RE: [Harp-L] asking to sit in

["Bill Hines" <billhines4@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

I've been told many times over by pro musicians that it's a major bad to
ask to sit in, or even to hint around or "chum up" with that intent.
That's why these folks are often anti-social - any time a stranger comes
up to them they know what it's probably about - they want to sit in and
it's just a matter of how much BS they are going to sling around before
they get around to the strong hints. The 'higher' level the gig and
level of the audience, the less likely this is to happen. A polished
national act like Little Charlie and Rick Estrin?? Forget it! These guys
are polished pros and I'd say never in a million years are they going to
let someone they aren't familiar with sit in on their gig. I saw them
last week and Rick was pretty rough with the audience members who were
even requesting songs, so I'd never dream of approaching him, haha. But
for example, a townie band playing at the local watering hole, maybe
they will just on a lark. I'm not talking about that scenario. In fact,
in one case I was in a dump place and a townie band was playing, I was
just talking by chance with their guitar player/leader on break and he
asked if I played and I said yeah, harp. He said they do Long Train but
do the harp solo on the keyboard and asked if I wanted to do it. I said
what the heck, I know the solo, but he asked first could we go out back
and I'd play it for him. Only then did he agree to go forward. So
sometimes it's a crap shoot. But in almost all cases, any band getting
paid for their performance will not take the risk - if you get up there
and blow it, they are going to be the ones hearing it from the club
owner and their reputation will be harmed to the audience because it was
"them" who sounded bad. The pros I've talked to (Jason Ricci is one,
Carlos Capote another) said the things they hate at a gig are:

1. People who ask or hint strongly to sit in (or have their girlfriends,
etc suck up to the band to get them to do this)
2. People who just bust their harps out from the audience (or worse
dance floor/stage front) and start playing (worst thing to do of all)

In short, don't do it. They'll put you in their mental 'bozo bin'.
Unless you are someone who they recognize as being 'worthy', i.e you
must already have a big name and they would recognize it upon your
introduction.

There was a *great* story/article about this in some blues magazine last
summer that I was reading at Pocono, I wish I would have kept it. Does
anyone have it? It was a narrative by some musician about how they hate
it when this happens, with some great stories. Started something like
"At every gig, you know THE MONSTER is out there..." One was about a
guy's girlfriend who kept bugging them to let her boyfriend sit in
("he's great"). She was saying how awesome the band sounded, etc so they
knew it was coming. When they declined, the gf and bf got all hostile,
standing in front of them giving the finger when they were playing, etc.
Another was when they were playing King Biscuit or something and some
guy wanted to sit in. They were like "Yeah, we worked our @sses off
practicing to get this prestigious gig/chance, and we're gonna let some
guy come in cold and sit in".

Bill Hines

-----Original Message-----
From: harp-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx [mailto:harp-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of Jp Pagán
Sent: Friday, March 18, 2005 2:46 PM
To: harp-l harp-l
Subject: [Harp-L] asking to sit in


Hi Bob,

    i don't have alot of experience in this realm, but
i've gone to see a few live shows. i've never asked to
sit in, but i always try to say hi to the performer,
let them know what i liked about the show, offer to
buy them a beer if they seem the type that likes a
beer. some are more approachable than others, of
course. and while i never intended for it to happen, i
have been asked to get up on stage a couple of times.
haven't done it yet though, because i haven't been
"there" yet. anyway, just be yourself, say hello, tell
'em you play harp, and if Rick or Charlie or whoever
takes a shine to you, they may ask you themselves. 

   --Jp

--- In harp-l-archives@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, Bob Cohen
<bcohen@xxxx> wrote:
> I'm going to see Little Charlie and the Nightcats
tonight.  They are one 
> of my favorite bands.  It would be a dream come true
to sit in with them 
> for a number.  Does anyone know how they feel about
that sort of thing?  

--- In harp-l-archives@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, SONNYTONE@xxxx
wrote:
> You NEVER ask to sit in with a pro harp player, you
are only asked TO sit  in 



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