What If There was no audience?

Subject: What If There was no audience?
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 26 Aug 05 - 12:02 PM

Most folks in here know the joy of creating music, pottery, poetry, art, food... There is an inherent pleasure in creation which is self-rewarding. When a line comes to a song you're writing, and you wonder where it came from, or a piece of pottery takes shape beneath your hands, and you are awed by how beautiful it is, there is an immediate joy in the process of creation.

In the field of music, musicians are glorified, admired and emulated.
When they turn out to be rather ordinary people with an extraordinary gift, it can be dissilusioning. But, where would the joy be if there was no audience? Ultimately, creation is meant to be shared. If someone wrote a beautiful song and sung it with great feeling, and everyone else was deaf, it would still be a beautiful song, but the circle would not be completed. A beautiful piece of pottery, a painting or drawing, or even a magnificent souffle loses much of it's meaning if it isn't shared.

On Mudcat, there are times when people seem somewhat apologetic about not being a good musician or singer. They are just appreciators. They may be the ones who buy the CDs, come to the concerts and offer encouragement to those who are on stage. For me, the whole process of creation and sharing with others is one. Mudcat serves as an audience for all who have something they want to talk about, or share.
I really appreciate it for that reason. That's the way that I see threads... a chance to shoot the breeze with each other, whether the thread is thoughtful, silly, respectful or confrontational.

If there was no audience, the joy of creation would be greatly diminished.

Here's to the audience! To the listeners! To the appreciators! To the encouragers!

Jerry

Subject: RE: What If There was no audience?
From: MMario
Date: 26 Aug 05 - 12:03 PM

Amen - though usually I *have* no audience. Sometimes the joy is just for myself - selfish maybe - but still there.

Subject: RE: What If There was no audience?
From: rumanci
Date: 26 Aug 05 - 12:04 PM

Thanks Jerry
I resemble most of those remarks these days .......though not as much as I'd like to... and actually even when I used to do things myself I still was all those things for others
It's good to be appreciated round here
LOL
rum x

Subject: RE: What If There was no audience?
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 26 Aug 05 - 12:17 PM

Thanks, Mmario and Rrumanci:

There have certainly been long stretches in my life when I wrote songs, played music and fooled around with graphic arts without the confidence, or opportunity to share them. That never stopped me. I think for most people who have a creative desire, they will continue to create, whether they have an audience or not. But, I do believe that there is that desire to share... to make a connection. That's what it's all about to me.. whether it's singing a song for someone, or listening to them sing a song... sharing my thoughts with others, or enjoying them sharing their thoughts with me. I think that is at the heart of the creative process.. at least the desire to share, even when it's not possible.

I didn't sing or play guitar in front of anyone until I was 27 years old, even though I'd been playing and writing songs since my teens.
The desire to share was outweighed by a lack of confidence that anyone would want to hear me. Sharing has little do do with how good you are.. it's really much more about being open.

Jerry

Subject: RE: What If There was no audience?
From: MMario
Date: 26 Aug 05 - 12:20 PM

desire to share was outweighed by a lack of confidence that anyone would want to hear me

BOY DO i KNOW THAT FEELING. STILL DO.

stupid capslock!

Subject: RE: What If There was no audience?
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 26 Aug 05 - 12:23 PM

I'v ebeen saying it to my audiences for a while...

"I could and would do it without ya's, but with ya's is much more fun!"

Subject: RE: What If There was no audience?
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 26 Aug 05 - 12:48 PM

I'm sure I'd enjoy hearing you, MMario..

Jerry

Subject: RE: What If There was no audience?
From: MMario
Date: 26 Aug 05 - 12:49 PM

*grin* emperical evidence says people do enjoy hearing me, Jerry - I just never believe that they would WANT to.

Subject: RE: What If There was no audience?
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 26 Aug 05 - 01:10 PM

You gotta stop hanging around with liars then, Mmario. :-) If they say they enjoy you, then believe them..

Jerry

Subject: RE: What If There was no audience?
From: Bloke in the Corner
Date: 26 Aug 05 - 01:19 PM

Wow! the first Existentialist-influenced thread on the 'cat! It's all to do with trees falling in the Amazon jungle - I learned about it 37 years ago, so the memory fades somewhat - but more power to your philosophical elbow....
My God, what a sad posting....
Sorry guys, I was at a loose end when I opened this thread.

