[Dixielandjazz] Sit or Stand

[Madison T]

Thanks Kevin! Strangely enough your suspicions are incorrect! But I agree
that horns would be the most obvious choice for standing. The two who are
pushing the idea are the banjo player and the drummer. The Drummer will be
sitting either way. I play guitar and similarly find that I like to have it
locked in place.  The hard thing for me is that, while i am the frontman of
the band, I'm just not much for "putting on a show". I might stomp my foot,
move around and sing with with an amount of enthusiasm but that's about as
far as I take it. I find that the music itself takes much more precedence
to me than the performance aspect. But others certainly disagree. This
whole issue comes off the heels of us being fired from a recurrent  venue
for using chairs and it's not the first time a venue host has made their
concerns known about the issue. But I've found that even if the music is
good, and the crowd loves us that some venue owners or managers just wish
we were a funk, soul or rock band. Trad (for me at least) just isn't about
putting on a huge performance and blowing the roof off the joint. The same
venue manager that fired us requested that we play more modern pop tunes
(of which we will never play) and requested we learn Pharrell's "Happy".

Either way I really like your idea of spacing. Maybe I can work something
out so that those who want to stand can take more of an active approach at
the front of the band.

thanks,

Madison

On Wed, Feb 13, 2019 at 6:06 PM Kevin Yeates <kyeates at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Madison,
>
> There is no question that standing allows for more movement/choreography.
> I think there is little doubt that sitting uses less energy to play. I
> suspect the players wanting to stand play wind instruments, but I have been
> wrong before.
>
> In my band the rhythm section sits as that is what they prefer. The tuba
> player doesn't want to have to hold the horn all evening. The banjo player
> finds that having the banjo in his lap locks it in place better for him
> when he plays. We always arrange for 2 armless chairs for the rhythm boys.
>
> The front row stands so we can move and put on more of a show. We have
> actual planned physical interactions going on through certain tunes. The 3
> in the front row are spaced so the two seated in the back row are visible
> to the audience.
>
> Hope this helps.
>
> Kevin Yeates
> Vancouver, Canada
>
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