension of you. And whenever I find myself thinking about parts and words and fingerings and stuff like that, I remember that the song should be something flowing through me and maleable as such. It helps me remember that playing music is like having a conversation' it can't be completely scripted or it will feel false. Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ol fred Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 Best way for you to get over it is to play with your friends at SANSJAM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeremy Morton Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 Wily, I would suggest practicing in a mirror. You still get a visual of what patterns you are playing and you are also looking forward. It partially helps with visualising what you are doing as well. I have done that a fair amount and it seems to be helpful. I still get distracted and completely forget what song i am actually playing from time to time, usually because i am watching the game from across the bar. JM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dhanners623 Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 Pick two or three or four people in the room -- ideally, in different parts of the room -- and alternate between them as you play, and in no particular order. And of course if you find someone who appears to be really into your music, you should make eye contact with them, too. It is just one of those things you have to keep doing before you'll really be comfortable with it. But you're communicating to them so you should make them feel they are part of the show. That said, an audience doesn't mind you closing your eyes or watching your hands on the fretboard from time to time. They expect it. The thing to do, though, is to not think about looking at them. Just concentrate on your lyrics and performance. When you start to think, "I need to make eye contact with somebody," you'll start getting lost. Of course the other side of that is a guy like me, whose songs tend to be dark and involve protagonists who are doomed or involved in illegal activity. When I sing a song about a guy who runs a meth lab in rural Illinois and I try to make eye contact with people, they tend to look away, as if they think I'm singing about them. A guy who is VERY good at the eye-contact thing is a folksinger named Johnsmith. (It's all one word.) Here's a YouTube video of him doing a tune at a house concert: As you can see, he alternates pretty well between looking at people in the audience, at his guitar, closing his eyes, looking at the ceiling or the back wall -- a variety of things, and they all come off as looking very natural. I've seen him before and was in a small workshop on stagecraft he was giving (he's a great guy, by the way) and watching him is a lesson in stagecraft because he really connects well with an audience. (And while the info on the video says he's from Minnesota, he's actually from Wisconsin.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drathbun Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 Being near sighted helps. It helped John Lennon enormously. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rockanrolla Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 Being near sighted helps. It helped John Lennon enormously. :) And Roy Orbison, perhaps shades is the way to go Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EuroAussie Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 Pick the right moment to make eye contact or in other words part of the song that is particularly easy and you can do it in your sleep. You can relax a bit, take a look around, make eye contact, suggestive wink, lick your lips .... Ill stop now. Pick your moment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blindboygrunt Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 lick your lips ? lol gene simmons look out Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BluesKing777 Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 Today it happened again at the cafe gig........people started LOOKING at me as I was playing....lol....I am pretty much background music....lol...any of you have this problem OR hints on how to get over it??? Thanks...Wily They only just noticed your new Liberace outfit and your new shade of lipstick, Wily? BluesKing777. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BluesKing777 Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 I forgot the gig advice above.... Sometimes it is better to keep playin' and smilin' and not look! Many moons ago playing in a blues rock band, I look out at the audience and this guy is rolling his eyes and shaking hiis head fairly crazily and I thought, you know, here's another one! After the gig when I was packing up, the bass player told me that apparently every time I played a certain note on the guitar, it rattled the plate from his accident in this weird guy's head and he wanted to kill me! The bass player found out in our first break but thought I might go home if he told me! BluesKing777. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ParlourMan Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 I used to fear the eye contact when I was younger (..and ironically a lot cockier) but now I quite enjoy it, as EA said, pick your moments, get comfy doing it on the comfier spaces in the songs. As Jeremy said, try it with a mirror, slightly off topic here bit, I do believe that the two best aids for learning the guitar are the mirror and the blindfold. Watching yourself playing gets you used to not looking down, helps the visual side of your memory learn shapes. Blindfolding yourself helps you hear it amazingly better, trying to keep eyes closed is a distraction, removing sight focuses the ears instantly. I learned piano with a blindfold on once I remembered chords and scales, my wife and some mates thought it was weird though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MR GIBS Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 I have the same problem. For me this is a matter af exchane of spiritual energy. I believe that the artist is a two-way conductir of energy. The one way is the energy that Lord gives him and the artist gives it by making his art to the audience. The other way is that the artist gets the energy of everyone of the audience and gives those feelings back to The Creator. Looking it the eyes of diferent people is an action for a stronger artist than me and you, Wily. I make mistakes too, looking in their eyes. For me this is a matter of practice. If I do gigs every evening I will resolve my problem. This comes with the experience. May be it is good to start with just one person of the audience. Choose him/her before you start the song. And when you feel secure look just a glance in a specific moment (chords change, or some word in the text). If you don't make mistakes try to look longer... But if you don't feel OK looking in theyr eyes - well don't. Me - I don't look the audience. It is a mistake, but I have no