Quote:
Originally Posted by Stratcat77
Let me try to explain... Those people you mentioned are not really true pros. They are just sellouts showing up to make money.
A true pro always plays all of their memorized songs from the heart. That simply cannot be done when glancing at words on a device. A true pro is deeply emotionally engaged with their audience with constant eye contact. Of course this also means they NEVER look down at their instrument - to do so would be, um, very unprofessional. Because of the deep emotional aspect of connecting with the audience, tears are often involved and, of course, this would make it difficult to see a prompter clearly. A true pro also never uses a written set list. This would distract from the emotional freedom to play whatever comes to mind at the moment, even if the rest of the band has never heard the music. They, too, must be pros and flawlessly follow along as they also are all making constant eye contact with the audience.
I hope this helps.
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Lots of laughs on this one.
A 'pro' can read cues and lyrics and the audience doesn't even realize it. The pro isn't 'staring and reading'. In a typical venue, people further than 15 feet from the performer can't see where their eyes are looking anyway. You're disillusioning yourself if you think otherwise - because I've had people say to me 'how do you memorize all those lyrics?' - they literally could not tell I was glancing down at a lyric sheet.
When I saw Elvis Costello on his solo songwriter tour, he had 3 playing areas (2 with guitar, one with keyboards) and a video prompter screen in front of each one. Most people probably assumed they were audio monitors.
But, I do agree that using lyric sheets or any tablet/reading device becomes a crutch and it becomes necessary as the brain relies less on memory and more on instant reading access. And I do see plenty of people who are 'reading' the song as they play, and it's obvious - but these aren't 'pros'.
Those who use a tablet should use an ap that puts the lyrics in white and background in black, though, so it's not acting like a bad spotlight.