{"id":1132667,"date":"2018-01-04T11:44:50","date_gmt":"2018-01-04T16:44:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fnpsites.net\/playlist\/?p=1132667"},"modified":"2018-01-04T11:44:50","modified_gmt":"2018-01-04T16:44:50","slug":"alone-in-a-cafe-how-musicians-play-while-being-ignored","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fnpsites.net\/playlist\/2018\/01\/04\/alone-in-a-cafe-how-musicians-play-while-being-ignored\/","title":{"rendered":"Alone in a cafe: How musicians play while being ignored"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1170\" height=\"658\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/b6cljSwHzrk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" gesture=\"media\" allow=\"encrypted-media\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>There is this brief second of silence after a cafe musician\u2019s song that terrifies me. Should I clap mostly out of pity because no one is really listening to the artist? And if I clap, will I experience the embarrassment of being the only person clapping?<\/p>\n<p>I felt this discomfort watching local musician Benjamin Sherman at Ayse Meze Lounge not long ago. He performed in the restaurant\u2019s bar where it was clear that table conversations took prominence. I overheard a woman loudly say, \u201cHilarious!\u201d while Sherman was performing. In between songs, the clapping was slightly louder than golf claps.<\/p>\n<p>But there were positive moments. Like when a waiter sang along to one of Sherman\u2019s Christmas song covers. Or when an elderly man came by to tip Sherman on his way out.<\/p>\n<p>I never know what to do during caf\u00e9 performances, but my discomfort seems like nothing compared with the challenge of Frederick musicians. I chatted with local singer-songwriters about the lows and highs of their profession \u2014 and how they keep going even when they\u2019re unnoticed. Here\u2019s what they had to say:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Todd Walker<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>If I was going to play at Ayse \u2014 they\u2019re just looking for background music. You\u2019re really a human jukebox or a human radio. So many of the performers will go in and be loud. Well, that\u2019s fine at a bar because you\u2019re competing with the noise of the patrons and they want that loudness. Though, in a situation like that, where people are having dinner, they\u2019re not there to hear you, really. You\u2019re there to enhance their meal. So, the fact that they\u2019re not paying attention to you is a non-issue because it\u2019s not really their job. Your job is to create nice music.<\/p>\n<p>What the artist needs to understand is it\u2019s not the audience\u2019s job to sit quietly and pay attention to them. The performer\u2019s responsibility is to create a good enough atmosphere so the people who do come in to listen can listen. But the people who just happened in for a cup of coffee or a sandwhich or whatever will sit there and go, \u201cThis is kind of nice.\u201d The musician\u2019s job is to keep that person in that seat longer so they might go, \u201cI don\u2019t know &#8230; they have carrot cake.\u201d It\u2019s the musician\u2019s job really to make the cash register ring.<\/p>\n<p>Some musicians have a very difficult time when no one is listening. They put too much worth in themselves [relative to their performances]. It\u2019s like in sports. When someone gets angry for some reason, they start flubbing things because their timing\u2019s off. It\u2019s not so much that the artist is angry at the audience; it\u2019s that he\u2019s subconsciously angry at himself for allowing them to interrupt his concentration.<\/p>\n<p>I look at it like performers should recognize what their job is. What is the venue? What is expected of them? And handle it accordingly. I look at a noisy room or an empty room \u2014 your job is to still perform as if it was full.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Benjamin Sherman (in an email)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Recently, I had a classic case of the ups and downs of gigging life:<\/p>\n<p>The downs: A lady came up to my wife and asked if anyone was sitting on the stool next to her\u2019s. When my wife said, \u201cIt\u2019s my husband, he\u2019s the guy playing the music,\u201d the lady replied, \u201cWell, musicians don\u2019t usually sit.\u201d She was quite persistent with this notion she had in her head that because I was a musician, there was no need for me to have a place to sit.<\/p>\n<p>The ups: After my second set, a man came up to me and thanked me for my set, telling me, \u201cI was in a really bad mood when I got here, but your music made me feel so much better!\u201d He was very expressive, kind and generous.<\/p>\n<p>The downs: From the second set on, a lot of people didn\u2019t seem to be responding to what I was playing.<\/p>\n<p>The ups: A lot of those same people stopped by before they left, to give me tips and very kind compliments.<\/p>\n<p>I always have to remind myself that people might be listening even if it seems like they aren\u2019t. My music might be having a positive impact on someone, even if I\u2019m not aware of it.