Subject: RE: What If There was no audience?
From: GUEST
Date: 26 Aug 05 - 01:19 PM

I disagree that it's all for the audience. I make music because it makes me happy, if I'm on my own it doesn't make the music any less satisfying. Personally i play for my own pleasure, if other people like it then that is a bonus.

Subject: RE: What If There was no audience?
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 26 Aug 05 - 01:23 PM

Never said it was all for the audience, Guest. I said that there is an inherent pleasure in creation, just in the process. Just said that the connection with an audience brings the process full circle.

Just my opinion.

I too can take a lot of pleasure out of sitting around, playing music just for myself. I'll always do that..

Jerry

Subject: RE: What If There was no audience?
From: bobad
Date: 26 Aug 05 - 01:31 PM

Jerry

Thanks for putting voice to something I've been wanting to say for quite a while. When I first came to Mudcat I thought it was a forum of mostly people who simply appreciated and loved music, especially so called "folk music". I have subsequently discovered that pretty near everyone here is musically gifted in some way; writing, playing or singing. Since I am unfortunately not musically gifted I have been feeling somewhat out of place but your words of appreciation for folk like us, the audience, have encougaged me and for this I thank you.

Bob

Subject: RE: What If There was no audience?
From: PoppaGator
Date: 26 Aug 05 - 01:39 PM

Over the course of my lengthening lifetime, I've spent no more than a half-dozen years or so as an active performer. For years before I first ventured out in front of an audience, I was a "closet" musician, playing and practicing for my own enjoyment only, and for even more years after I quit performing to become a workaday Johnny and raise a family, I went into a state of dormancy or hibernation as a player. Only recently ~ pretty much since my kids have grown to quasi-adulthood ~ have I begun to take a few steps towards getting back up on the bandstand.

I've always been a fan/listener/enthusiast, however, and I certainly feel that my experiences as a musican (or, perhaps more accurately, my experiences trying to be a musician) have made be a more intelligent and more passionate listener.

Also ~ and this is something that has always been the case, even during the years when I was singing and playing full-time ~ I've never been able to perform as wide a variety of musical styles and genres as I've been able to appreciate as a listener. I'm sure that the same is true for many of us; we're able to enjoy and to love many more different kinds of music than we're able to create/recreate as performers.

Even if I do successfully launch a new career as a born-again songster, and manage to supplement my meagre Social Security checks with a few extra bucks earned by singing and picking my acoustic guitar, I'll still never be a fiddle virtuoso, classical pianist, a jazz horn player, etc., etc., etc. But I'm sure that I'll continue to appreciate the very many kinds of music that I'll never be able to play myself.

Subject: RE: What If There was no audience?
From: WFDU - Ron Olesko
Date: 26 Aug 05 - 01:48 PM

"A beautiful piece of pottery, a painting or drawing, or even a magnificent souffle loses much of it's meaning if it isn't shared."

I hate to be picky, but there is always at least one person in audience - the person who is doing the creating. Sharing is very important, but I do think it is more important for the artist to be true to their own vision. The artist who makes the pot, the painting or the drawing has to satisfy their own vision first.

Even the cook normally whips something up that appeals to their tastebuds. I can't stand tunafish, but I've made a tuna casserole that my wife enjoys. She liked it, or said she did, but it was not much of an experience for me. I put the effort and did everything I could to make the dish, but in the end I did not enjoy it. I am sure if I was a cook for a living, it would not be fun for me. Sometimes it isn't necessary to come full circle.

I do not mean to sound selfish, and I do not wish to sound like I am discouraging sharing, but I do think it is very important for the artist to please themselves first and foremost. If they are enjoying it, the audience will follow.

Subject: RE: What If There was no audience?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 26 Aug 05 - 01:51 PM

Films and recorded music can be wonderful, but live performances alway have the possibility of being something more. Live performances can make a connection between audience and performer that just isn't possible in a recording. Even a recording of a live performance doesn't do it - in fact, for me, "live" recordings don't satisfy like a studio recording.

I have to say that I don't usually make that connection when I'm doing a serious song, but I do feel that "click" of connection often when I do the silly ones. I make a deep, spiritual connection with seventh graders when I sing "A Chat With Your Mother" (The F-Word Song). I make a connection with everybody when I can get them up to do "Singin' in the Rain" with me, with motions and hip undulations...

And once you've made that connection, you crave it.

