Do you only want to play for yourself or do you want to perform live

AndieZ

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This is a slight variation on the goals thread. I think that having a desire to perform live may affect the way you approach the uke. It certainly makes a huge difference to my approach - ha ha since the only reason i took it up was to support myself singing - ie to legitimise my standing around singing in public.

I'm interested in seeing who else plays or aspires ito play live and what extra strategies you put in place to make that go better.

I certainly think its perfectly legitimate and wonderful if people play only for themselves and with friends. That's how i used to be with the guitar as a kid. I just look back now and think why didn't i do more with it. I was so crap on the guitar. I know the answer, alas, but i also can see just how wonderful the internet is in helping people learn more and learn faster. So whether your play only for yourself or up on a stage somewhere, its all good. The more people playing music and or making art or any sort in this world the better it is for everyone, but especially the participants.
 
I always enjoy playing with others rather than just for myself. I started playing uke three years ago for a summer play-along series of three Saturdays where there were up to 300 people. I enjoyed that very much. At the same time I decided to retire and joined a group out of a local senior center of about 50 people that meets twice a week. About 18 months later I started playing bass uke with them too. They also do regular gigs, and for a kid who couldn't get up in front of class to give a book report or in front of the congregation to sing at the end of services, I now feel very comfortable performing, it's an additional motivation for me to get better.
 
I've always liked playing live and have done so for many years on a guitar. With the Ukulele came a desire to start a group and get others playing along. This went through lots of steps along the way and finished up with a sort of Ukulele Karaoke. I started developing the backing tracks with lyrics and chords and have now been using them for a few years. Everyone can play along, we can all see the words and chords so it is pretty easy. As a group we have won a few competitions and I now also get asked to do private gigs and the like. It has never been more fun than it is now. I can add new songs to the repertoire very quickly and I don't have to learn them all off by heart before I can play them, which is great at my age. Although playing a few favorites often enough tends to have you learning them off by heart anyway.

The group now has nearly 500 members. Lots of them had never played a musical instrument before. We get together regularly to sing and play. The backing tracks help to maintain the beat and tempo.
 
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I generally only aim at playing for myself, but this is a bit of a self-deceiving strategy to keep the pressure out. I wouldn't mind playing for family or friends, or even in a somewhat public place, but it's not something I focus on or make a goal.

I spend a good deal of my work days dealing with customers and co-workers, and often that puts the spotlight on me and draws attention. I have to "perform" when I interact with the community. Making music is my escape from that, and was intended to be an escape right from the start. I wanted to do something just for myself, something that doesn't get "judged", something that doesn't need to meet anyone's expectations. It's a bit of an almost meditative activity, and I want to keep feelings of frustration (not improving fast enough, not playing as well as I feel I should be able to, not being as good as those whose performances I admire, etc) out of it, because it's for recreation, for letting my soul dangle.

But that doesn't mean I have no ambitions at all or that I wouldn't enjoy a little recognition for my musical abilities (meager as they may be), because it's so different from what I usually do (writing, talking), and it's a different form of creative, emotional expression. But for me this could be a treacherous road, and so I bumble around without any clear goals, other than that of wanting to enjoy myself. For now, this mostly works for me, though not always, and when I get the guitarlele that I want, I think I'll work on a proper training schedule, just to propel myself a little forward where I can experience new aspects of the hobby.
 
Well, doesn't everyone who have a creative hobby have some kind of desire to share the results with somebody? I assume that at least most have.

To me, it is more a question of what kind of forum you would be comfortable playing in.
Some have ambitions for a band.
Some just want to bring out the ukulele for a single song at campfires or parties.
Some only feel comfortable sharing recorded material rather than performing live.
Some are not comfortable enough to share their music, but probably like the idea of some day gaining the confidence for it.

I don't always have their focus on a specific goal when sitting down to practice, beacause it is enjoyable for its own sake. But I must say that the Seasons setting a weekly goal does mean a lot. For many years I sporadically picked up my guitar to play, without any idea when I would get the next chance to play what I practiced for anyone. As a result I could play almost no songs from the top down, why bother focusing on that?
With some kind of deadline for learning a song it helps a lot.
 
Well, I played live (in pubs or festivals) for 6 years or so (bass guitar) but I think that time is gone and I don't miss it.
I started to play ukulele to have something to teach to my kid (2 years) and I found out that it is so good to make him sleep (tried to just sing, read novels and so but it was not so effective), so double victory :D
Some months after I started, my sister (that lives on the flat right on top of mine) started too.. so now the house is almost always full of music on evenings and weekends.

So basically my "goal" is just playing for myself, my family and friends, hopefully someday with my sister and with my kid (IF and when he will want to learn to play uke).
Maybe soon I will start to make some recordings (when I will buy a microphone :) ) but the main goal there is just to improve my technique and partecipate to the UU season (I would REALLY like, but... still no microphone yet).

