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Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! > Showmanship
Showmanship
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ejakon
90 posts
Aug 16, 2017
3:15 PM
Good music is one thing but doing tricks and interesting things on stage to keep the audience on you and not on their phones seems very valuable when you do live. What are some show tricks you do while playing to catch the audiences attentions?

Last Edited by ejakon on Aug 16, 2017 4:55 PM
Mirco
526 posts
Aug 16, 2017
4:38 PM
This is a great question. It's an often overlooked topic. I know many great harmonica players, and other musicians, who have strong musical ability but have the stage personality of a piece of wood (or Steven Seagal).

Before even worrying about "tricks", I would start with basic public speaking skills: making eye contact, good posture, smile. Moving to the music is good, too. When you look like you're having fun, it's easier for the audience to have fun. (Easier said than done, especially if you're nervous onstage.)

As far as "tricks" or stage personality: I think talking to the audience goes a long way. Introduce the band. John "Blues" Boyd (local blues singer) likes to start his songs by introducing a little info about the artist, like where they were from or how they got started in the blues. I like to tell jokes.

I've also thought about incorporating some ventriloquism into my show. I can bring a dummy up onstage, and he can sing while I play harp. While I think it would be cool, I think a lot of the blues purists would have a problem with it.
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Marc Graci
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The Iceman
3321 posts
Aug 16, 2017
4:43 PM
I just looked up "showmanship" in the blues harmonica dictionary and came up with a picture of Rick Estrin.
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The Iceman
1847
4378 posts
Aug 16, 2017
5:25 PM


you don't even need to be jimi hendrix to put on a show.
jbone
2345 posts
Aug 16, 2017
9:17 PM
Mirco said a mouthful there.
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BC
72 posts
Aug 17, 2017
4:53 AM
Speaking of Rick Estrin, there is a CD video collection he put out. I think it's called Secrets of the Harmonica or something to that effect. Very little to do with playing, but a lot on showmanship. Certainly check it out. If nothing else it's entertaining. Rick is one funny cat.

BC
The Iceman
3323 posts
Aug 17, 2017
5:56 AM
Yes. It is his instructional CD. Does contain a lot of great stuff about groove in playing and is fun as well.
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The Iceman
nacoran
9577 posts
Aug 19, 2017
9:42 AM
My friends and I used to go to this one open mic every week. We became friends with the host. At that point, even though we did have a (very) rough garageband, we mostly just went to listen.

Anyway, one week the hosts had to be out of town and they asked us if we could cover for them. That meant them lending us all their sound gear and us doing all the MC'ing stuff. I wasn't far along in my harmonica journey at that point. I didn't know any songs, but I could get a really good draw wail.

After one of the acts finished I popped up and called the next act up. This usually took a couple minutes, so to fill the dead air I told them I had a new song that I was working on that I was going to play while the next band came up. I played the meanest draw wail I could, then smiled and told them that was the only part of the song I'd written yet, but that I'd play the rest when I had it worked out. It got a good laugh, of course, it was an easy crowd. I also got a good laugh with this joke-

Why is Popeye always so cranky?

Extra Virgin Olive Oil. :)

A smile and good vibes can get a lot of leeway from an audience.

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First Post- May 8, 2009
slaphappy
309 posts
Aug 19, 2017
12:32 PM
good showmanship is important but if you don't have the musical goods to back it up then I think you risk potentially making a fool of yourself or at least looking like somewhat of a clown.

OTOH, I do think there's some value in not looking completely stoic but sometimes I've seen some guys who peform this way and b/c they are musically so strong it comes off ok. leaves a bit of mystery and intrigue if done right.. there's no one right way, best is usually just to be yourself I think




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4' 4+ 3' 2~~~
-Mike Ziemba
Harmonica is Life!


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