-Joe Offer, singer of camp songs-

Subject: RE: What If There was no audience?
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 26 Aug 05 - 02:02 PM

Hey, Ron:

You've made a good point. Creation starts with yourself. At least that's the way I feel about it. It's not that great art can't be produced by starting with a determination to produce something that will sell. In that case, you are strictly creating for the audience.
That certainly happens a lot with popular music (and I'm sure has with all forms of music.) You start trying to figure out what people want to hear, and then do your best to give them what they want. But no matter how crass an artist might be, they always end up putting something of themselves into their work. Even the tuna casserole..
And the connection is there when the work of art is presented to the audience... even if the primary pleasure comes from the audience.

I took a book out of the library out of curiosity on How To Write A Hit Song. The basic bit of advice is to start out with everyday saying, or cliches, because the audience will immediately recognize the title of the song. There've been 8 million songs written that way. Who knows, maybe Mick Jagger was searching for ideas and said, "Man, no matter what I do, I can't get any satisfaction," and then went on to write what many rock critics consider to be the greatest rock song of all time. I suspect when he wrote stuff like
Stuck Between A Rock and a Hard Place he started out with that phrase because it is familiar, and then ended up writing what, to me, was a trite, total throw-away recording.

Whichever way you come at it, you end up putting something of yourself into the creation, and if you share the work with an audience, there is a connection that I believe we all seek.

Jerry

Subject: RE: What If There was no audience?
From: John Hardly
Date: 26 Aug 05 - 02:39 PM

Put me strongly in the camp of believing the tree in the woods thing. I make pottery for a living. And, though I've been paid to play music, I'm not professional.

The strongest impetus toward creation is the sharing of it.

It may not be the only impetus, but I believe it is the strongest. And I believe that at the core of Art is communication -- communication done by self-expression. One without the other and it doesn't add up to art.

And I also suspect that many who claim to create ONLY for their own pleasure, are actually a bit more "sour grapes" than that. Rather than admit, as MMario has, that they'd love to present their work, but are afraid of the reception, they choose instead to not take the risk of sharing. Then they convince themselves that they never meant to share it in the first place.

I'm sure there are some who have taken the risk and been burned, decided it wasn't for them, but still create. I bet they still daydream.

Now don't I dig the big time rock and roll
To sit in the darkness and be somebody else
A time which after all is under control
Crank out the music
Give me music
Let the music fill the air -J Taylor

Subject: RE: What If There was no audience?
From: MMario
Date: 26 Aug 05 - 02:52 PM

John - I have met a few people who honestly truly have no need to share what they create; they are rare - and in my opinion probably lacking some important gene for social interaction - but they do exist.

Subject: RE: What If There was no audience?
From: Ebbie
Date: 26 Aug 05 - 02:54 PM

I agree with you, John. I think most of us shortchange our lives in many ways.

But I wholeheartedly agree with Jerry that listeners and appreciators have a BIG place in the creative world. If I don't have a guitar in my hands I can go into a space - just listening - that is wonderfully pearly and silvery and shivery.

Subject: RE: What If There was no audience?
From: Ebbie
Date: 26 Aug 05 - 02:58 PM

Darn. I meant to add: Jerry, is there any chance that you will be at the Getaway? You're not really all that far away- as the west measures it. Bring your gospel group- we'd love to hear you and talk with you.

Subject: RE: What If There was no audience?
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 26 Aug 05 - 02:58 PM

"I also suspect that many who claim to create ONLY for their own pleasure"

Who's claiming that??? We came ||this close to naming our new band Busmans Holiday... cause we're doing what we'd be doing anyway... Difference is, gigs, we get paid for...   So it's win win for us...

:-)

Subject: RE: What If There was no audience?
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 26 Aug 05 - 03:17 PM

Sorry, Ebb:

That would be a lot of fun. It just doesn't look like we could make it. My wife and I will just be back from 19 days in Europe and most likely will want to collapse, and the date wouldn't work out for the guys. One of these years... or maybe we could even come down for a house concert, just for the fun of singing together again..

Jerry

Subject: RE: What If There was no audience?
From: Mudlark
Date: 26 Aug 05 - 03:59 PM

My own experience is that the creative process, and the sharing of the creative process utilize different prts of the brain. I also think there is a difference between creating objects, and creating music. I was a potter for 30 years, and the only way I could even do that was to sell my wares...it doesn't take long to fill one's own cupboards once production starts taking place! Whereas I can go on singing to myself on the front porch forever without taking up any room.

