Vol. 01 No. 14

Roots, Rock ‘n Blues News

Volume 1, Number 14

There’s A Reason They Call It “Playing”

Let’s consider two words: “playing” and “working.” Which one sounds like more fun? Silly question, right? Obviously, if you’re “working” you’re not having fun. Work isn’t supposed to be fun, it’s what you do to put food on the table and gas in the car so you can get to work.

Watching bands perform you can always tell which ones are “working” and which ones are “playing.” Personally, I’d rather watch a band “play” than “work.” If they’re not having fun up there, it’s not likely the audience is enjoying the performance as much as they could, either.

Here are a couple of examples I saw recently on HDNet: Joe Satriani and his band “played” a great gig while Rod Piazza and the Mighty Flyers “worked” a club. The difference was pretty obvious. The musicianship in both shows was excellent. The bands were tight and professional. The difference was that Satriani’s entire group was obviously having a ball while Rod and Honey were the only ones having any fun on their stage.

I know from experience that there are some gigs where it feels like you’re going to work, for any of a number of reasons. That’s one reason I’m currently on a hiatus from playing; there were too many gigs like that. When it’s right, playing music is the most fun you can have with your clothes on, but when it’s not fun, there’s not much point in doing it, especially if it’s a part-time thing as it is with me.

From the audience’s perspective, we want to watch performers who enjoy what they’re doing. It’s fun to see them having fun playing. It’s not so much fun watching them up there working. A band that’s having fun, even if they’re not schmoozing the audience a great deal, will get the audience involved anyway. Musicians up there working will transfer that attitude to the audience. The audience then doesn’t react well and the band senses that and lets down some and the vicious cycle is underway.

It’s important for musicians to remember that what they do is called “playing” and to approach it that way. They’ll automatically feel better about it if they view it as playing, as opposed to working. The better they feel about it, the more fun they’ll have, and they’ll pass that along to the audience which will then feed that back to them. Positive vibes will generate more positive vibes and everybody feels better for it. Those are the gigs audiences remember and that make them want to come out again to see the band perform.

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DVD of the Week

Joe Satriani – Satriani Live!

Okay, I admit it, despite being a harp player, I’m a guitar geek. I’ve actually played guitar for about 40 years now, off and on, and have gotten decent in some aspects of it, but never quite got the lead thing down. I’m working on it, but at this point, I’m just not gonna be a Joe Satriani. I tend not to be impressed by players who cram a zillion notes into a measure just because they can, and frankly, when Joe started out, I didn’t dig his stuff all that much. I watched this DVD on HDNet a while ago, though, and really enjoyed it. Not only was the gig fun to watch, as I mentioned in the article above, but I dug watching Joe do his thing backed by a killer band. Dave LaRue is a monster bass player and being a part-time bass player myself, I enjoyed watching him as much as Joe.

Joe’s playing has taken on a less technical quality, in my opinion, and I think that’s partly because he’s been around 20 years and has little to prove to anybody anymore. He can relax and play and know that his place in the guitar pantheon is secure. That, to me, makes him a lot more fun to listen to.

See you next time!