Okay, my cousin is organizing a renaissance fair here is Utah and had asked me to perform with my whistles, both on stage and wandering about. The only problem, however, is that a) I have never performed for a crowd beyond just playing about campus, and b) I don’t relly know a lot of songs (about 20 to varying degrees of proficency), and none of those are very long.
Is it enough that I just play a selection of jigs, reels, hornpipes, and airs separately? Or should I try and join them into a longer set?
Any other advice about performing would be helpful too.
It’s a RenFaire. Anything’ll do especially when you’re wandering about. There’s no reason not to segue from an air to a hornpipe to a jig, for example, especially onstage, since as a RenFest performer you are being an entertainer first and foremost. Remember the attention span of the usual entertainment-seeker, and save being an exponent of the tradition for better venues. Then again, if you have a straight set of reels, for example, and you play it well, go for it. The main thing is being an entertainer. Throw your personality and wit into the mix, and you’ll embody what people come to see and hear. 20 tunes should be just fine for your purposes, anyway. You’ll see a lot of turnover in the crowd, so they won’t know. Don’t worry about maybe boring your co-performers. Keeping them entertained is not your job.
I think Nano’s got it right. At a ren faire, 20 tunes will do just fine, but you’ve got to do something besides just play. You have to add some personality into your performance if you want to be entertaining.
Don’t be afraid to dance about and be a bit foolish.
The first rule of performance: As soon as you think you’re doing too much, that’s when the audience begins to notice.
I think for the first time it is more important to play the tunes you know well than to play a lot of tunes. If you are going to wander about and play
no need to worry about playing the same one over again. There should be differant people to hear it.
the whistler at our local faire plays not only traditional type tunes but more modern ones as well. Including as I recall a version of tainted love on low whistle hehe. Ren Faires are rarely truly about recreation. I is the illusion of recreation more than anything for your average fair goer. Play your tunes and frolic a bit. Create a character.
It’s not so much the wandering about that concerns me. If I get tired of playing I can easily make myself scarce for a while. It’s really the on-stage stuff that has me worried. I just play music and don’t really dance (unless it on a Dance Dance Revolution pad). I guess I’m kind of a “meat and potatoes” kind of whistler. Oh well, we’ll just have to see what happens, I guess.
If you’re not much of a singer either you might try cheerfully reciting the words to a song with a lot of facial expression and a bit of pantomime before playing it as a tune
It sounds to me like you’re not so much asking how to be the consumate performer, but how to get comfortable enough to play in front of an attentive audience and play adaquately. A couple things that I find help.
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Know the tunes really well so you can play them even with distractions around. Sometimes I try playing around the house with the TV on or my wife talking on the phone in the background or walking around. There may be thoughts or sights that distract you when performing so I thnk it’s good to practice with distractions.
Close your eyes when you practice and envision a crowd in front of you. Really visualize it. A lot of pro athletes do this and say it helps.
Try to keep a mental bubble around yourself and not allow your attention to go out to the crowd. You need to look out there but don’t have to see that much. That can pull your energy and concentration out there instead of on the music. There is a tremendous amount of energy in the crowd. If one is pulled out into that it can be a bit overwhelming. When you get comfortable on stage and have your stuff down you can draw on the crowd energy and it’s a dynamic exchange and is a real high.
The more you perform the better you get at it. That just takes lots of gigs.
I’ve heard that physically being nervous about somethng is the same as being excited about something. If you speak about being excited about a performance (instead of being nervous) then your energy and thoughts are all positive which should give you a better result.
This may sound odd but its just a little mental exercise that may help. Perhaps tell yourself that you are indifferent to your audience. It’s like the trick that some speakers use where they imagine the whole audience sitting in their underwear. It kind of detaches you. You aren’t really indifferent to them - you just tell yoursef you are so you can give your best performance.
When you get more and more gigs under your belt you can continually come more out of your shell and do all the things the others mentioned. A consumate performer is all about relating to the audience, entertaining them and expressing the beauty of the music. Some have this gift and they are gifted entertainers and so musically talented or experienced the actual playing is almost unconscious. If you love it you’ll keep at it until you’re there.