If You Could Choose ONLY the Stage or ONLY the Studio...Which One?

[Anderton]

This is a question I ask a lot at seminars and workshops. It assumes all other things being equal, i.e., if you choose only to play live, presumably you'd have the gigs and if the studio, you'd have a reason to keep recording.

 

But if you could do only one or the other for the rest of your life, which would you choose?

[blue2blue]

Could I teletransport onto and off the stage from the comfort of my home? You know, as long as we're airballing. I enjoy being on stage and performing (for the most part, a lot) but I hate everything else about the experience. In my drinking days, I was in bars and clubs all the time, anyhow, so I didn't really notice. But once I quit drinking in my early 40s, my comfort and at-homeness in the nightlife world went way south. I was able to get by on habit for a number of years -- and then the old Show must go on! ethos -- which I was pretty religious about until the wobbly end, but, eventually, the hassle of driving across the city or county, hauling gear, chatting up friends and fans when you'd so much rather be at home with the cat, dealing with all the various performance venue headaches one tends to run into at the street level of stardom, it all got to be way too much.

[Phil O'Keefe]

I'm an "okay" musician and I enjoy it when I play the occasional live gig, but I don't excel at it, and all modesty aside, I can hold my own in just about any studio engineering / production situation you want to drop me into. So in keeping with the philosophy that it's best to stick to what you do best, I'd have to say there's no doubt about it... I'd pick the studio.

[Ernest Buckley]

I hate the entire process of getting to and setting up for a live gig. Nothing beats the energy if the band is good and the crowd is into it but if I had to choose one, I`m a studio rat.

[Notes_Norton]

one word answer:

 

STAGE

 

I'm a pro musician, and have been since the 1960s. I've played in dives where they passed the hat, on concert stages as the warm up band for stars (when their hits were number one on Billboard), and everything else in between. Gigging in front of an audience is my second favorite thing to do (I can't tell you what's first in a family forum <wink/grin>).

 

It gets me into that place where there is no space or time, no me, no you, just the music flowing through me and the energy feeding back from the audience. It's a supreme high.

 

I've done a fair amount of recording, it was better in the early days when the band and singer did it at the same time, later when I just walked in and played the horn over a rhythm track with or without vocals, it isn't as much fun. But the best recording experience doesn't match the average live gig to me.

 

As long as I can fog a mirror and as long as I can generate an audience, I'll be gigging.

 

I guess I've already made my choice

 

Insights and incites by Notes

[Geoff Grace]

I love going into the studio; and when I come out, there's a new song that never existed before in the world.

 

As as much fun as performing can be, nothing about it beats that thrill of creation for me.

 

Best,

 

Geoff

[nat whilk II]

Very hard question for me.

 

I get very tired of the isolation of the studio, the unreality of it. But I love playing with all the toys, too.

 

But yeah, the endless hassles of performing unless you're rich enough to be carried around on a chair by your minions, etc. Even then, there's just so much almost anyone can take.

 

But I think....if I could perform with just an acoustic guitar and my voice singing my own songs, hold audiences, make 'em laugh/happy/sad/thoughtful/angry/full of wonder/full of sass (that's a BIG assumption) I think maybe I'd rather just perform. House concerts, small venues, old theatres, that sort of thing.

 

Statements by me subject to change without notice.

 

nat whilk ii

 

 

[1001gear]

I like listening to music. I like playing music. I like creating music. I like music.

I have no use for random hordes addicted to their vanity and any decorum I might provide.

 

Studio.

 

[UstadKhanAli]

Wow. I love both a great deal, and some of my fondest memories have been performing for hundreds of people, or even a couple of thousand people.

 

But I'm going to go with the studio. I love creating, and I love creating things that cannot exist in real life.

 

[MikeRivers]

It depends on who I am. Am I a performer? An engineer? A composer? A manager? A web site designer who plays the guitar?

 

Personally, I'd like to have a studio and a string of really good musicians coming in to play music very well and have it preserved as it was played, not what might be made of what they played.

