Jump Around

[The Canary]

Hi guys. With a lot of you guys being in bands, Im sure you will have noticed when you produce a song that really is orgasmic, you have the urge to jump around the stage and be completely free. Im not bragging, but I would call myself a good guitarist. But I wish I could jump around on go mad on stage, without messing up what Im playing, it just comes out wrong. Any tips??Thanks.

[Shibby]

i usually can't play when i was moving around, but yeseterday at practice we wrote this really sweet hear pumping song. I was all over the place and i was screwing up at all. If your in the mood it'll come to you. Also, practice standing up that might help.

[dmt]

Yeah, definitely practice and play standing up! First off, that has to feel natural.

Next, when you're playing rhythm, try bobbing your head up and down a little bit with the beat. Next, try bobbing/pumping your whole body with the beat. The more energy you put into your rhythm playing, the more of your body will move, and vice versa. This can not only look cool, but actually add musical energy to a band situation. Just like classical and sit-down musicians tap their foot to keep the beat alive for them, a standing musician can not only tap his foot, but move his whole body.
The more of your body you move, the more the beat will be alive (especially if you relax the thinking part of your mind and just let yourself get into it).

The next step (and you can start this practicing home) is to simply walk around while you play. Pace back and forth. Don't stare down at your hands while you're playing. If you're in a repetitive part of a song you know well, look straight ahead (without particularly focusing on anything), and let your hands work on "auto pilot". Try pacing around back and forth. [If you and/or your band practice your songs/set list again and again and again, eventually you'll become so familiar and comfortable with them that there will be no need to look down at your hands most of the time. You'll be able to play them without looking. This is simply a matter of putting in the practice time].

Notice that your heroes probably aren't doing acrobatic jumps in the middle of a complicated, intricate solo. The parts were they go crazy are usually where they're really putting physical emphasis into the rhythm. Some guys do actually mess around during a solo -- guys like Hendrix playing the solo with their teeth or SRV playing it with his boot. There's also the classic T-bone Walker playing the solo with the guitar behind the neck trick, and the Chuck Berry "duck walk". These are obviously in the realm of tricks, and obviously took hours upon hours of dedicated practice both alone, with the band, and onstage before they could look effortless. If you have a particular trick you want to do, practice it!

Some easier soloing moves to start with might be the Clapton trick of turning your back to the audience when you go into a particularly soulful solo; leaning back to back against the lead singer a la Keith Richards w/ Mick Jagger, Joe Perry w/ Steven Tyler, or Richie Sambora w/ Bon Jovi. Then there's the good old EVH move of looking up and mugging for the camera with a big ol' happy grin in the middle of an intricate two hand tapping solo. And the easiest of all might be the move of the guy from Creed where he puts his foot up on the floor monitor while he does a "solo" rhythm part.

In developing your own moves, be open to happy accidents that you might do while playing that get a good reaction from the audience/ bandmates. Repeat and refine them. This is how Townshend got into smashing his guitars. Also, if you see another artist doing something cool, shamelessly steal it and make it your own! Revive an old move. A classic method is to somehow subtly suggest that the guitar is a big ol' schlong...

Getting back to rhythm, by the time you're comfortable moving around onstage and bouncing to the rhythm, you can take it a step farther by really strutting around when you walk, and by actually jumping up and down as you bounce to the rhythm. When you really want to emphasize a chord like at the big close of a song, you can even leap in the air. Finally, you're then ready for Townsend/EVH flying split-legged leaps, or Zach Wylde running around on top of the speakers and spewing beer into the audience moves!

Good luck!


[This message has been edited by dmt (edited January 12, 2004).]

[Shibby]

whoa....ooops i made a ton of typos there....i think you get my point though. Just like change hear to heart and was to wasn't.


i'll try to be more careful next time,
-Shibby

[Jagstang666]

I think it's definetly in your mood. I don't really tend to jump, but I do move around.

[The Canary]

Lol thanks for the tibs guys. My bassist is crazy he just rolls around on the floor jumps onto the amps, he smashed our drummer over the head once!!! He gets loadsa parts in songs where he plays nothing and can just feel my guitar music, so I guess he doesnt have a problem.

[Insaneogram]

If it's an original song and you stuff it up noone will know anyway, so just go nuts.

Having said that though, you can make some pretty awful sounds by fretting something wrong, so you've gotta know when to cut loose and when to hold back as well.

