'Performing' Portrait of Tracy, opposed to just 'Playing it'

[Romanticide]

Heres my dilemma.
Portrait by Jaco is one of my 3 final music performance pieces for my last year of school.

Part of the criteria is that the song be performed, maintaining stylically correct.

How the hell do i perform the song, jump around and look like i'm having fun, if i need to concentrate so hard on what i'm doing?

All i can think of is to feel the rhythm and free-time of the song and thats it.
any ideas?

thanks in advance. :thumb:

[Az_Holl]

'stylically'..um... what?

I think you should just play it, i mean its hard to rock out on any type of solo bass... id just play it with a smile on your face and use your other two songs to rock out on.

IMO its pretty ****ed to make people 'perform'.

[Romanticide]

Stylically.


so like
I'm not about to do a guitar swing in the middle of playing it.
Its jazz, so performing it in a jazz kinda 'way' and whatnot i guess.

[naut]

just pop a bottle of Xanax, have a few beers, and wonder around the stage for twenty minutes before starting to play. then curse all the other musicians and inform them of how much better you are.

i can only assume that'd be accurate.

[o b s]

Wear one of those jaco hats too.

[Romanticide]

then curse all the other musicians and inform them of how much better you are.

i can only assume that'd be accurate.

Portrait of Tracy - Solo piece.
No other musos. Although i still am better than them.

[naut]

...

[AlmightyPancake]

...
I understood.


*love pat

[naut]

(lower)

[AlmightyPancake]

(lower)
*pats calves

[naut]

*pats steer's empty scrotum

[SixnStones]

stylistically? just sit and perform it, i think it just means you're not supposed to just record it and hand it in.

[Romanticide]

I sit down with my bass, with my bass at an angle similar to a classical postion.
the angle helps my reach.

i just worried about getting out there and playing with my examiners marking me cos i sucked performing and just played it emotionlessly.

[SixnStones]

well then play it with emotion. They'r examiners, they'll probably know better than you do how stylistically you played it. Just know the piece of music, and play it like you think it should sound

[d-basser]

strap the bass on nice and high and do a little Jaco-esque dance, you know the little shuffly feet one

[Akira]

If your examiners expect you to display some sort of cool stage presence while playing PoT, they are morons.

[BassVirtuoso]

Well you can hum it while you are playing it, or play it with your eyes closed....

[Sammy_L_D]

I don't want to criticize, but is this a serious question?

Stage presence is a personal thing. Don't ever try to rock out. Just do what comes naturally to what it is you're playing.

[Brandon_S]

I don't want to criticize, but is this a serious question?

Stage presence is a personal thing. Don't ever try to rock out. Just do what comes naturally to what it is you're playing.

I think thats the best point in this thread.

For PoT just play it and feel it,even if thats just playing it with your eyes closed,thats how you feel it.

[Sammy_L_D]

I think thats the best point in this thread.

For PoT just play it and feel it,even if thats just playing it with your eyes closed,thats how you feel it.

That was my 1337 post for the day.

[Soulfly666]

Just do a bunch of BS stuff like close your eyes, exaggerate that 2-6 stretch, sway back and forth, exaggerate some hand movements, look like you're concentrating super hard, you know, that kind of stuff. Just don't sit up there and look like you're bored off your *** and play the tune. "Feel" the song so to say.

[Brandon_S]

That was my 1337 post for the day.

haha,those posts are good.

[moghes69]

i think it would be pretty cool if you did the entire song acting like you were an intoxicated jaco. stumble up to your equipment, rant about your amazingness in a slurred way, and just play the song like he would have.

[Pinhead13]

Set your bass on fire.

[naut]

what is "playing with emotion" anyways? like when a guitarist plays a solo and makes a face that's a mix between constipation and a painful orgasm?

[sr800bkBassist]

I don't want to criticize, but is this a serious question?

Stage presence is a personal thing. Don't ever try to rock out. Just do what comes naturally to what it is you're playing.

yeah, too often you just end up seeing kids do moves that they obviously learned from watching others and just did it to look cool. i remember Guy Picciotto saying in a documentary how most of what happens on stage just becomes ritualized (head bang here, step forward during solo, sway here, jump here, etc) and none of it means anything. the whole point of moving during music was to display its spontaneous effects on you (like how in africa or ancient america, when tribes danced at a ceremony none of it was actual "moves", it was spontaneous movements) and by rehearsing it, it has the oposite affect and actually means that none of it made you do anything. then the screen immediately went to him with his shirt off at some concert in a gym, and he was writhing all crazy and almost looked possessed and he jumped off the drums and grabbed onto a basketball hoop, pulled himself through it and came out the top, and then hooked his legs and hung upside down while still singing the song. Guy is raaaad.


EDIT: found the end of the interview, and the part with the hoop:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eej-dHJadT4

[naut]

L

what a guy.

[EADG]

1) Take bass off
2) Smash bass
3) Pour lighter fluid on bass
4) Set bass on fire
5) Urinate on bass to put fire out


= best stage act ever


It's really my goal in life to do that.





Umm..



Do whatever you do while you play it alone in your house. I don't know what else to tell you.