But the sharing part is the same. As a prof. potter, I needed not only the stimulation of clients liking my work well enough to buy it, but also the goad of coming up with new things, meeting art show date and wholseale order deadlines. As an amateur musician, once I've perfected, to my ear, a song, eventually I want to share it. Otherwise, I tend, over time, to lose interest in it and move on to new songs. Also, once stage fright is conquered, there is something special about playing for other ears. If I can just keep from tightening up, I often surprise myself...lol...in a good way.

But..PG I never lose my sight and hearing. I may get too old and crippled up to make a B7, but nearly all genres of art and music will, I hope, always enhance my life. Seeing, and listening, well...those are creative processes too, in my opinion.

Good thread, Jerry, as usual!

Subject: RE: What If There was no audience?
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 26 Aug 05 - 05:44 PM

Folk musicians, gifted, giraffe!

Folk musicians, create, giraffe.

Folk musicians may interpret.

Subject: RE: What If There was no audience?
From: Rasener
Date: 26 Aug 05 - 07:47 PM

Just got back from running my own folk club. It was an incredible success.

However, tommorrow I am running a concert where I am going on holiday, which is about 100 miles from where I live.

When I saw this thread, it was just going through my head "What if nobody comes to the gig tomorrow"

Apart from being well out of pocket, my heart would go out to the performers.

See following thread

thread.cfm?threadid=83877&messages=24

Please wish me luck, as I have no idea if anybody will turn up..

Subject: RE: What If There was no audience?
From: Justa Picker
Date: 26 Aug 05 - 07:50 PM

Ultimately, creation is meant to be shared.

Is it?

To me ... only when it's appreciated.

Subject: RE: What If There was no audience?
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 26 Aug 05 - 08:26 PM

Kinda goes with the territory, Justa Picker. If people don't appreciate your music, you can't share it with them.

Find other people... :-)

Jerry

Subject: RE: What If There was no audience?
From: Ebbie
Date: 26 Aug 05 - 09:03 PM

Have loads of appreciative people streaming in your doors, Villan!

Subject: RE: What If There was no audience?
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 26 Aug 05 - 09:41 PM

Hey, Villan:

I ran a folk concert series for 27 years. I know that sinking feeling when you think no one will come. I can tell you that from a musician's standpoint, it hurts just as bad..

Jerry

But then, the crowds were almost always more than I expected...

Subject: RE: What If There was no audience?
From: YorkshireYankee
Date: 26 Aug 05 - 10:08 PM

I agree... for me, the joy of singing is a physical and emotional pleasure, in and of itself (singing in harmony even moreso). Even if I knew no-one else would ever hear me do it again, I wouldn't stop singing. But singing for other people who appreciate & enjoy it is even more satisfying -- no doubt about it. Best of all, though, is singing with other people...

As an aside -- amongst a group of folkies I know (some of them Mudcatters, as it happens), there is one fellow (named Bob) who does not sing himself (aside from perhaps joining in on choruses). Everyone else likes to get up and perform -- now & then, if not regularly. Since there are several 'Bobs' in this crowd, we have to differentiate between them, so there's 'Quiet Bob', 'Piper Bob', and 'Bob the Audience' -- and I have to say that 'Bob the Audience' may well be more appreciated than any of the rest of us!

Subject: RE: What If There was no audience?
From: Leadfingers
Date: 27 Aug 05 - 11:43 AM

Like the late Jake Thackeray I am a 'Playing Oik' , not a 'Listening Oik' so definately appreciate 'the Audience' , especially when they are putting beer tokens in my wallet ! Just wish I was more of a creator than a borrower of other peoples expertise ! (Thats a nice euphemism for Song thief)

Subject: RE: What If There was no audience?
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 27 Aug 05 - 11:49 AM

"only when it's appreciated"

Ahhh... but you can't know if it's gonna BE appreciated until after you've shared it cay you...

Subject: RE: What If There was no audience?
From: Lanfranc
Date: 27 Aug 05 - 01:59 PM

Ah, Terry (aka Leadfingers), I believe that "song thieves" like you and I have multiple functions. Among them: to introduce the audience to songs that they might never hear; to remind them of songs that they have forgotten; to encourage them to sing along (sometimes verse as well as chorus) to songs that they know and/or love.

What I find depressing are the singers and musicians at sessions (and in more formal Clubs) who sing or play the same song or tune that they have sung or played innumerable times before to exactly the same audience and seem unable to sense that they are boring the pants off most of those within earshot! There's a world of difference between 'Old Fred's known for his killer version of "Lord Randall"' and the almost silent sigh that says 'Oh, no, not "Lord Randall" again!!' and it boils down to being sensitive to the audience. In the end there is a danger of the session or club degenerating into a circle of singers or musicians effectively playing for themselves or, at best, each other.