 

If I can't have that, I'd rather play the banjo at the farmer's market and live off my golden parachute after I've retired as CEO of Google.

 

 

[mbengs1]

I prefer the studio. i get stage fright for one and the stage is not home for me. the studio would be. i get anxiety that my playing on stage is not up to par than in the studio. it should be the same though.

[WRGKMC]

I really don't see them being separable. The drive in back of recording is live performance and live performance is often built upon recordings.

 

When I was younger and had the endless energy, I'd easily choose live performances. Its different from the perspective that Live music involves real people and community building where both the musicians and the patrons share feedback in near real time. Recording can easily become self indulgent because you may be alone or with only a small number of people when you do it. The only feedback you get is what you get from your own projection until that recording is shared.

 

When you record you may be focused on an audience, but where's the immediate applause? What feedback do you get back for all that work. If your run a recording business at least you get paid.

 

Getting paid to play in a studio or live has that too, but even if you gig for free you usually get more out of it. Being able to help people take a break to heal and recuperate from life's challenges tends to do the same for the musician. I don't think I'd want to give that up, even if I don't perform live very often any more.

 

I do one gig a month and It elevates me for at least a couple of weeks. Its like having your batteries recharged. I get satisfaction from recording too but it really is much more self indulgent and gets old quickly.

 

I realize that's not a "one or the other" answer, nor should it need to be. I think having all avenues open is truly best because one influences the other allot more then you realize. Those who never perform live are handicapped as are performers who never preserve their music in a recording. I think by just having the choice available, it provides a major source of freedom, even if it isn't exercised.

[Phil O'Keefe]

Live music is like theatre, recording is like making a movie. They're two similar, but quite different art forms IMO.

[UstadKhanAli]

I really don't see them being separable. The drive in back of recording is live performance and live performance is often built upon recordings.

 

They're inextricably linked, of course, and it's a hypothetical question anyway since we're not forced to make a choice.

 

I love doing both, and I wouldn't want to have to make that choice.

 

With live music, I love the energy and interaction with the band and between the audience.

 

But coupled with that is people constantly plying me with beer, the incessant attempts from women to tug at my pants and pull me backstage, and the audience constantly screaming my name. All that can be draining after a while, sometimes causing me to crave the peace and creativity that a studio brings.

 

 

[Beck]

Studio. The creative process is where it's at for me, and the process of composing and recording together is it's own art form. I got started in music and recording at about the same time. They've always been linked for me. And that all came together in music history where bands where having hits and becoming successful without ever performing. The records/tapes did the performing for them.

[nice keetee]

This is a question I ask a lot at seminars and workshops. It assumes all other things being equal, i.e., if you choose only to play live, presumably you'd have the gigs and if the studio, you'd have a reason to keep recording.

 

But if you could do only one or the other for the rest of your life, which would you choose?

 

Studio; making a living playing and recording music.

Able to be non-recognized in public...therefore

I want the perks without the hassles..

[nice keetee]

Now that I'm old, Studio.

Occasional Stage.. be OK..

[davie]

If the level of opportunity and success were equal, in the long term I'd probably choose playing live. I would get too bored being cooped up in a studio all the time. Though studio is the actual place where a lot of good songs are developed. You can always record while being on the road and do it decently since nowadays we have so many great options when it comes to portable recording equipment. I feel like in this day and age both things can be done fairly well at the same time.

[Notes_Norton]

I'm getting old, but playing live never gets old. I'm old enough to retire, but have no plans to ever do that.

 

It's a sharing thing with the audience, it's a spontaneous thing with my band-mates, it's free spirited, and it just feels so good while doing it.

 

I started playing live when I was in Junior High School.

 

We got hired for a dance at the school. We were terrible, but so was everybody else back then. So there I was on stage with my best friends (my band-mates), we were playing our favorite songs, the audience was dancing and clapping, that cute girl who didn't know I even existed in English class was 'making eyes' at me, and at the end of the night they actually paid me money!!!!!!! I would have paid them for that experience.

 

I went on the road saw most of the continental United States and some Canada, met plenty of nice people, blew a lot of money, played a lot of supporting musical parts, and improvised countless solos.

