#34

market/gallery/distinctly-background-music scene

one more thing on this (and I apologize for the derail), as I’ve really wished I would have done this in the past. Make sure there is someone there who you’ve talked and you trust will adjust your volume out of the PA (or whatever it is) if needed. There is a sweet spot for performed background music that is above the volume of ambient noise in the space, but below the volume that people can converse without raising their voice (and definitely not at need-earplugs volume) It can be very, very hard to guess what works from the playing position, as there are many variables to take into consideration (how big is the space/is it outdoors? do the PA speakers tap out at a certain lower frequency?). And again, headphones are important to have (even if you don’t leave them on constantly so as to be approachable) as you should not be relying on the PAs to discern what you are doing at the expense of the audience. Good luck finding a gig like that @ThurberMingus, they can be a lot of fun!

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#35

People sometimes tell me I could have played louder, but they don’t always realize that louder would be uncomfortable.

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#36

i’ve found that just a touch louder than i’m comfortable with is right for the room. very difficult to judge this in most venues.

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#37

yeah at a certain point it’s a bit impossible to make it perfect for everyone, especially in a “dynamic” venue that serves multiple purposes. Someone who came to see you and is actively listening is gonna want it louder so they can get into it…a vendor set up is gonna be very annoyed if there spot is near the speaker and people are avoiding it because it’s too loud. I get too stressed about being a nuisance (and then fall out of the creative mindset, so I just try to keep things reasonably balanced, and offloading the final volume decision to someone else is the best solution I’ve come up with.

#38

i like to play quiet, so people have to lean in and really pay attention.

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#39

Lots of great stuff in here!

I’ve played several hundreds of shows in my life in places all over the world with various rock bands and improvised type things, but in the last six months I just played my first solo modular show. Even after all those shows with bands I was super nervous to play solo modular. That was probably the first time I ever played solo without a guitar at my side and it was nerv-wracking because I was 100% relying on the technology of my setup. Here’s my two cents:

-Do whatever you can to have as much of your setup pre-patched as possible. In a perfect world I would show up to the show, open up a case, plug in power & sound output, and be ready to go. That’s not usually achievable but the goal here is to leave as little as you can to the setup so you don’t have to think about what you are doing. You should be able to have a conversation with someone as you are setting up, because inevitably this will happen. Especially at modular specific events people love to nerd out about gear. If you get distracted easily, like I do, and this makes you nervous like it does with me, get this setup time down to very little, or have it practiced in your head so you don’t have to think about it. Also, label stuff too, this really helps. For me its the fear that shit isn’t gonna work that makes nervous and not the performance itself, as I’ve spent a ton of time improvising that I trust my instincts enough on that. Which leads me to the next point…

-Learn how to improvise. I can’t state this enough. I practice improvising all the time, with whatever instrument I’m playing. This way if something goes wrong with your plan during the set, which it inevitably will, you are increasing the probability that nothing catastrophic will happen, and you are decreasing the stress level. If you know you can roll with the flow you won’t be as nervous. I’ve played many shows where its just free improv, and nothing is pre-planned at all, and in some case I don’t know the people I’m going to be playing with.

-Allow yourself to go other places in the set, ie embrace the mistakes… This goes along with above, but if some things astray, sometimes its fun to take that as a cue to take a piece somewhere else. If you are so rigid that don’t allow some ‘choose your own adventure’ in your set, you will get nervous when things don’t go as planned, because envitably this will happen. For example, I usually have a loose road map of some points I may want to hit in a set, but how and if I get there is determined in the moment.

Also this prep is about allowing yourself to be totally in the moment when you are playing. In my mind that should be the ultimate goal, as its the most cathardic for you and the audience.

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#40

1 instrument, 20 minutes

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#41

20 instruments, 1 minute?

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#42

Sheesh this is a tough one. Every show is so different. Much of the advice here is right on. @zebra’s comment sums it all up: keep it simple. One instrument: fewer things can go wrong; 20 minutes: leave them wanting more.

#43

This is gold…

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#44

I haven’t played live in a number of years, but one piece of advice that has stuck with me was this, “Don’t apologize”. As in reference to a mistake you know or believe you made in your performance, or in advance to the audience of the skill, or lack there of you think you may have. Certainly it can make sense to apologize if you show up late, or turn something on and the speakers go “POP!”, but other than that, don’t apologize!!!

