How do you feel when people clap along to your playing/singing

I think op was talking more about what you prefer, than what you expect. As a performer or audience member you understand that clapping (or singing along for that matter) might be expected but that doesn't mean you have to like it (I don't). Performers appreciate that it's a compliment (and certainly preferable to the throwing of things) but it can be nonetheless disconcerting. As an audience member, you know that fans can get carried away and want to clap or sing along but you may prefer to just hear the artist perform. What to do? Grin and bear it (but you don't have to like it) or don't perform, probably. Same if you're in the audience. Make the best of it or stay home and put on the CD. BTW, I hate when the tone gets all huffy on threads. I would hope that people could express their personal opinions and share their experiences, differing as they may be, without conflict or judgement. Not to be thin skinned but can we endeavor to be more polite to one another. We can have a lively discussion without the fireworks.

bunnyf said:

I think op was talking more about what you prefer, than what you expect. As a performer or audience member you understand that clapping (or singing along for that matter) might be expected but that doesn't mean you have to like it (I don't). Performers appreciate that it's a compliment (and certainly preferable to the throwing of things) but it can be nonetheless disconcerting. As an audience member, you know that fans can get carried away and want to clap or sing along but you may prefer to just hear the artist perform. What to do? Grin and bear it (but you don't have to like it) or don't perform, probably. Same if you're in the audience. Make the best of it or stay home and put on the CD. BTW, I hate when the tone gets all huffy on threads. I would hope that people could express their personal opinions and share their experiences, differing as they may be, without conflict or judgement. Not to be thin skinned but can we endeavor to be more polite to one another. We can have a lively discussion without the fireworks.

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The locale and setting usually dictates audience reaction (or lack thereof). One can go to hear the Boston Pops in a formal concert hall setting and quietly appreciate the performance. Put the Pops on the Charles River Esplanade during a July 4th performance (even playing the same pieces) and the reaction will be wild and wooly.

If the performer does not want an audience reaction other than polite appause at the end of the number, the performer should play only those venues where "silence is golden." Expecting the many (audience out for a good time) to conform to the non-response expectations of the few (the performers), especially in a non-formal setting, is simply the performers not understanding their audience. If that happens too often, soom the performers will be "the many" as the audience dwindles.

As far as being in an audience, the same holds true. I enjoy Jimmy Buffett and the Coral Reefer Band stuff. If I want to just hear the performers play, then it's the CD. Their live performance is an audience participation marvel, and that's just the way it is.

bunnyf said:

I think op was talking more about what you prefer, than what you expect. As a performer or audience member you understand that clapping (or singing along for that matter) might be expected but that doesn't mean you have to like it (I don't). Performers appreciate that it's a compliment (and certainly preferable to the throwing of things) but it can be nonetheless disconcerting. As an audience member, you know that fans can get carried away and want to clap or sing along but you may prefer to just hear the artist perform. What to do? Grin and bear it (but you don't have to like it) or don't perform, probably. Same if you're in the audience. Make the best of it or stay home and put on the CD. BTW, I hate when the tone gets all huffy on threads. I would hope that people could express their personal opinions and share their experiences, differing as they may be, without conflict or judgement. Not to be thin skinned but can we endeavor to be more polite to one another. We can have a lively discussion without the fireworks.

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Bunny , that was the point that I was trying to make to the OP and I thought that I had actually been most agreeable about it in my first and second responses .

If I have then appeared to be judgemental or thin skinned in my responses to the OP then it was not my intent .

I was not trying to change the point of view of the OP just ameliorate that position and perhaps negate some of the concerns .

But I did find his final response to me "Bloody Rude" and said so. I hope that this has not offended anyone else , I know that the lightness of touch that I fail to bring to any of my instruments sometimes also fails to find it's way onto my keyboardy Tripe Writter thingy .

I like it when people clap [and] sing along when I'm playing. I don't like it when they start stuffing whatever is handy in their ears.
ps. I like fireworks too, and you guys and gals crack me up.

I've had different experiences with clapping-along. Audience usually makes you speed up. I hate that. Coming from a classical background, I consider tempo pretty seriously before I begin.
But, if I'm playing badly (as usual), have at it. Cover my mistakes.
It never helps when playing Beethoven.

No, it does not aggravate me if the audience claps while I'm playing.
No, it does not aggravate me if I'm in the audience and people start clapping. In fact, I generally join in.
Additionally, it does not aggravate me if people talk, drink, or get up while I am playing.

I consider all of the distractions as part of the territory if I want to be an entertainer. It is just something that I have to deal with. Actually, dealing with unexpected obstacles that come up is part of the fun. I love that scene in The Blues Brothers where they are in the bar, on the stage surrounded by chicken wire, and the audience is throwing beer bottles at them while they are playing. And they are cool as can be. That is how I want to be.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LEY9E_W5sw

Rllink said:

No, it does not aggravate me if the audience claps while I'm playing.

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No, it does not aggravate me if the audience claps while I am playing. No, it does not aggravate me if the audience claps while I am playing. No, it does not aggravate me if the audience claps while I am playing. No, it does not aggravate me if the audience claps while I am playing. No, it does not aggravate me if the audience claps while I am playing. No, it does not aggravate me if the audience claps while I am playing. No, it does not aggravate me if the audience claps while I am playing. RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR I hate it!!

Just read the first post and it brought me back to the ZZ Top afterburner concert way back when. There was a kid a few rows back with a frickin tambourine. Who the hell let him in with it back then but there he was playing along with the band. I remember thinking he was very rude but this was before cellphones.

~Al~

Inksplosive AL said:

Just read the first post and it brought me back to the ZZ Top afterburner concert way back when. There was a kid a few rows back with a frickin tambourine. Who the hell let him in with it back then but there he was playing along with the band. I remember thinking he was very rude but this was before cellphones.

