Do you sit or stand when performing?

[Doug B]

Man, I hate that Arthur Itus.

That Arthur-a real pain in the gluteous maximus!

[es347]

[QUOTE=Doug B;971023]Do you know who makes that headless/bodyless guitar? It's not a Yamaha Silent Guitar-they have the tuners on the headstock.

Doug

Looks like a Solette model
SoloEtte Travel Guitar

[Doug B]

[QUOTE=es347;971031]

Do you know who makes that headless/bodyless guitar? It's not a Yamaha Silent Guitar-they have the tuners on the headstock.

Doug

Looks like a Solette model
SoloEtte Travel Guitar

Thanks.

[Doug B]

As I get get older I always opt to sit. But I also got more comfortable playing jazz sitting. Since that's the way I practice my arms got comfortable with that so I don't feel I can really play at my optimum standing. I don't play a big arch top but rather a Gibson ES-355, so weight is not an issue. I have done recently a 6 hour gig where I was required to stand the whole time and I survived, and didn't really have a problem, which made me re-think my justifications for sitting, for about a minute.

How about you? Do you sit or stand?

Totally agree, Henry. As I got older (65) I was diagnosed with spinal arthritis. Standing for more than 15-20 minutes is all i can manage. Sitting and using a classical foot rest let's me play for 90 minutes!

[Alter]

Archtops and acoustics i always sit on a stool or chair. With the 335 i get a stool, but also stand up a lot. Electric guitars or relative music i stand up !

I'm still waiting for a theater director to have me play lying on a couch.. Hasn't happened yet!!

[coolvinny]

That headless guitar looks like a Frameworks.

I pretty much STAND for all practice and especially performance.

[Gabor]

How about the Jimmy Page style where he has his Les Paul down around his knees with both arms straight down?

Only when I use a bow

[grahambop]

I find a window with a nice view and then I sit down.

[ronjazz]

Recently switched to right leg+footrest with my tele. Can't imagine going back- I don't see how folks maintain proper thumb position using their right leg with a solid-body. I think the classical guys are right, it's simply the correct way to hold a (smaller bodied, at least) guitar- though I open myself up for getting laughed at by all sides for doing a Segovia impression on a country guitar.

Given the the Great New God of the electric jazz guitar, Pasquale Grasso, sits in classical position, I don't think you should be too concerned.

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

I’ve always preferred to sit, with the guitar on my left leg. At home, I use a folding classical foot rest. If I can only get a low chair on a gig, I rest my left foot on a mouse pad on top of my Little Jazz or my RevSound 8” cab. But I can usually find a bar stool with a rung or rest on most gigs.

I have a very comfortable padded stool at our club with two rungs, one high enough for the left foot and a lower one for the right. I stand for blues gigs if I have to sing and on any stage or setting with too little room to sit comfortably.

I definitely think I’ve always played better and more consistently when seated than standing.

[citizenk74]

I’ve always preferred to sit, with the guitar on my left leg. At home, I use a folding classical foot rest. If I can only get a low chair on a gig, I rest my left foot on a mouse pad on top of my Little Jazz or my RevSound 8” cab. But I can usually find a bar stool with a rung or rest on most gigs.

I have a very comfortable padded stool at our club with two rungs, one high enough for the left foot and a lower one for the right. I stand for blues gigs if I have to sing and on any stage or setting with too little room to sit comfortably.

I definitely think I’ve always played better and more consistently when seated than standing.

Seated just works better for me from a technical POV. It is not as showy, if that is a consideration. I used to carry my own chair, a steel-framed kitchen chair that happened to fit me perfectly in every respect - seat height/angle, back support, and so forth. Loaded upside-down on the passenger seat of my car, it provided a handy repository for miscellaneous gigging stuff. The added comfort and consistent positioning more than made up for the slight inconvenience.

[rpjazzguitar]

I prefer to sit in an ordinary chair. I bring a metal folding chair to gigs, although I'll often just use whatever the venue has. The reason is that I like to play with my foot on a volume pedal and I can't do that easily while standing or even sitting on a stool.

Tal Farlow built a stool with a homemade volume pedal, which doubled as a foot rest, 6 or 8 inches or so off the floor. I think that would be great, but I don't have one. Rudy's sold it with his gear a few years back and I saw it there.