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#45

If you want to bring all the things mentioned in this thread, hire a moving company! :sweat_smile:

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#46

Agree with most of what has been said… Practise as much as you can… I always base a live set on Ableton / Push and Midi keyboard… Always have lots of little bits programmed in so I can take the sound any a number of different directions. Also I like to leave little bits on my set to give myself a few secodns moment to compose myself - e.g have a sound that might have a nice tail or a loop which bubbles away in background - you can kill all sounds and leave something there to give yourself a few seconds to drink water or just compuse your self. Bringing the merch is worth it. I’ve brought all my released stuff to gigs I’ve played. After my Cambrdige gig two blokes came up and were so excited by my sounds, bought aroudn £50 of my music between them so then I went and bought them a beer each!

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#47

I’ve never heard this articulated before, and it is so true. Good advice!

#48

I perform live with only a modular synth. Rather than repeating the great advice given I offer these suggestions:

  • Get a small LED light that can help you see your equipment in the dark. I find with modular, no matter how well you know it, finding a knob or jack can sometimes be difficult in the dark.
  • have one drink, it helps mellow me out a little. If it is a few hours before I play, I might have two, but never more than two.
  • transitions on the modular are probably the most common difficulty. Invest time and maybe money in utilities that allow you to accomplish this. Switches, mixers, mutes, tools that allow you to bring in and out parts. Do not underestimate the power of mixing for performance, the absence of sound is just as powerful and the presence of it.
  • mistakes happen, often, but the audience does not usually know what happened was a mistake. If you make a mistake, repeat it, then repeat it again, then it becomes music.

break a leg.

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#49

Well done! You are taking a step to one of life’s most rewarding things. I have played tons of shows all over the world - My advice in 8 steps is:

  1. to try and find the right place to play at first. Is there a modular community where you are? These wonderful people will support you. Playing in the right venue is crucial to enjoying it and it working.

  2. try and figure out what you want from it? Is it to do something technical and impressive? Like the way a jazz gig works, but modular? Or is it for the crowd to have an amazing time? It’s sounds funny, but how you approach it can radically alter what you actually do onstage. I’ll elaborate, making it super hard for yourself doesn’t often increase enjoyment for anyone.

  3. practice - a lot! The brain activity when you are learning centres around the front, however when you have mastered some music, the activity transfers to the back of the brain. This makes it feel effortless and you enter what The psychologist Csikszentmihakyi calls flow. If you are well rehearsed, you can focus on the audience and enjoying it - which makes for a much much better show for everyone.

  4. it’s a show! It’s entertainment! It’s the audiences time-our. As much as music means the world to us, to everyone else, they are taking time out to enjoy themselves, it’s really worth remembering that.

5)enjoy it! The crowd will love it so much more if you do.

  1. 2 is 1 and 1 is none! Take a backup of everything where possible.

  2. play a gig before the gig, even if it’s in a friends living room. It gets you used to setting everything up and playing in the here and now.

  3. fail forward! if you feel that it didn’t go well, reflect but don’t beat yourself up. Most major sportspeople have lost matches, it makes them better. Plus, these kind of shows makes very funny stories later on. And it could be worse right, we could be trying to best and up comedians!!!

  4. be diligent with the pack down. You don’t want anything to get lost or stolen as you want to play again right? And don’t Leave things in cars.

Hope that helps! Have a great one. :slight_smile:

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#50

Some absolutely priceless advice in this thread, there’s very little more I can add.

Small things that I find useful - visit the venue a few weeks before, catch a show there, see and hear what the room is like, speak to the sound tech if possible. If you’re drinking during your set (coffee, water, beer, whatever) keep it hidden out of view. If anyone takes photos (and I’d encourage friends to do that) it just looks weird and distracting having a bottle or can in shot. Final bit of advice - bring people to the gig. If a promotor knows that with you playing they will get another 4 or 5 people through the door you are more likely to get other slots.

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#51

The “50% more stupid rule” really is a great way to put it, and it definitely is true in my experience!
This reminds me that – depending on the complexity of what you want to do – one very useful thing to do can be working on some “structure scores”.
Basically something that outlines the structure of your performance, adding info about key moments/settings/transitions, etc.
I usually also note down any initial setup that I need to perform to get all the machines in the proper state.

They usually look something like this:

unsinnig@3x-80.jpg2527×1786 439 KB

as posted on the discussion Performing Modular Live

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#52

That looks stunning…

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#53

Keep in mind that modular music is experimental and often improvisational, and so people tend to be more forgiving and not even notice or care much about mistakes.

In a live band with songs, when people forget their parts, it’s worse. If equipment malfunctions, it can ruin the set completely. Whereas with modular, you’re generally controlling a few parts and can afford to lose a couple voices. Not likely that your power supply or sequencer is going to give out mid-set, but old amps and guitar strings are unpredictable that way.

If you’re doing melodic music, invest in a tuner, and use sine or other simple waves to tune.

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