Even if you are not blessed with the ability to write your own material, you can learn to perform a new song or tune now and then, or, if you've been around as long as Leadfingers and me, revive something that you haven't done for a while from the depths of your repertoire.

One of the great things about a live performance is its unpredictability either in content or presentation. If there is nothing new or different on offer, this is lost, and the audience might as well stay at home and listen to studio recordings. It's great to hear a performer perform a favourite song when you haven't heard it for a while, not so great if it has been staled by repetition.

What the above ramblings are supposed to impart is the thought that it is important to consider the audience when you are performing, no matter how small the gathering, otherwise all too soon there will be no audience. They are your reason for being there - without them you easily find that a solo ego trip is a lonely ego trip.

Alan

Subject: RE: What If There was no audience?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 27 Aug 05 - 04:17 PM

You need listeners to complete the process. Not necessarily an audience. Song sessions where anyone is likely to chip in with a song are a pretty good way to share a new song.

Subject: RE: What If There was no audience?
From: Tim theTwangler
Date: 27 Aug 05 - 05:04 PM

If there were no audience I would be less nervous before the gig and less elated after.
When I say gig I mean shouting out songs in the local pub on the open mic or accoustic nights.
The biggest thrill I get is when a proper musician like's one of my songs and even maybe once in a while ask if they can "borrow it".

Subject: RE: What If There was no audience?
From: Midchuck
Date: 27 Aug 05 - 08:41 PM

Ron O. said:

I do not mean to sound selfish, and I do not wish to sound like I am discouraging sharing, but I do think it is very important for the artist to please themselves first and foremost. If they are enjoying it, the audience will follow.

Dick McCormack, my old friend from whom I steal lots of songs, put out a promo leaflet once, which had one of the best statements on that point I ever heard. I'll paraphrase it as best I remember:

A performer who performs only to please the audience is a whore. A performer who performs only to please himself is a crashing bore unless he's a genius, which I'm not. You have to strike a middle ground.

Peter.

Subject: RE: What If There was no audience?
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 28 Aug 05 - 04:57 PM

"song thieves"

I like that phrase SO much better than "cover artist"! :-)

Subject: RE: What If There was no audience?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 28 Aug 05 - 06:54 PM

Saw last night an Aussie ABC documentary story about the 3D-FM session on the front veranda called The Hillbilly Hoot. They allegedly play for a 1 hour live to air radio show. You just turn up, like a session, and those who want to just join in, but it tends to go on for hours after the 'official' session ends. They are playing for themselves, but the live audience in the front garden, and those on the radio seems to enjoy the atmosphere.

Subject: RE: What If There was no audience?
From:
Date: 29 Aug 05 - 08:05 AM

As I do not play or sing much, I tell people, I am Professional Audience. It's not a paid position, but it is an honourable skill to have, that of listener.

As my spiel goes, the performer types need someone to listen. Without someone to listen to the music or the song, eventually the artist stops doing it.

We, the audience, have a sacred duty to pay attention and enjoy ourselves!

Subject: RE: What If There was no audience?
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 29 Aug 05 - 08:18 AM

You're my kinda man, George!

They also serve who sit and listen..

Jerry

Subject: RE: What If There was no audience?
From: Roger in Baltimore
Date: 29 Aug 05 - 08:24 AM

Otto Rank, one of Freud's followers, wrote a book entitled "Art and Artist". His thesis was that the creation of art comes from a duality: the artist's vision and what the public will consume. Each artist has to find for themselves their place on this continuum. They can often be competing ends.

There is no "right" place to be on the continuum. So, as Mmario reports, some artists create just to satisfy their urge to create. As we all know there are talented people (artists) whose goal is to create a product that will be accepted by the masses.

Each artist must decide for themselves how much of their art will be simply what they desire to create and how much will be something they wish others to appreciate.

So for most artists, the audience is important. For some, it is not. Van Gogh didn't sell many paintings in his lifetime. Perhaps the passion we see in his paintings now is a result of them being what his spirit had to do.

Roger in Baltimore

Subject: RE: What If There was no audience?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 29 Aug 05 - 01:21 PM

I've found that wh

Subject: RE: What If There was no audience?
From: John Hardly
Date: 29 Aug 05 - 02:02 PM

just to be clear...

When I say that I think that the strongest impetus to create art is to share it, I did not define the intended "audience", nor how big the intended "audience", nor what the mechanism for the sharing might be. I wasn't rying to imply that everyone wants to sell their art or be a professional.

