Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with performing

Going to 11 not necessary.

cmoj — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 11:32:57 -0800

How best to stay on beat, then find out how I sound to an audience. After playing guitar and singing for years, feeling pretty pessimistic about my ability I set my laptop (MacBook Pro) to record on its built in mic while I played a set's worth of material. Hey! I'm not bad at all, except my rhythm isn't so solid here and there (which I already knew.) If I can work that out, I'd be considering performing, which I've always wanted to do.

The thing is, a metronome doesn't help me. The flat tick. tick. tick. tick. isn't groovy at all, and ends up confusing me. I want to be able to make drum tracks that I can pipe either into an earbud or through a PA or whatever I'm playing through. I might even want to put in a rudimentary bass line. I could do this in garage band or anything similar, but what are my other options? Are there solutions that would let me (I'm not sure how to say this) queue up another few measures if I wanna keep soloing or do an extended outro?

The other part: How can I record myself in such a way that I'd have the best idea of how I'd sound to an audience? Will a 4-track recorder and a mic across the room do it? Will a mic through adapters give me significantly better sound on my MBP?

Help my son become a model

IndigoSkye — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 20:15:10 -0800

We just saw the proofs for our 6-year old son's head shots. We've signed up with an agency in town that doesn't charge a fee and only makes money when our son gets a gig. What else can we do to help our son launch his modeling / acting career? Ever since he was an infant everyone has told us to put our son in modeling or acting. We were told by those who have their own kids who did modeling or were in the industry themselves that he has the perfect temperament and was damn cute to boot. But we waited until we knew it was something he wanted to do. It's clear now he wants to be a performer.

So we went and found a reputable agency and got some great head shots. We've started to take him to some commercial shoots (but without compensation, so there's no pressure) to get him accustomed to whats involved in being a model. If at any time he wants to quit, we quit. We're not going to push him, or do the pageant thing, but we want to be as supportive as possible. We hope to use any money he makes from modeling to build his college fund and start him in acting classes outside of school.

What's next? Are there important websites we should list his head shots on? Precautions we should take?

UK Fringe Resources Wanted

divabat — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 18:33:21 -0800

What are some great resources, preferably online, of fringe arts (burlesque, cabaret, circus, improv, street theatre, etc) in the United Kingdom? I only know of Ministry of Burlesque and that's it. I'm looking for listings of events, schools, workshops, venues, performers, anything to do with the more oddball non-conventional performing arts. I'll likely be concentrating on England, but Scotland/Wales/Northern Ireland-related links are good too.

Where should I put all these musical pirates?

Faint of Butt — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 12:33:52 -0800

Tell me how to arrange eight to twelve singers, a guitarist (acoustic), a fiddler and a bodhrán player, all unamplified, for best overall audibility and musicality. Assume an outdoor setting with effectively unlimited performance space. There is no electricity or amplification of any artificial nature available. The singers can be grouped into sopranos, altos, baritones and basses. Some songs are led by a soloist with backing vocals, and others are more choral and involve the whole ensemble equally. All of the performers need to be able to hear all of the other performers so that everyone can stay in time and on key, and the audience needs to hear the whole group.

What's the best way to do this? Should we just arrange ourselves in an old-fashioned semicircle? Where do we put the soloists and instruments? Help me, AskMe musicians, and let me find a good solution before the next gig! Thank you!

Breaking into Performance Art

divabat — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 03:45:01 -0800

How do I get into performance art? I've seen this video series and read some links, and find the concept of performance art interesting. However, I'm finding it hard to get more resources and help on breaking into performance art.

Whenever I try asking people about it, they think I'm asking about performing arts and start referring me to theatres and choirs. (Google does the exact same thing.) Trying to describe performance art is tricky too - "well, they do weird stuff. In all sorts of styles. And it has a concept."

I have plenty of ideas for potential performance art, but I don't know how to start putting them together. I'm worried about seeming wanky or pretentious, when really all I want to do is express myself in a mixture of mediums. (A large part of this involves creating a persona, which is also another hard subject to Google - I keep getting stuff about MPD or superheroes.)

How do I find a teacher to guide me? What resources are out there and how do I find them (without getting stuck into the Performing Arts section)? How can I develop myself and my art? How do I get my ideas out of my head and onto...well, whatever my stage happens to be?

My 1st grade teacher said I was a natural...it was all downhill from there.

SassHat — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 14:41:52 -0800

Dear performing Mefites - how do you do that thing you do? So I've finally realized that there is a gnawing urge within me to perform, but I have no idea where to begin. What are the baby steps to getting there?

At some point I got it in my head that I was automatically bad at all types of performing arts (singing, dancing, acting, etc) and that the best route was just to avoid, avoid, avoid. I won't even try to do these things, or if I do, I have to be drunk, then locked alone in a room with the lights off, which makes getting feedback a little tricky.

It is probably likely that I do suck at these things, considering I have never done them, but I feel like I'm denying myself the chance to explore avenues of self-expression based on a decision I think I came to somewhere around 2nd grade. Anyone who's met me will find this ridiculous considering that when it comes to my general demeanor I'm pretty extroverted and tend not to filter what I say/do very much.

I've gone back and read a lot of old questions about performing, and there are a few good AskMes about dealing with performance anxiety, but I think my question is a little more rudimentary than that:

Can you tell me how did you brought yourself to be able to perform? Did it come naturally or did you have to push yourself? How did you test the waters to find what you're good at? Have you managed to actively pursue things that you know you are not good at, just because you like them? I don't care if you're an actor/dancer/poet/musician/whatever, I just want to know how you've explored your performing abilities and managed to put yourself out there, you brave creatures!