[outkastfromall]

also one thing you can do is not move at all, stand as still as you can and stare down you crowed, this is something i see some metal guitatist do, like mick tompson from slipknot, watch there videos and you will see him just standing still staring down the crowd, i think is one of the koolist things a metal player can do, but it does not work during a really energized part but more for the really fast single string riff, watch one of there videos and youwil see{http://launch.yahoo.com/artist/videos.asp?artistID=1041557}

my personal favoit is a stage diving guitarist, one who crowd surrffes, i have never been if a big enough or crazy enough crowd to do it but i cant wait to get to do it, but one thing my band will do is jump and a trapolien and runa nd jump and like kill each other, lol, my special move is to jump of the roff onto the tramp, when i thought of it they were like freaking out telling me not to do it but i did it and it was so kool, i did this really fast heavye riff and when i jumped i did a string bend and it sound reall kool, but i like hurt my back, hit my self in the head with the headstock and allmost break the guitar, but it was worth it, i am still working on it and geting better on it

[Rhoads]

I agree with Dmt. best advice I can offer is start practicing without looking at your hands. start out with some easy songs you know and make a point not to look at the neck heck close your eyes. Once you can get your hands to go into "autopilot" so you dont need to see them to know where at in reference you are on the neck you'll be able to go insane.

[outkastfromall]

here is a way to stop looking at your hands, do a bonch of exerciese every day blindfolded, you will never look at your hands again and you will be so much faster cuase you will feel and the strigns and know where they are instead of looking for them, try it htat iwhat i do

[dmron]

I agree that not having to look at your hands at all would be great. It's easy if you're just doing normal chords, but when youre doing barre's and sliding all up and down the board, you (well, I) have to look at least sometimes.

If I'm only going 2 or 3 frets in either direction, I can always hit it (well every once in a while I'll mess it up :) but if it's any further I look or I feel like I will miss it, even though I'd say 70-80% of the time, I dont. And I'm in a "punk rock" band so the music is FAST so I find myself unfortunately looking down a lot. But I do feel I have good energy, I bob and jump during insane parts, walk around, etc. Of course it could be a lot more energy but ya know what I mean :P

Actaully just talking about this is making me realize that I must force myself during practice to not look at my hands unless I hit a chord wrong, that will make live performce a lot beter :) Well thanks everyone.

[msg80]

You ever play basketball? Have you ever heard the term "In the Zone"? It's kinda like that. Sometimes, you'll be at a show or even at practice and for some reason, you really feel the music and you just shred. Of course, you'll have your off days too, but yeah, lots of practice especially practicing standing up will minimize the off days.

[Sarco]

I once stumbled over a foot-pedal making a hell of a move http://www.zentao.com/ubb/smilies/smile.gif

[SG_74]

I slid down on two knees once while playing a solo and my mate licked my guitar lol, I still really wanna have a go at crowd surfing but I haven't got a radio thingy for my guitar so chances are my lead would just come out.

[outkastfromall]

if you want to see what a live show should look like watch some live slipknot videos, that is the way it is done

[supercobra]

I'm not very acrobatic on stage, but I think you can convey intensity in more subtle ways. As I feel the groove of a song, I play harder, with more left hand vibrato in certan passages.

Also, as your part converges with the drummer, or bass player, start to move toward and look at that player. This is musical communication. You're jamming together.

Sometimes a passage will move me to close my eyes, or shake my head. Again, this isn't as demonstrative as leaping windmills, but still conveys meaning.

Also, how about a smile or other facial expression. If you know your music well enough, your concentration should move from trying to execute the part to making a total performance. That exists on more than one level. You've got to use your voice, instrument, manners, stance etc to convey a message.

[JimmyBlood]

Try to keep your guitar high enough to play well. If you raise your strap to where your guitar is in the same place it would be sitting down, you'll be a lot more free to move and still have the guitar stable enough to play. Not only that, but you'll play better with a higher strap. Tom Morello is my favorite example of this. He jumps around like crazy and sounds great because his guitar is high enough to play well. I bet Jimmy Page wouldn't have been as sloppy live if his Les Paul wasn't around his knees. Sorry to complain about this, but I keep my axes high enough to play well, and a buddy of mine always plays my guitars and lowers the strap to knee level and never puts it back. Coincidentally, he's not a very good player. But he sure looks cool! (Not).

J.

[dacster]

The only ones I'll ever get close to would be Garcia or Buckethead. Stone cold still.
Leaning back against my amp & Cab...rockin I can do. I can walk around and jam with the other players but any move beyond that is beyond me...

[motorhead_6]

If you force yourself to jump around you will probably look stupid. If it comes natural to you then you will probably look stupid too but you wont care.