Einar's articles from the NWCA Newsletter.

Oops

Important Note: These articles are history and all references to upcoming meetings and contact addresses and phone numbers and other things that change with time should be ignored. I decided to leave them in for readability.

Sometime in 1993

Thanks to everyone who came to see me at the Rendezvous last month. I must say that it was a learning experience of great importance. Thanks to all who gave me advice before the show, and to those who critiqued me afterwards. I learned how to avoid some future mistakes, but I also learned what worked and I will build on those points.

What didn't work:

• I had my Pad-8 on stage, and I had programmed a lot of sounds that I thought would be cool to play. Unfortunately, the sounds I made both blended in with the music, and were not percussive. They were great solo sounds (disturbing, really). The result was that I looked like I wasn't triggering anything at all. I know the sound was audible, but it just didn't grab you. OOPS.
• I had made a bunch of triggers with parts from Radio Shack and Value Village, which I thought would look cool as I hit them. They looked cool in my basement! Unfortunately they were too small. I'm sure the chuckle I was having was lost on the audience. OOPS.
• A lot of the music I have been doing in the last 8 years has been very private. I haven't considered what other people might think of it, so I do what sounds right to me. Unfortunately,I selfishly enjoy long, slow sections. I hadn't considered the poor listener in a live situation. Long sections work on tape where a person has an option to use the fast forward button, but live... OOPS.
• I allowed myself to become nervous. For some reason, after all this time in my basement, standing all alone in front of people as I played and sang made me feel self-conscious. It was like everyone was looking at me! . I hadn't prepared for that feeling. I forgot the words to two entire songs because of this. OOPS.
• Because I was really pretty sure that something like oops #4 would happen, I had put the lyrics to some songs on the floor by the set list. But I hadn't put them on the floor by the mike stand! I couldn't see them. OOPS.

What did work:

• I played the Pad-8 with a puppet. It was fun, silly, and after I adjusted the sensitivity, effective.
• I had made a home video. It was fun to do and gave the viewers something else to look at. I would like to go beyond that to include many simultaneous videos.
• My triggers, despite their failings, worked. I mean, you hit them and a noise happens. Making INTERESTING triggers is now a prime focus for me.
• My faster and more obnoxious songs seemed to go over better than the slow bits, so I will incorporate much more of them in future shows.
• DAT backing tapes work! I knew that at any time during the show, if some unforeseen OOPS reared up and breathed in my face, the worst thing that would happen is the audience would just hear the backing tape.

See ya,
Einar

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