Good places for singer/songwriters?

weston — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 12:25:18 -0800

Where are some good places for an aspiring performing songwriter to live? Not so much looking to sweep the pop music world as I am looking to find a spot on the long tail. But I've been thinking it might be helpful to look for locations where there are sizable audiences of people who regularly choose live but thoughtful music as an entertainment option and artists and venues that oblige them. I've been writing and performing on and off for the last nine years, moving gradually from Teh Suck to the point where can often warm up an audience and I frequently get asked if I have recordings to sell. It's a hobby, one I'd enjoy leaving at that level, but for a while I've been thinking it might be worthwhile to give it a fair shake, quit hiding under the guise of an amateur, and see if I really can work harder, produce better material, and find an audience.

I live in Utah. From dabbling and living I have a small but helpful network here and some idea how to try to reach the local pockets of people I think might like what I do, but my sense is that it's probably a tougher than usual place to try to grow an audience, so I've considered changing that. I'm aware it may be hard everywhere, or that there may be harder places (during a stint in Ventura County a few years ago I was surprised to find that despite the proximity to LA and Santa Barbara, I felt there was much less going on locally there than here). But from visiting concerts and festivals or even just hitting the town in a few places across the country, I've gotten the sense there might be some better locales. For example, I was at a Dar Williams show at a coffeehouse in Bethlehem PA years ago, and was struck by the fact that the audience seemed more varied across age ranges than the teen/college/young adult crowd I see more often in my hometown. And I discovered when talking with people that many of them held "season tickets" to the shows regularly held there (not all of which were folk luminaries of the Dar Williams strata). The level of interest that seemed to indicate was intruiging to me, and I think that's part of what I'm looking for.

Some other potentially narrowing constraints:

I'm probably best classified in the hodgepodge taxonomic platypus category known by turns as "singer/songwriter" or "adult contemporary." (samples of nominal but possibly adequate production quality can be heard here). I'm guessing some locales are more friendly to certain styles than other. I've noticed that I do better with people over 24 or so and tend to wash right over the emo kids.
I'm lucky to know artists here who work hard on their art, but cooperate and enjoy association with each other rather than compete, don't have "making it big" as their primary benchmark for personal success, or take their identity as capital-A "Aahr-tists" too seriously. I've found mentoring and advice from these people very valuable. Finding other communities like that would be awesome.
Expensive places aren't absolutely out of the question, but somewhere you can rent even a small non-hovel for under four figures monthly is obviously a bonus.

So fellow MeFites, where have you lived (or performed yourself!) that was great for local live music? What places do you think would fit my constraints? Where would you go to build an audience? Any other general advice?

I'm aware the standard locations for this kind of thing are New York City or LA or Seattle or Nashville or Austin. I wouldn't mind at all hearing about those places and how they fit, but I'm also interested in less common suggestions too. I have some particular interest in Califoria at the moment, but *anywhere* in the world that might be good for English-speaking performers is game. Sophisticated Scandinavian city-center? Folksy town in the "flyover" U.S.? Feel free to mention it, no matter where it is, if you think it might be a good place to grow an audience.

Finally, I'm also interested in finding other forums that are good to ask this kind of question.

Where/when can an amateur classical pianist perform?

chrismear — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 12:35:07 -0800

I'm an amateur classical pianist. I used to give solo recitals at college, and I would like to start performing again out here in the real world. But what sort of group/organisation/event do I need to get involved with to have this kind of opportunity? Could I organise a little independent recital for myself, or is that weird and too egotistical? Back in college there was a lot of infrastructure that made these things happen easily and frequently -- active music societies, regular recital series, easily-available venues, a captive audience, and a general culture where it was normal for people to be getting up and performing and being involved with arty stuff in general. But I basically have no idea how the amateur classical music 'scene' works outside of this environment.

My initial thought was to hire a recital room and just organise my own informal recital, as a kind of friends and family thing as much as anything else. But the thought of just doing that out of the blue seems a bit too much "hey everybody, come and see how brilliant I am", and I feel a bit awkward about the whole idea. Is that reaction completely off-mark? Do people even do that kind of thing? Does it seem too self-centered? What if I made it a little fundraising event, and did a collection for a charity, or something like that?

I've looked into local music societies, but they seem more geared around getting a group of people together to form a choir or orchestra, rather than providing a general performance platform. I'm sure there must be small places/venues that run informal weekly/monthly recitals that I could get involved with, but I don't know where to start looking.

I'm in London/Essex, UK.

Need suggestions for "moody" and "provocative" audio to play in between songs during a live performance.

basicchannel — Thu, 04 Aug 2005 15:21:31 -0800

Need suggestions for "moody" and "provocative" audio/sources for said audio to play in between songs during a live performance. My band is playing a show tomorrow evening and we've been collecting pieces of public domain audio (speeches by various politicians, authors, philosophers, etc.) as well as NASA audio recordings from probes and the like. We'd like to maintain the established "mood"/"ambience" (slight unease/paranoia/disconnection from reality) of the performance whilst we do boring stuff like tune our instruments. Any suggestions on sources (Public Domain) for clips appropriate for this purpose?

Tips for Busking in Italy and OCNJ

The White Hat — Mon, 30 May 2005 18:28:15 -0800

Any tips for busking in Italy and Ocean City, NJ? In the next few weeks, I will be spending time both in OCNJ and in Italy (Assisi and the Amalfi Coast). I hope to pick up some extra cash by busking, which I have done in the past. However, busking on the Ocean City boardwalk seem to be prohibited, or so says OCNJ's city hall. This brings several questions to mind. Are there any places to busk legally in OCNJ? If not, are there any places to safely busk illegally? Furthermore, any advice or tips for busking in Italy around where I'll be?