<\/p>\n<p>Update: Regarding the lady who was saying that musicians don\u2019t need to sit \u2014 I didn\u2019t notice this but my wife told me that the lady had stayed and listened to the music for a while and did in fact leave me a tip before she left.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Doug Alan Wilcox<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>There is a real proliferation of this type of [caf\u00e9] venue, which is kind of a double-edged sword. On the one hand, I think it\u2019s great that live, independent music has some kind of platform for getting out there. On the other hand, there are so many musicians that there is the possibility of [seeing] less than top, professional folks. That audience member goes, \u201cI hate this.\u201d And that\u2019s bad for everybody. I don\u2019t know how you combat that. Everyone has to start somewhere.<\/p>\n<p>This town has always been a bit odd. We have obviously grown and become more cosmopolitan, but I don\u2019t think that necessarily transferred to any more of a dedicated art audience \u2014 at least for acoustic music and acoustic on a whole.<\/p>\n<p>If the Weinberg, for instance, offers a bluegrass show or a folk show, or someone with a national name, they get a packed house. Transfer that to a smaller venue, they don\u2019t come out. And it\u2019s always kind of been that way. I play a lot in and around Norfolk Virginia, and for whatever reason, my audience down there, more people come out and there seems to be more support. I don\u2019t want to bust [or disparage] Frederick.<\/p>\n<p>But right in Frederick, I don\u2019t see a lot of dedicated singer-songwriters.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1170\" height=\"658\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/6_OMCOTwxZE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" gesture=\"media\" allow=\"encrypted-media\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Rick Hill<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>What I try and do is to remember the larger picture. I\u2019m not doing this for fame. What I\u2019m doing it for is because I have kind of a mission that I\u2019m on with my music. So my mission is to build better, stronger communities. So any way that I can do that, that\u2019s what I try and do. I try and remember that when I\u2019m playing my music.<\/p>\n<p>The other thing that I very strongly believe is that I have a message for at least one person in the audience.<\/p>\n<p>I can remember a show that I did out at Elk Run Vineyard. There weren\u2019t very many folks there. There were a lot of people who were just wandering around and no one seemed to be paying attention to anything. And I finished up a set and was just kind of hanging back and a young couple came up to me and told me how much this one song that I had sung really meant for them. At the time I was singing it, I didn\u2019t see anybody paying attention to anything. For them to come up afterwards, meant a lot to me.<\/p>\n<p>One of the things that hurts the coffeehouse business is licensing. ASCAP and BMI and the other agencies are &#8230; I guess Frederick must have gotten on their radar. And they came in and began checking folks. So there\u2019s a lot of business owners who feel it\u2019s not worth it to pay whatever the fee is for a license so they can do live music. I always think that\u2019s kind of too bad. The folks who are doing this are kind of shooting themselves in the foot.<\/p>\n<p>One of the things that need to happen is that people need to get out and see live music. And I try and encourage that as much as I can.<\/p>\n<p>And then, put some money into it. A lot of these performers, most of them have other jobs so they\u2019re not trying desperately to put food on the table. One of my goals is to try and make Frederick a place where a musician can actually earn a living.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There is this brief second of silence after a cafe musician\u2019s song that terrifies me. Should I clap mostly out of pity because no one is really listening to the&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":1132668,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1132667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fnpsites.net\/playlist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1132667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fnpsites.net\/playlist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fnpsites.net\/playlist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fnpsites.net\/playlist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fnpsites.net\/playlist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1132667"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fnpsites.net\/playlist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1132667\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fnpsites.net\/playlist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1132668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fnpsites.net\/playlist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1132667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fnpsites.net\/playlist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1132667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fnpsites.net\/playlist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1132667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}