[Harp-L] re: communication

[rainbowjimmy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

If you want to be in a band you need to know how to communicate both  
on and off the stage. Musicians practice alone for hours everyday and  
tend to lack in social skills. Social skills are as important or more  
important than musical skill when you're in a band. The band needs to  
come up with a set list, decide on the volume, when to practice, where  
to practice, the venue, the genre, the solos, deal with the bar owner,  
schmooze with store owners so the band can put up posters, try to con  
the radio and the newspapers into giving the band free publicity charm  
the audience, try to build a fan base--the list goes on and on. Actual  
playing is only a small part of the band experience.

The Dead had an almost telephatic stage rapport but they also  
developed a variation of parliamentary procedure and had lengthy  
meetings regularly to discuss all the nuts and bolts of being in a band.

So whether the harp player plays though the whole song or just solos  
through a verse and chorus is one of the millions of things the band  
talks about.

Rainbow Jimmy
http://www.spaceanimals.com
http://www.soundclick.com/theelectricstarlightspaceanimals.htm