And I would say that, though (as I said before) there may be the rare person who does not have "sharing" as a goal -- of that small sub-group of artists, I'm still betting that sharing their art is still part of their fantasy life.

Subject: RE: What If There was no audience?
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 29 Aug 05 - 02:18 PM

I'm with you,. John H. When I say "audience" I mean someone to listen to music, view Art and dance, hear or read poetry... I could have titled this thread asking about "listener" instead of "audience" but I didn't want to limit it to music. I am really talking more about the creative process.

I don't want to move this into the religious realm for more than a moment, but for those who believe in God, it makes sense that as the Original Creator, he would create an "audience." We may be a lousy audience at times, but I can understand why (if you believe in God) He'd want someone to enjoy his sunsets...

Jerry

Subject: RE: What If There was no audience?
From: outfidel
Date: 29 Aug 05 - 02:34 PM

Bishop: "So, your eminence, what do you think about the question of the laity?"

Cardinal Newman: "Well, m'lord, we'd look pretty silly without them, wouldn't we?"

Subject: RE: What If There was no audience?
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 29 Aug 05 - 09:10 PM

I basically sing for an audience (of one or more makes little if any difference). Yes, I can and do often sing for myself, without an audience. BUT. . . .

In my solitude, the idea of an audience is there, the prospect of an audience. If I had known in my late teens, when I started with guitar and singing folk songs, that I would never have an audience, I doubt that I'd have bothered. Today, after 55 years of learning and writing songs, of singing for myself and for others, if I knew that there would never again be an audience, it's doubtful that I would maintain an interest.   

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: What If There was no audience?
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 29 Aug 05 - 09:38 PM

I guess, from looking at my last post, the upshot is that the pleasure is for me is basically in the act of communication. Whether it's with one listener or three hundred, as I say, makes some difference, but not much. When I sing just to myself I'm imagining, sort of convincing myself that there's listener(s) to communicate with. If I couldn't look forward to the actuality of performing, my little make-believe game wouldn't work.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: What If There was no audience?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 29 Aug 05 - 09:45 PM

What I was trying to say...

I have found that when I have written something of any length (I mean words) I will very likely shift to another seat to read it back. Shifting from my persona as writer to that of reader. I think this is quite a common practice.

I also find that if I have written a song than, until I have sung it to other people, I am unlikely to write another one. (There are exceptions where a bunch of songs around some common theme come along in parallel.)

Subject: RE: What If There was no audience?
From: John Hardly
Date: 29 Aug 05 - 09:46 PM

Well said, DaveO. That's exactly what I meant.

Subject: RE: What If There was no audience?
From: Genie
Date: 30 Aug 05 - 09:46 PM

Uncle Dave, you said:
"I guess, from looking at my last post, the upshot is that the pleasure is for me is basically in the act of communication. Whether it's with one listener or three hundred, as I say, makes some difference, but not much.
..."

Well, a lot of us have had the experience of playing somewhere for an audience of only 1 to 3 people. And if you're a true artist/performer, you give that tiny audience as much of yourself as you would a full house.

But, as Bo Bice, a rock/blues/funk musician, pointed out recently, "When you have only a couple people in the audience, the mosh pit gets pretty tricky. You have to have really good aim."
§;-D

Subject: RE: What If There was no audience?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 30 Aug 05 - 09:53 PM

A Negative:

No Teenage Groupies.



A Positive:

No Teenage Groupies.

Subject: RE: What If There was no audience?
From: rich-joy
Date: 31 Aug 05 - 02:43 AM

Nice thread - some good stuff! Thanks for starting it, Jerry!

This quote (the subject of a recent thread) has a place here too :

" The paintings, poetry and music
Are all merely water drawn from the well of mankind
And must be returned to him in a cup of beauty
So that he may drink
And in drinking, come to know himself. "

Federico García Lorca (1898-1936).
Born in Fuente Vaqueros, best known for his powerful dramatic tragedies, which deal with elemental themes in a striking fashion (Chambers Biographical Dictionary).


... and surely we can draw (not too long) a bow to that quantum physics idea in here too - where something comes into existence only upon being observed???
: sorry if that's way-off beam, this stuff was never my strong suite!! :~))


Cheers! R-J

Subject: RE: What If There was no audience?
From: GUEST,noddy
Date: 31 Aug 05 - 03:52 AM

I am happy to be an audience and am available for hire at reasonable rates.