~Al~

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That is why I now generally enjoy an artist's (with some exceptions) studio performances. I even cringe sometimes when I check out YouTube performance get where the audience is overpowering the performer. I appreciate the enthusiasm but dislike the sound.

If I am playing out, I’m thrilled if I move people enough to sing along or clap in time. That’s the point in a dialog with an audience, isn’t it? To reach them enough so they do their part?

Playing your ukulele at home alone isn’t going to be the same experience as playing it in front of some happy folks at the local bar. How could it be?

The solo experience at home is under your control. In a crowded setting, you give that up, but you gain a social experience, which has pluses and minuses.

In a public setting, if you are a performer, you are part of a group conversation. You offer something, the audience responds, and you can react to that, altering your performance. If they spontaneously clap or sing along? Then you have evoked a reaction, and if that isn’t the one you want? You can offer guidelines, or change how you do things.

There are rules, written or generally understood, as to how folks in a theater listening to a formal concert are supposed to behave. Turn off your cell phones. Leave your kazoo in your pocket. Don’t disrupt the show for those who want to see and hear it. A piano concerto in a theater, however, gets a different reaction than a blues band at the local pub. The unwritten rules allow for this.

If, at the local pub, you say, “Okay, I’m going to play, but I don’t want you to sing or clap along,” then you will limit the conversation to a one-way monologue. You get to decide your part, but if you elect to tell the audience how they should react? Probably you won’t have much of audience for long. If that clap-along thing happens a lot where you go and it really bugs you? Maybe you shouldn’t go there. Easier to change yourself than the world ...

I would think you have to decide what it is you are trying to do, and adjust your offering accordingly. Maybe recording and not live performance is the way to go.

UkuLincoln said:

When at someone else's performance, I've never liked when other people clap along to a song unless asked by the performer to join in. I've always felt that I came to hear the performer, not other people.

So, when I started playing ukulele and singing at an open mic and people started clapping along, I almost said, "No, no, please don't do that." But decided to just roll with it. Though I still didn't like it.

What are your feelings about people clapping along, both as a spectator and a player?

Lincoln

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Hey there, Lincoln...

Nobody can fault you for how you feel, and for what you desire. As long as it does not infringe upon anyone else, you should do whatever makes you happy!

For myself, I appreciate direct feedback from the audience when I've performed. For me, it acts as a form of positive reinforcement, and tells me that I've engaged the audience, which shows me either that they are receiving some benefit, or at the very least, I've got their attention...

This reinforcement is a big reason why I will perform in front of others. Otherwise, If I were playing ONLY for myself, and not to SHARE my music with others, I can just sit home and play, or make YouTube videos with the comments turned off so nobody can tell me if they like the video or not.

If all I wanted to do was to show off, and 'demonstrate' myself to a silent group, then I would have gone to a music conservatory, whereby graduation was dependent upon many levels of recital exams in front of a committee of frowning fo-gies.

When in the audience, I like it when there is interaction from/with the performer, i.e., singing along or clapping, etc, whether or not the performer has ASKED for it. For again it shows me that I am not alone in my appreciation of the music.

For all of this, to me, it is a circle, how we are all connected, either in a feedback loop (in a good way from stage to audience) or as a member of a group sharing a common joy, with other like minded folks who share our tastes and interests. All standing on common ground.

The only exception to being in the audience and having folks clapping or shouting/singing along, was back in my youth, for a few of my favorite bands, I would be making a bootleg recording (for my OWN purpose and memories, and NOT for sale) and my luck was that I was always next to someone who liked to scream bloody murder for 2 hrs, either preconceived, or in reaction to seeing me trying to record and just plain doing it out of spite (ha ha).

But hey, that's just the way it was.

There is a bar in Old San Juan, PR, where on Friday nights, the have live music starting at eight, and it is generally just one person performing. Usually someone on a guitar or cuatro. On stage there are boxes of musical instruments sitting on stage, mostly percussion instruments, and when people in the audience get the urge, they saunter up on stage and help out. Sometimes they stand where they can see the music and sing along. Through the course of the evening, musicians, many of them having been busking earlier, show up, go on stage and join in. By midnight, the stage is full. Can you imagine the consternation that might cause some people?

Hey ...I have just back from a lie down in a darkened room !!! StevePerryWriter and I agree on something......whew ....

somebody else will have to tell him of course ....he's got me, er "shrouded" which may be posh for " On his Ignore List ":biglaugh::cheers:

I got a couple of PMs about this, so I thought I’d address it: For the record, I didn’t block Ceejay’s posts. Since every time we got into a discussion it turned disruptive, and the moderators kept telling us to shut up, it seemed better for everybody else that he and I not-engage. Simple.

I just find it sad that the dude who started the thread got a bit wound up and now is not participating in what has turned out to be a really interesting thread. And also just a little pissed off that I spent 10 minutes writing a response to his question that he didn't bother to read.

Come back Lincoln, all is forgiven!!!!

Steveperrywriter said:

I got a couple of PMs about this, so I thought I’d address it: For the record, I didn’t block Ceejay’s posts. Since every time we got into a discussion it turned disruptive, and the moderators kept telling us to shut up, it seemed better for everybody else that he and I not-engage. Simple.

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I don't want to get engaged, just have a conversation .....Olive Branch .Extended.

Hippie Dribble said:

I just find it sad that the dude who started the thread got a bit wound up and now is not participating in what has turned out to be a really interesting thread. And also just a little pissed off that I spent 10 minutes writing a response to his question that he didn't bother to read.

Come back Lincoln, all is forgiven!!!!

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He never did did he.....and SPW never took that Olive Branch.........UU eh ?