flips and flops

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09:29 am March 27th, 2015

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			flips and flops - Echoes of Flavio's Ghost Dreaming

flavius_m


	flips and flops
	Rather disappointed with the attendance for last night's recital. A bit bothered too with the strange group dynamics of facebook. Why do people say they will attend an event when they very likely know they won't be able to make it or it just isn't their thing? I know things can happen and people can fall ill, etc. but this cannot explain why somebody who knows they have an exam/job interview the next morning, etc, or are in a country four thousand miles away on the day will put themselves as attending the event. I was rather pleased (at the time) with my playing, although there were flaws. We'll see whether I still am when I see the recordings. The hall was comfortable to play in and had a good sound. As a fund-raiser, both for me and for the charity, it was a complete flop. For now, I'll have to re-think how to do this and also, given the many many hours of work it takes to put one of those, whether it really is worth the while. Tags: guitar, guitar playing, life

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	Comments

	From: djpsyche	Date: March 27th, 2015 11:47 am (UTC)		(Link)

I enjoyed your playing!

I sympathise over the Facebook "attendings" who flake at the last minute. Read an interesting blog post about that dynamic. I think sometimes people tick "attending" when they have no intention of doing so in order to make the event look more appealing to others who are on the fence.

One suggestion would be, perhaps people are disinclined to pay £10-£15 to see one performer. You might think about joining forces with other classical musicians -- Jo Quail comes to mind, and Ed's sister is a classical violinist. A concert with more than one act on the bill might appeal more to people in the goth/alt scene who are used to Flag gigs with 3-4 bands and a full evening of entertainment.

And hey, you can't call it a flop when your playing literally knocked someone out of their seat :) xx

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	From: flavius_m	Date: March 27th, 2015 06:04 pm (UTC)		(Link)

Hmm.... not sure about the Flag recipe for the sort of thing I do, it ends up a bit like an end of year school concert.. And in the world of that sort of thing, if you go to, say, Burgh House to see a instrumentalist or a chamber music recital you will pay at least those £15. There is the added thing that I'm trying to give a little bit to a local charity. Not sure that the facebook rockers would be more ready to go to my gigs if I charged £10 instead of £20. Or is it £5 instead of £10? Where does that one end? I have some difficulty seeing what I do and what Jo Quail does fitting in together but I suppose all options are worth exploring (famously, except incest and Morris dancing?)

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	From: flavius_m	Date: March 27th, 2015 06:05 pm (UTC)		(Link)

Sorry, that sounded a bit like I was shooting your ideas down, that wasn't the intention, of course, but to continue the discussion and see how you think that might work.

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	From: djpsyche	Date: March 28th, 2015 11:14 am (UTC)		(Link)

No no, I'm just throwing things out there, and I appreciate your listening rather than dismissing my ideas as "helpy" (I've noticed I have the "typical male" tendency to offer suggestions rather than the "typical female" tendency to listen and sympathise, which doesn't always go over well).

I don't know the target market for classical performances, but I do know the target market for gigs, and your friends (and logical punter base) are in that demographic. So given that friends are the easiest to market to without spending big money on advertising, I was trying to think of ways to make your performances better fit the model of Things Goths Spend Money On. I do know it's hard enough to convince people to come out when there's more than one band!

I also think people are more likely to pay £15 to see someone they don't know personally than to see a mate, sad as that is. I do think the charity component is a good sell.

Edited at 2015-03-28 12:45 pm (UTC)

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	From: scifi_mel	Date: March 27th, 2015 04:09 pm (UTC)		(Link)

Wish I could have come *stupid work*

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	From: flavius_m	Date: March 27th, 2015 06:05 pm (UTC)		(Link)

It's alright, there's always a next time. Maybe :)

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	From: augeas	Date: March 27th, 2015 04:26 pm (UTC)		(Link)

Oh, don't stop. Try and see and chat to Perkelt the next time they come 'round the Boogaloo. They manage to gig very frequently, perhaps you could join in. They do quite well as they have a bunch of coasters to sell. They can get away with quite a mark-up, which they honestly do earn. Could you run a KickStarter or something to get some studio time and produce a disc to flog at gigs? There's hardly a glut of Bach lute recordings around.

Also, noises.

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	From: flavius_m	Date: March 27th, 2015 05:57 pm (UTC)		(Link)

Interesting! Notating that (in music, rather than graph paper) might be difficult :)

Perkelt I like a lot but not sure how what I do would fit with what they do. It's very different stuff. It is lovely, mind, and I'll try and catch them when they play.

Re Bach lute pieces on guitar, there actually is a fair bit of it although there might be some space for one more recording, I s'pose :) I'll be thinking about this.

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	From: augeas	Date: March 27th, 2015 06:30 pm (UTC)		(Link)

I read the Wikipedia article on Euclidean beats and perpetrated that in an entire afternoon. It's just three rhythms on three voices that just phase in and out one at a time. I've no concept of keys, each voice has a base MIDI note from 0-127, and the gap between successive beats is added to it. This would be the "score".
I shoved it through my tiny little Korg analogue poly-synth, and a couple of other little toys I've got a bad habit of buying. I suppose it's moderately amusing that the voices are ring-modulated together. Meanwhile, I've been lugging a dead-tree copy of this around with me, and reading it on occasion.

Edited at 2015-03-27 06:34 pm (UTC)

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	From: flavius_m	Date: March 27th, 2015 05:57 pm (UTC)		(Link)

Also, thanks for the recordings, again again! downloading as we speak. Will report :)

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	From: kruku	Date: March 27th, 2015 05:17 pm (UTC)		(Link)

Meh. You turned up to preform. That's all you can do. Isn't it up to the organisers to publicise the event and get bums on seats?

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	From: djpsyche	Date: March 27th, 2015 05:45 pm (UTC)		(Link)

(He was the organiser.)

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	From: flavius_m	Date: March 27th, 2015 05:49 pm (UTC)		(Link)

Half. I do feel the KTCF could have pulled the oars on their side of the boat a little more but they don't have much experience on setting up something like this. They do want me to do something similar in the autumn... but then I'll make sure to sell the tickets in advance. I am loath to spam my friends with stuff like that (even though I'm a constant target for that sort of thing) but, well....

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	From: djpsyche	Date: March 28th, 2015 11:16 am (UTC)		(Link)

Ah, I see. It's tough to break into promotion, Flag gigs do so well because he's got a 20+ year established punter base to market them to.

Advance tickets that are a few quid cheaper would be a good idea.

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	From: kruku	Date: March 29th, 2015 02:48 pm (UTC)		(Link)

(:Whoops! Sorry mate. I'll be a bit more productive bigging up your next gig.

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