such experience. If I play one song 5000 times in the 5001 time I will look only the audience's eyes. But this is not the case with me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rambler Posted February 7, 2012 Share Posted February 7, 2012 As the fellas are saying, its give and take. There's so much information processing through in that kind of situation. You dont want to get distracted. But you dont want to clam up, either. When you surface, dont be surprised to see interest and attention. Embrace that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zombywoof Posted February 7, 2012 Share Posted February 7, 2012 I really don't know probably because I have always worked with singers so just tend to watch them. The real question is how do you ignore the guy playing air guitar in front of you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BluesKing777 Posted February 7, 2012 Share Posted February 7, 2012 I really don't know probably because I have always worked with singers so just tend to watch them. The real question is how do you ignore the guy playing air guitar in front of you. Ha I had a guy with a real guitar with a lead dangling behind him! The security guy asked me if he was annoying me and I said , 'Yes'!, thinking they would tell him to behave himself and sit down or such, but instead the security beat him to within an inch of his life and piled him and his guitar out the front. BluesKing777. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onewilyfool Posted February 7, 2012 Author Share Posted February 7, 2012 I really don't know probably because I have always worked with singers so just tend to watch them. The real question is how do you ignore the guy playing air guitar in front of you. LOL...too funny! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MR GIBS Posted February 7, 2012 Share Posted February 7, 2012 I just wanted to say in my previous post that looking in the eyes of someone is the most direct and the most common way to contact directly with his soul. The basic energy contact the singer-songwriter makes with the audience is the music - singin and playing. The singer-songwriter makes his art using his hands and his voice - so he is very buzy. He/she must be concentrated. Figure out how powerful he/she has to be to play&sing and in the same time to make a contact of some other king - the eye contact. To make this the performing artist nedds a LOT of energy. Often it is just too much for an ordinary human been. Of course every human been has very much energy, but this energy is not arranged the right way. Practicing and practicing - one way to arrange the energy the right way to perform well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brannon67 Posted February 7, 2012 Share Posted February 7, 2012 Either start drinking very heavily or start smoking some stuff before the gig,and you should be ok. No worries man. Have fun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MR GIBS Posted February 7, 2012 Share Posted February 7, 2012 The real artist doesn't need alcohol or drugs to perform with. The real artist elates himself by his own art. You can see plenty of exemples of real great musicians and singers who were drug addicted and after years of drugging themselves they refused these poisons. There are plenty of dead alcohol and drug abusing artists too... Pitty... I would not suggest to nobody to get drunk or to take drugs before coming out on stage. This is useless. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j45nick Posted February 7, 2012 Share Posted February 7, 2012 I would not suggest to nobody to get drunk or to take drugs before coming out on stage. This is useless. It also greatly increases the risk of tripping over your own feet, falling down and smashing your guitar, and generally making a fool of yourself. And no, I haven't done that. But I've seen it done by others..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rambler Posted February 7, 2012 Share Posted February 7, 2012 Either start drinking very heavily or start smoking some stuff before the gig,and you should be ok. Prob meant to be fun, but really, it just magnifies any problems with that were there from the git-go, either by becoming more opaque, or over-the-top clowning. This occurs to me. Eye-contact may be part of a larger problem related to self-confidence. Comfortable with yourself and your music? Then the stage is your front room. Not? Then it may be about fearing judgment or having self judgment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BluesKing777 Posted February 7, 2012 Share Posted February 7, 2012 Prob meant to be fun, but really, it just magnifies any problems with that were there from the git-go, either by becoming more opaque, or over-the-top clowning. This occurs to me. Eye-contact may be part of a larger problem related to self-confidence. Comfortable with yourself and your music? Then the stage is your front room. Not? Then it may be about fearing judgment or having self judgment. I like the way that is said, Rambler. So sometimes it is MUCH EASIER to just DO IT! Don't think about it so much. BluesKing777. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TommyK Posted February 8, 2012 Share Posted February 8, 2012 In my opinion, the worst thing a musician can do is not look at the audience. Not making eye contact and / or addressing the audience is a turn off, whether the audience realizes it or not. Say, "Hi" or "Howdy". Introduce yourself and band for crimany sakes! Tell them they are are a great audience. They know it's just shameless flattery, but audiences are like women. Sincere or not they like to think they are appreciated. Ever see a musician point to someone in the audience then giving a knowing wave?, maybe blow a kiss? 9 times out of 10, it's just choreography. Practice looking at the audience, smiling, without making eye contact, if it bugs you. Look at the back of the room, or just 'look past' them. From a distance the audience can't tell that you are really not looking at them. But if your eyes are trained on your guitar/drums, whatever, your head and / or eyes are down and half closed. THAT they can see. Maybe practice by having a lot of photographs of people on the wall opposite you while you practice your instrument. This might help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MissouriPicker Posted February 9, 2012 Share Posted February 9, 2012 I figure if while I'm singing I make eye contact with a good-looking gal and I lose track of where I'm at with the song, she must be pretty cool and probably worth it. Seriously, for me it just takes doing things over and over until they become the proverbial "second nature." I think the more one plays gigs, the better they get at doing what they do. And definitly "do" make eye contact. If people are there to hear a bit of music, then a personal link to the musician/singer makes them feel even more involved. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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