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gigs with music stands - good or bad?


Bandard

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I always have a music stand. I like being able to check the set list, keys, arrangements, keyboard settings.

 

Some guitarists think that is unprofessional. the people I play with don't have a problem, but what are your impressions of players that have them?

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I can't imagine why anyone would have a problem with someone using a music stand? That's silly. Those people are silly.

 

It can reduce the lead singer's interaction with the crowd, somewhat. And some people think they look dorky in rock and roll for some reason. That's the main minuses.

The plus side is its a good reference; if your cover band has several hundred songs, it might be nice to help prevent you from screwing up and trainwrecking.

 

I don't know when the trend began that you had to memorize everything. That certainly wasn't true 50 years ago.

 

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Using a music stand is on a par with a keyboardist playing sitting down. Looks so unmanly.

 

 

And yet I've seen so many huge pieces of cardboard taped to the floor under the guitar player crammed tight with set lists and fx settings. What's the difference?

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To me it marks the difference between "I'm playing this song" and "I know and care about this song." That matters most for a singer who is supposed to be really feeling the song. I suck at memory-anything, so this is a bit of a drag and a big deal for me. On piano, though, people accept music sheets more readily than for, say, guitars or bass.

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Depends on the band, depends on the material, depends on the gig. I don't use a music stand per se ... my notes are in a book of 5 x 8 that are two hole punched with 1 incch snap rings through 'em. 1 Card per song ... which I "shuffle" into set list order before each gig. The book of cards sits on atop of my RD700SX. I try to make a card for every tune - but don't necessarily include cards for tunes that I don't need 'em for in the "gig book". The approach is low key - and in many cases, I find that I may not look at the card for a given song at all. They're convienent for when I need a memory tickle to remember the first chord of a change on those tunes that may not have made the list for a couple of gigs (meaning it's been a month or two since they were last played!).

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It depends on what the band is like. If you're playing a wedding or a corporate party, who cares, people just want to dance and drink. But can you imagine U2 playing with a music stand?

 

What about David Bowie? I saw him on "Live by Request" a few years ago. He had a music stand and a 3 ring notebook. The moderator asked him about it and he said he has all his song lyrics in there and used it onstage. It was mostly a security blanket for him. If he forgot something he'd have it right there.

 

I think some rock 'n rollers music stand phobia is out and out silly. Talk about worrying about something superficial. As long as you can play and rock, who cares? I don't.

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I agree that it is different for keyboard players. I am a hired gun around town. This week, I am in 4 different bands with 120 different songs. i don't even try to memorize them, but I learn them, listen to them, and then keep a notebook with Cliff Notes. So far, nobody has bothered me. Of course, in 2 weeks, I have no gigs, feast or famine. But that will change. Can't worry about it.

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Not sure if this applies but I have seen very few rockers from the classic era (60s-90s) onstage who DID NOT have a teleprompter hidden into the stage or a box that looks like a floor monitor wedge. Hell, some even use that tablet-like sheet-music thingy (MusicPad?) right there on the floor (Chris Robinson of Black Crowes is one). I think one of the reasons that Mick Jagger sang that simple-lyric song (I need you, you, you) at the Grammys was because there were precious few places to hide a prompter on that stage. At a Stones gig he has prompters scattered all around the place built into the stage so that no matter where he runs to he can have a peek.

I don't have a problem with this per se - I would rather the performer use a crutch than blow the song - but proper concealment is key. A music stand looks out of place in any setting except Classical performance. Just my opinion, YMMV. Personally, I think a music stand looks totally bogus on a rock band stage. I use small 4x6 index cards laying down on top of my keyboard - held in place by a small sticky clip from Office depot. I keep them there for reference only and find that I rarely even look at them - the exception being when a girl flashes her boobs and I momentarily forget the next line, I can steal a quick glance at my notes to get back on track. :facepalm:

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Big band jazz- a lot of those are reading gigs where the bandleader is calling what he wants out of a catalog, and a lot of times the players are not full time with the band, but frelancers. I see the need for stands there. Plus, the nice stands with the band logo on them look nice in that setting. Same with classical- probably only the soloists/featured performers have things memorized.

 

Singer in a cover band? No way. Learn the words. I saw a pic on FB with this guy who had a music stand right in front of him at center stage. The 1st comment was "lose the stand, separates the pros and the wanna bes" How can you be a front man with a stand in front of you, looking down at the words the whole time?

 

I also don't like it when keybaord players put a big giant stand in front of them, higher than their top keyboard so you can't see them at all.

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Depends on the band, depends on the material, depends on the gig. I don't use a music stand per se ... my notes are in a book of 5 x 8 that are two hole punched with 1 incch snap rings through 'em. 1 Card per song ... which I "shuffle" into set list order before each gig. The book of cards sits on atop of my RD700SX. I try to make a card for every tune - but don't necessarily include cards for tunes that I don't need 'em for in the "gig book". The approach is low key - and in many cases, I find that I may not look at the card for a given song at all. They're convienent for when I need a memory tickle to remember the first chord of a change on those tunes that may not have made the list for a couple of gigs (meaning it's been a month or two since they were last played!).

 

 

I used to do that with my old vox organ ,,, now with the RD300sx , its a little tight for room. I also have an issue with the fact that in my spot on the crowded stage at our standing house gig that the stage lights hit the stage in front of my board leaving me in the dark. I am getting staged up for catarac surgery so seeing {censored} is a problem. I have been using a stand more to hold a light than anything. I have some charts on there but typically dont use them. I may use on one or two times a night if that. I have a sit down rig , so the stand aint a big deal to me. For original shows ,, i dont use it ,, since that stuff is all in the memory bank. The RD300 is a pretty narrow board. we dont run a set list in order so staging up note cards aint gonna happen. I have three sheet of songs , which is like 1 tenth of our song list. we have 750 songs. I should take a look at the charts and see if i can condence them even more. There may be only three or four i ever look at the chart for,, and those come up every 6th or seventh gig. prolly lazy on my part

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On piano, though, people accept music sheets more readily than for, say, guitars or bass.

 

Maybe because its because more piano players know how to read sheet music vs. tab? :lol:

 

I know rock is more improv than classical -- that's why you see sheet music less -- but for cover bands, I actually would love it if the chord charts of the big band era came back. If there was a good repository of chord charts / sheet music of pop songs, *and* you had a band of musicians that actually knew how to read it, it would solve an *awful* lot of the problems and confusions of bands that try to learn a song by ear, and learn it one way, then the next practice you have musicians switching to something totally different... :mad::facepalm:

 

A lot of rock is usually fairly simple to memorize, so it's not like you need them for every song when you play out. Still, it would be good to have a reference in case you were requested a song that you haven't played in eons. In modern times, I think it would even be possible to conceal it in a way that doesn't look dorky using iPads and laptops and whatnot. (We're now in an era where half the performers out there have a laptop after all.) In the practice room, this is where it would be even better.

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An interesting thing to note about this is that even in Classical music, stands are avoided when possible. Any pro concerto soloist will never read music - always memorised. It's less usual for a chamber ensemble to play their repertoire by memory, but it does occur. What usually prevents this is the complexity of much of any chamber music repertoire. Orchestras use stands for the obvious reason that it would be prohibitively expensive to do otherwise.

 

And another take: Folk instrumental ensembles (like, of the European variety) don't use stands (perhaps not even read music).

 

So I guess it depends on how much you're prepared to memorise and how taxing on your memory your material is. It appears that some situations make it unavoidable.

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