 

I had the opportunity to share intimacy with many beautiful women,eventually including the best one of all, my current wife and duo-mate. When I met her she was in a different band and both our bands broke up at the same time. What a stroke of luck! 37 years later we are still having fun together.

 

While on the road I ended up playing with the musician idols of the generation and I was treated as a peer by them, and I was having the time of my life.

 

After the road I did night clubs, singles bars, 5 star hotels, and cruise ships.

 

And now I play yacht clubs, country clubs, semi-private clubs, retirement complexes, and weekly at a marina.

 

At the age when many musicians are making their gig gear lighter, I added guitar and wind synthesizer increasing the amount I have to schlep to the gig. But while others are paying gym membership to lift heavy things, I'm getting paid to lift heavy things.

 

I'm learning to be a decent lead guitar player, the wind synth is an extension of my sax playing, and at this age I think I'm singing better than I ever have in my life.

 

Every gig day I get to get on stage, make music for a few hours, improvise a lot of solos on the sax, flute, wind synth or guitar, interact and have fun with my duo-mate, and at the end of the night they still pay me money.

 

When I get on stage and pick up one of those instruments, I'm not a person in my 60s, I have no age and it feels like it did when I was in my 20s. I still have the passion and enthusiasm for playing. I look forward to every gig day and instead of saying "I HAVE to go to work today" I say "I GET to go to work today"

 

The studio is so isolated. Sure I get to make music, but I don't get to touch the audience. It is like the difference between theater and motion pictures. Neither one is right for everyone, but stage is right for me. Playing music and having that emotional dialog with the audience is my bliss.

 

A wise man once said, "If you can do for a living what you would do for free, you will never work a day in your life." And except for the 2 day jobs I tried out to see how the normal world lives, I've never worked a day in my life.

 

If I had to do it all again, I wouldn't change a thing.

 

Insights and incites by Notes

[Anderton]

Live music is like theatre' date=' recording is like making a movie. They're two similar, but quite different art forms IMO.[/quote']

 

Cop out...remember the premise!

 

Interestingly, at seminars much of the time there's a huge preference for stage, in many cases for the reason Notes gives. Personally, I'd choose the stage although it would be a very difficult choice. To me music is about communication, and the studio adds a layer between me and the listener. Also, playing live gives me instant feedback - if people start throwing things, I know it's probably best to nuke that song from the set list

 

I agree that playing live can sometimes get "old," although even back in the days of doing six nights a week for six weeks and running around in a bus, it was worth it for when we connected with the audience. All the other stuff just melts away during the gig. Then again we had a road crew to deal with the gear and logistics, so I didn't have to deal with that...I might feel differently if I had to do all those tasks myself.

 

For the hell of it, lately I've been playing some of my recorded songs with just voice and acoustic guitar to hone my vocals. I was kind of surprised they held up (at least in my opinion, LOL) without all the production techniques. It's making me think that maybe my next live act will be me and a guitar. That's something I've never done, I was always in a band or groove/DJ solo context.

 

Depending on how that goes, I'll get back to you if there are any revisions to my studio vs. stage thoughts

[RockViolin]

I'm afraid it's a loaded question for me. 13 and 1/2 years ago I was injured backstage at an orchestra pops concert. My neck. Whiplash. Big time. I was tripped by a bunched up rug over a fat wad of sound cables. (According to a witness, I was 1 of 5 people that tripped there, the 5th in fact.) The injury stopped my career, and I still have a lot of trouble with it. Occipital neuralgia that never gives up, especially. I haven't given up either though.

 

Up to then I had a good thing going. Stage time in a really good orchestra, every once in a while playing some of my favorite music on earth. And about the time I'd start getting fried we'd get some time off and into my studio I'd go. Then, studio tan renewed, it would be time to go buff it under the bright lights again. It would have been better for my project probably if I'd had some other *day job*.

 

Right down at the very bottom, I think it was too hard for me to choose.

 

So the choice was made for me.

