Ever had your playing watched intensely by an audience member?

CaseOfAce · October 2021

Had this at the weekend - audience member (guitarist? member of another band?) a few feet away to my right watching literally every chord change etc I made for practically the entire pub gig.
A beginner? memorising the set ?!

NOTE: this is not a humblebrag post - I am not that sh*it hot - nor was I playing anything particularly complex.
At first it was slightly unnerving and then I just got on with the gig and had fun. It was kinda flattering in a way... ?

How do you deal with this, feel when this happens? Do you find it annoying, flattering, distracting.

Funny how you can usually tell the fellow muso's in the audience!

Danny1969 · October 2021

I get it all the time but then I used to go and watch a guy in a local rock band ever week when I was younger and learning. I learnt so much just watching him playing stuff like VH and Def leppard covers.
Back before the net and YT etc this is how people learnt, literally watching someone else do it.

maharg101 · October 2021

I've had this a few times. One time at a 40th birthday gig it was a young lad, about ten years old. Between sets he came over with his dad who explained he had just got his first guitar (acoustic) and was taking classical lessons. Clearly the lad had more rock-oriented leanings

Generally I find that kind of attention quite flattering, and enjoy it, as long as the gig is going well and things are flowing.

lovestrat74 · October 2021

people only look at me and think, what the f#ck is he doing

Roland · October 2021

At weddings I would sometimes get it with children. Often it was the first time that they'd seen live music. I'd turn to them so that they could see what I was playing. Maybe switch between full barre and thumb over on alternative verses, or emphasise when I turned effects on and off so that they could see more of what was going on.

In pub gigs I might smile at them, but then turn to focus on the singer or the drummer.

Jimbro66 · October 2021

Yes, it's happened quite often over the years. The same guys will probably study your pedalboard, etc when you take a break. It just tells me they like the noise I'm making. Doesn't bother me at all. In fact, I've done it myself. As @Danny1969 said, it's how we used to learn - and still can.

Roland · October 2021

Jimbro66 said:

... The same guys will probably study your pedalboard, etc when you take a break. ...

That will be me then. I always have a look at the guitarist’s pedals.

roberty · October 2021

lol yeah when i was 22-23 i was in a smiths tribute band in NZ and this guy followed us around the country. he'd stand right in front of me saying "johnny marr... johnny marr..." over and over again and trying to tickle me with flowers

lustycourtier · October 2021

I play in a tribute band so most gigs I have people at front watching intently and asking questions after gigs. Goes with the territory, and I wouldnt have it any other way.

CaseOfAce · October 2021

lustycourtier said:

I play in a tribute band so most gigs I have people at front watching intently and asking questions after gigs. Goes with the territory, and I wouldnt have it any other way.

You play in a Ramones tribute band ?!

Bennyboy-UK · October 2021

Much of this out there these days?

Image: https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51577606985_b4c490711b_o.jpg

stratman3142 · October 2021

I was that person in my teens. I remember being particularly obsessed with finger vibrato and it took me ages the figure it out. This was in the days before tuition videos.

It has happened to me. The worst time was when I played the solo to Beat It for the first time live. The brass section were standing in front of me at the gig, so I thought nobody would really notice. Then the band leader announced "Now with Van Halen's solo it's...". The brass section parted and all the band turned to look at me. And this guy in the audience ran to the front, folded his arms and stared at me. It all ended up being a bit of a blur.

thecolourbox · October 2021

I used to get it when I played jazz piano in a cocktail bar in Vienna. A little bit off-putting albeit slightly flattering when it was the blokes who went there . For some reason it was less of a problem when it was the ladies..

ChrisCox1994 · October 2021

yep, had it this weekend, along with the guy nudging his mate when i engaged certain pedals and mouthing "thats a king of tone" along with a surprised face and lots of nodding, very weird.

MikkiMcMurderer · October 2021

If someone is genuinely nterested that's cool but some people like to make a point that their watching you intently and want you to engage with them as if they are somehow a connoisseur and I tend to try and not encourage them, it always ends in an awkward chat of them trying to out do you somehow....

Supportact · October 2021

I've played a few folk clubs before, where you just go round the room and everyone plays a song or a tune. That takes a bit of getting used to at first because your audience can be very close indeed, to the extent you can sense every look and movement, and you can really feel people watching your every move. A bit unnerving but kind of nice also.

viz · October 2021

I remember blushing once when I realised I’d been caught staring constantly at Slim’s fingers for something like 90 minutes from pole position in the audience. Afterwards he said something like, “Did you enjoy the gig”, and I said something like “Fucking incredible, I’m going to buy a guitar tomorrow”, and I did.

Stratavarious · October 2021

Yep..

.

Had a pair right up next to my stage left PA watching me like hawks and discussing my breaks on Saturday all night. Def. eying my fingering and guitar. I think they just liked the guitar show. We had two pretty girls up front they ignored. The real guitarists are the ones turning their heads to judge my pedals (and lack of Stymon or Helix) or craning to read the set list.