But I don't think I will start a band or perform on a stage or so.
Never say never, but I just have no interest (nor have time) in it right now.
 
Performing for an audience is definitely not one of my favorite things. I play in two trios and an ensemble, and while I love playing *with* others, more often than not I find that playing *for* others means having to live up to their expectations rather than just doing it for the sheer enjoyment of playing. With a few exceptions, playing for an audience has always resulted in requests for songs that I don't play or even like, and disappointed reactions when I can't deliver, and this just kind of sucks all the joy out of it for me.
 
I have no interest at this time in starting a band either. I'm pretty happy to go soloing about but if i had friends who were doing it too, then it would be fun to play with them. I probably woulnd't even worry about doing it to make money unless there was easy money to be had.

I found that playing in a big group has very limited appeal. It would be ok if you could hear yourself and what you played matters but in the jam session i joined with, it didn't matter what i played or did, i couldn't hear it. It was fun to be there but a waste of time as far as getting better at playing i think so i stopped going as i don't have the time. Likewise I don't rank playing iwht a large group for fun as performing. If your group is giving a performance, then yes i would call that performing becuase you are expected to know the song and play it well but if its just a matter of joining a large group and it doesn't matter whether or not you can play it, that's not what i'd call performing.
 
playing for an audience has always resulted in requests for songs that I don't play or even like

You hit the point :) That's why I don't miss the time I performed live. Music I love is not for everyone, at least here in Italy, and if you have to perform live you must stick with "mainstream pop" music that I don't like at all.
 
Took it up as a hobby - no intention of performing live. :)

Want to get as good as I can be, but at my pace.

The Seasons have been a big influence, joining in has made me do a lot of things that I would never have dreamt of doing myself, & by doing so, I have improved my playing quicker than I ever have managed before.
 
I've got to the point where when practising I feel like I'm playing music rather than a series of notes, this makes practising and playing by myself very enjoyable and I have a lot of fun finding stuff to play and researching the music.

A couple of years ago I took the plunge and started going to very informal pub sessions round here. I play folk tunes fingerstyle and I really enjoy it. We go round in a circle and listen or join in as we please, a variety of instruments but I'm the only fingerstyle folk uke player so far. I enjoy the feedback and encouragement of other players.
 
Playing for myself, definitely. The first time I played in front of others as part of a small (4 others) group was fun, but every other time was so excruciatingly horrible that I see no reason to ever subject myself to that sort of trauma again.
 
With how slow I'm learning the uke I doubt I'll ever feel good enough to play in front of folks, at least not by myself. I did go to a big group/club play along a couple times, it was fun, but too far away. Of course no one could hear a thing you were actually playing.
 
I'm enjoying playing with a small group of friends, but we're not performing, just playing together for fun. They're actually what got me started on the uke. Other than that, I want to play for myself. When I played a lot of guitar, playing when I came home from work helped keep me sane (I had a stressful job and didn't really fit in corporate America). I love getting lost in playing music.
 
I like playing for other's entertainment. A couple of things there, I have always admired entertainers, and wished that I could entertain people. And I've always had a bad case of stage fright. All my life I had to totally psych myself just to speak up at a work meeting, and I never sang in church. Then the ukulele came along, and I totally embraced it. It was my ride to neighborhood stardom. Not only do I now sing in church, sometimes I get up front and play songs for them. Somebody said earlier that there were too many expectations when playing in front of other people. That's what I love about the ukulele. You walk out with a uke, the expectations are not high. Anyway, my whole ukulele life is aimed toward playing for other people. It has been an exhilarating experience.
 
I enjoy playing for myself and in groups, but I would like to be less inhibited if an open mic situation were to come up.
 
I play for myself almost all the time. I get a large majority of satisfaction from this, without the extra work required to play in front of others, i.e.,, making sure you have everything memorized, reliably playing things close to perfect, etc.

However, I did play live a while back, and it was a complete blast! I asked my fellow performers if it was always that much fun and they said it usually was. But I am still just playing for myself, although I will admit that I practice things more with the idea of playing for others.

Finally, I have had some times that are nothing short of magic playing with others, but my circumstances make this less frequent than I would like.

Thanks for the excellent question.
 
W.C. Fields said " I only drink on two occasions, when I am with other people or when I am by myself" I only play ukulele when I am by myself or with other people. I enjoy playing by myself the most but I do perform with an 3 piece ensemble at open mics on a regular basis and quite enjoy it.
 
I have no desire to play in public and actually have an opportunity to do so with our college's Music Club. But, I have no desire to do much of anything in public or around other people :)
 
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