 

Anyway, I'm gonna say studio. It may not be entirely safe, but it beats the stage in that regard.

[MrKnobs]

I just made this decision recently after a great deal of thought and introspection.

 

I truly love live performance! There's nothing like those moments when you're standing onstage, music flowing through you from some unknown source, as surprised and amazed by the notes coming out of your instrument as the audience is. Once you've experienced that, you're addicted and you need to have it again and again and there's nothing you won't tolerate for a chance at that again.

 

However... for me, at least (I'm not a very good musician) that means slogging gear from a mile away through filthy streets full of gangbangers and hostile cops only to play for chump change at some run down dive that stinks of beer and urine, provides crappy PA if any, hosts drunks and rednecks, play 45 minutes then reverse the process hoping to get home at 3AM with MAYBE all my body parts and gear intact in time to grab a few hours sleep before my day job starts. And don't even get me started on what you have to put up with from your fellow musicians! Never in human history have there been flakier, more back stabbing, petty people than low rent musicians all fighting to the death for a few bucks and a few minutes in the limelight if they're even sober / straight enough to show up.

 

This addiction means time away from family, dead tired at work, spending more than I make on instruments, gear, etc, on the road a lot (hey, there are dives here, why drive 6 hours to a different one?) etc. I'm no longer interested in getting high or getting a hummer from a random drunk girl backstage nor under the illusion that we'll "make it" if we just keep doing the same things. Basically I'm too freakin OLD for this ****************e!

 

The flip side of living in Austin where even good musicians get paid poorly, is that you have instant access to phenomenal session musicians who are cordial, punctual, easy to work with, and amazing players! So, now I prefer to write and produce. I *might* play some tracks on my productions but businessman me insists that if my tracks don't measure up to the good players they need to be in the recycle bin and not recycled at that!

 

I love to create! Even if I was a better player and paid decently I don't want to work for some group whose material I don't like or with the typical young musician view that if we just play every gig we can we'll be "discovered." I told an abbreviated version of this story to my young assistant at my day job, she didn't believe me. She asked, "What if they offered you a million bucks per show to play," planning I suppose, to pounce on my answer with the old punch line, "OK, now what we've established that you're a whore, let's talk price."

 

My answer was, "I'd play one show with them and quit, use the money to hire some talented people and made the best album I could."

 

tl;dr I'll choose recording as I need to be creative.

 

Terry D.

[Phil O'Keefe]

I'm afraid it's a loaded question for me. 13 and 1/2 years ago I was injured backstage at an orchestra pops concert. My neck. Whiplash. Big time. I was tripped by a bunched up rug over a fat wad of sound cables. (According to a witness, I was 1 of 5 people that tripped there, the 5th in fact.) The injury stopped my career, and I still have a lot of trouble with it. Occipital neuralgia that never gives up, especially. I haven't given up either though.

 

 

Wow - sorry to hear about that. I suffered a rather bad fall and serious head / neck injury in a studio years ago, and still have ongoing problems due to that, so I know how bad that can be. Mojo sent!

[philboking]

Stage, I would guess. Something about having listeners present tends to bring out a lot more creativity in my playing. And, ultimately, music is a performance art. Creating music in the studio is also great fun, and allows more daring experimentation. But if I had to choose, I'd probably go with the stage.

 

BTW, I also suffer chronic pain from injuries after falling 65 feet and landing on my head as a teenager. Four vertebrae exploded, broke my left wrist, caved in the back of my head. I also 2 miles walked home, in severe shock... For this reason, I do not enjoy travel - fatigue is experienced as physical pain, especially after prolonged sessions of sitting in a car or plane. It's just not fun... So I generally do not play anywhere requiring more than 90 minutes of travel each way.

[RockViolin]

 

Wow - sorry to hear about that. I suffered a rather bad fall and serious head / neck injury in a studio years ago, and still have ongoing problems due to that, so I know how bad that can be. Mojo sent!

 

Thanks Phil! Yeah, I've got it right where it wants me.

 

That's some major mojo though. I'm feelin it.

 

Back atcha!