If its little kid staring at a function, i really try to engage them, you never know, might be the experience that triggers a new lifelong passion for music.

I know I am a solid player in a tight band so I am not bothered at all by the starers. I maintain the mindset that the vast majority of the audience are generally going to be impressed by most competent music and that I am playing and getting paid for it and they are not. That is enough to give me confidence. I also assume most other guitarists are pretty normal, nice people and like to see anyone getting a kick out of playing, whatever their skill level. I just put down any funny or surreptitious staring to shyness.

It is def. better to fascinate and flirt with women though. That happens less these days

monquixote · October 2021

When I was playing bass for a band their old bass player showed up and announced that the band he left my band to form had broken up.

He then fixed me with a laser beam stare for the whole of the first set.

In the interval he said "ah, you are pretty good" and left. I guess he wanted his old gig back and realized it wasn't going to happen.

I also had the autistic son of a guy who used to come and watch us stand 6 inches from my mic stand (pub with no stage) and stare intently at me. He then started reading a magazine about tractors, holding it out in front of him so no one could see me.

fastonebaz · October 2021

I get people staring occasionally. I should probably wear trousers more often.

HAL9000 · October 2021

Only from people who want to learn from my mistakes.

ESBlonde · October 2021

Back in the days when loads of venues had live bands there was one pub that was notorious as the Friday gig where you would be scrutinised by the non gigging musicians whenever you played their. Often they would watch for half hour and move on, if they stayed all night you knew you were doing something right.
Had plenty of eyes on me but I too went to watch other players if we weren’t gigging, yes that’s what inspired and often enlightened us in those days. That and meeting up in local music shops on a Saturday morning to talk bollox !

Dominic · October 2021

Pedal board usually given the once over scrutiny by somebody who plays

rich75 · October 2021

It happened to me once at a pub gig. I play the keyboard part on Jump and, at one gig, two people stood about three feet in front of me watching me intently for the whole song.

They told me afterwards that they wanted to check that I was playing it live rather than miming over a backing track. I would have thought the mistakes would have been enough to convince them!

I wouldn't say it bothered me too much, and I guess it was kind of a compliment (even if they were trying to catch me "cheating"). It was a bit disconcerting to begin with but I have to spend most of that song looking down at what I'm doing anyway so I basically ignored them.

pintspiller · October 2021

I used to do the staring. Trying to figure out if the guitarist was miming sometimes. Mostly out of jealousy to be honest.

I remember in one band we were complimented on how my hands and those of the other guitarist moved in unison (WTF? I thought that was what bands do!)

LastMantra · October 2021

I've done it a bit myself until I realised it probably looked a bit creepy.

I remember a couple of young guys playing an acoustic set in my old local. When they finished me and my mates (rather drunk) asked if we could have a look at their guitars and ended up having a jam. Think the guys were pretty pissed off as we got a better response than them

CaseOfAce · October 2021

Dominic said:

Pedal board usually given the once over scrutiny by somebody who plays

I used to do this until one time a band's bass player looked at me weirdly when I was doing this and at that point I thought what am I doing?
Basically most guitarists have a delay or an overdrive or a chorus, was etc... who cares which brand!?
Unless their sound is so amazingly unbelievable why do this?

Majorscale · October 2021

I’ve had it happen at quite a few gigs too and it feels quite weird at first. I learnt to mostly block the starers out and just have a good time. The worse thing you can do is become over-conscious and judgemental about what you’re doing (I.e. like the starers!) as that’s when mistakes can happen.

Also had the snide “bet he can’t play that straight”, i.e without FX, so I must have done something right that night!

Lestratcaster · October 2021

A few times at shows, mostly as others have mentioned cos they're looking at my pedalboard rather than actually analysing what I'm doing. I play in front of other guitarists normally so its common. Some have come up to me afterwards and asked what I'm using or said they liked a certain sound I was using which is nice.

roberty · October 2021

CaseOfAce said:

Dominic said:

Pedal board usually given the once over scrutiny by somebody who plays

I used to do this until one time a band's bass player looked at me weirdly when I was doing this and at that point I thought what am I doing?
Basically most guitarists have a delay or an overdrive or a chorus, was etc... who cares which brand!?
Unless their sound is so amazingly unbelievable why do this?

I care deeply about what pedals other guitar players use

MattW · October 2021

I’ve done it on occasion (and will probably feel a bit self-conscious about doing it now) but it was always towards people whose playing I was impressed by and was hoping to learn something from. Never felt any need to engage with the player more directly but as a self taught player with limited knowledge of music theory, sometimes I find it easier to learn new techniques from watching someone play as I don’t necessarily have the skills to learn by ear alone.

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Ever had your playing watched intensely by an audience member?

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