If I'm singing on a gig, which happens very occasionally, or fronting the band, I'll stand or use a stool and take my foot off the pedal.

I think standing or a stool is better than a regular chair, visually. Since it's entertainment, it counts for something,

[John A.]

I always play with a strap, with the guitar fairly high up, so the guitar is positioned the same way whether I sit or stand. I generally prefer standing, but in some settings it more sense to sit.

[Litterick]

Chris Hadfield, strapless in space.

Shame about the singing.

[dogletnoir]

How about the Jimmy Page style where he has his Les Paul down around his knees with both arms straight down?

Jimmy Page actually has VERY long arms, and could play that low slung Les Paul and still have his arms bent a bit.
He's kind of the anti Mark King, LOL.
As for me, i usually prefer to sit, but a properly adjusted strap will keep my guitars in the proper playing position either way, and most of my strats and teles are about 7 to 7.5 lbs and my .strandberg* guitars are all under 6 lbs, so weight is never a problem.

[dogletnoir]

I find a window with a nice view and then I sit down.

i'm such a klutz that my version of that would have to add, "... and then i fall out of it."

[John A.]

i'm such a klutz that my version of that would have to add, "... and then i fall out of it."

The guy in the picture actually did fall out a window

[Marinero]

The guy in the picture actually did fall out a window

Hi, J,
The word was, at the time, that he was thrown out of the window by a drug dealer he stiffed. Sad.
Play live . . . Marinero

[Marinero]

I always sit . . . play Classical style with guitar on my left leg. I use a comfortable CG stool with a footrest. The last gig I played standing was in 1968 in a soul band where I, also, doubled on sax. Here's my current set up.
Play live . . . Marinero

[John A.]

Hi, J,
The word was, at the time, that he was thrown out of the window by a drug dealer he stiffed. Sad.
Play live . . . Marinero

That was rumored, but there are witnesses accounts of it being an accident that make more sense.

[jazzkritter]

That stool Tal built for himself was pretty neat. It had a slot for the Walter Woods amp; A volume pedal in the footrest. And a stomp button that controlled an octave doubler and shut off the hum buckers and connected the middle DeArmond to the octave doubler. (Old prototype #2 had a stereo out). There were a couple of toggle switches on the side, but he said they never worked. Plus a really generous cushion)

I wonder about body changes from sitting to the real long term pro players. I remember when I took fencing (a long time ago) the master (Mr. Santelli) was in his 70's, he had permanent body changes matching his fencing position. One foot was rotated out, the other knee bent. Poor guy looked so uncomfortable when he walked.
Tal's back was hunched over, walked that way too. Wonder if the others of his generation had that problem. George Benson doesn't seem to, neither Metheny, but they both stand.

No, jk did not make the Rutgers fencing team.

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

No, jk did not make the Rutgers fencing team.

[jazzkritter]

Touche

[Marinero]

That was rumored, but there are witnesses accounts of it being an accident that make more sense.

Hi, J,
After his death, Chet's wife and many of his close friends did not believe it was an accident since serious retributions by drug dealers were common in Chet's past but the Dutch police closed the case and refused to investigate further. I guess we'll never really know.
Play live . . . Marinero

[grahambop]

I don’t think there really is much mystery about Chet’s death. Like everything else about him, it has been romanticised by lots of people. The writer Jeroen de Valk spoke to the police inspector who handled the case, and in his book (Chet Baker, his life and music) lays out the evidence he found during the investigation. From all of this it seems highly likely that Chet simply fell out of the window by mistake while high.

The main points he covers are as follows:
- the room was on the 3rd floor and was found to be locked from the inside. Any murderer would have had to climb in the window (and out again).
- there were no signs of a struggle in the room.
- the window sill was only knee-high.
- the window was an old sash type, had been painted many times, and consequently could only be raised by 2 feet.
- Chet left marks in the dust on the sill which showed he’d been sitting on the sill (it was an unusually warm night).
- the window had a peg on a chain, used to hold it up by inserting it in the frame. The peg and part of the chain were on the ground next to Chet’s body. The window was found to be slammed shut again (because the peg had been pulled out).

Based on all of this, the police concluded that Chet had been sitting very awkwardly on the sill, leaning outwards, maybe nodding out with his head down, and simply lost his balance and fell, probably grabbing the chain and peg as he went.

It’s understandable that his wife and friends preferred to believe a less banal explanation.