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How not to behave in a live TV show

In: Rocking in the free world Tuesday Jul 15,2008

We have this popular TV show here in Romania, called Happy Hour, presented by a very popular guy here.

We have the TV show’s band that does a very good job on the show playing/singing every day.

We have this very popular and appreciated pop/jazz singer, with musical studies with a lot of international awards.

We have this stupid, low class, kitsch “musical” style that is played/sung by gypsies, but unfortunately appreciated by a lot of people. I won’t comment anymore about this. Don’t confuse this with traditional gypsy music, which is another kind of thing, but can be considered the root of the previous one, the “classy” version of it maybe?

Well, this classy girl has a big show with a big band and all the fuss where she plays a song with one of the famous singers of this crappy kitsch style, for “anti-discrimination” reasons, she says. OK.

Because of this show, she received a lot of negative appreciations and in my eyes she lost a bit of my respect for doing this. That’s my opinion. It has nothing to do with discrimination, just that she shouldn’t have associated her name with that style. Period. But, again, this is my opinion.

She comes to that TV show, and she receives a very good treatment from the presenter (I say that since he respects good artists while the bad ones he just destroys right there on spot with no mercy in an hour of very high audience).

So she is invited to sing a song (a lot of the invited artists sing with the band of the show) and she starts to give sheet music to the guys in the band, here’s the one for guitar, here’s the one for drums…the guys in the band had their moment of confusion, clearly looked at the sheet music lost and with no clue and told her that they don’t read sheet music. Well, she says, the other band (my note: the low class, kitschy one) played the song on the first take from sheet music. But I didn’t want to embarrass you, sorry for that.

Sorry, my ass! She clearly wanted to make a stand but I don’t get it! You don’t go to a rock band (they are a rock band, even if in the show play mostly pop) with printed sheet music asking them to back you up live, right there on spot, in the most popular daily TV show and you say you didn’t try to embarrass them.

Because the guys admitted they can’t play on the first take the song, she sang with a negative (what I am sure she was prepared to do right from the start).

For me, the one who lost (again) here was the singer, not the band. You could say I am subjective, I can’t read music either. Doh, what a surprise! An electric guitar player who can’t read music! But if you really wanted to sing the song with the band, you could at least send them a copy of the song and the sheets before coming there, giving them a bit of time to get the song right. Otherwise it’s a situation where nobody really wins.

The band lost a bit of it’s shining look while the singer ended the show as the queen of music, extraordinary voice, master of piano, but with big issues on her popularity. She (still) is a very appreciated singer, but I think she should not do this kind of things anymore. She clearly wanted to make a stand, probably somebody from the band made some kind of joke on her singing with “the other band” and she wanted to make them pay for it.

Well, I think she payed for it also.

The video is right after they admitted they can’t read music and she used the negative. If you look behind her, some of the guys in the band still keep the papers in their hands (probably masking the guns pointed to her, or some kind of middle finger).

Here’s another one where she sings and plays the piano, for a full picture.

And because I believe in equity, here’s on of the videos of the band.

By the way, do you read sheet music or not?What’s your opinion on that?

Dr J, this question is not addressed to you

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8 Responses to “How not to behave in a live TV show”

Leon J
July 15th, 2008 at 2:27 pm

Hi Ovidiu,

This is not fingerstyle playing but I am sure you’ll love it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-lv9ltZ2cw

Cheers, Leon.
Ovidiu
July 15th, 2008 at 3:15 pm

Interesting piece, Leon, thanks!
Dr. J
July 15th, 2008 at 3:39 pm

There’s often a big difference between a rock band and a “studio” band and I’d always expect the studio players to read the notes off the page, with or without chord symbols. If I hired session players to record my thrash metal transcription of Franz Lizst’s Liebestraum #2, I’d still have the courtesy to give it to them a day or two ahead of time (although they probably wouldn’t need to practice it). If I hired the Red Hot Chili Peppers to do the same job, I would expect them to want to get together and rehearse (a lot) before they came in for the gig. Studio musicians vs. performing musicians; –they are often two very different animals.

Musicians learn by the ear and the eye; some favor the ear while others favor the eye. There are incredible musicians who cannot improvise (some of my colleagues w/ conservatory training, for example) and incredible musicians who cannot read musical notation. I encourage my students to strive for a mix (i.e. to train BOTH your ear and your eye) but a musician who plays only by ear is NOT any less of a musician than one who only reads notation. A musician is a musician, regardless of their learning style.

This singer brought an accompaniment track with her to the show and they (the production staff) had it cued up because they all knew what would happen; it sounds to me like this band was set up! Would you want to work for people who would help another performer to embarrass you onstage?

The singer’s unprofessional actions and the show’s lack of support for the band have some elements of high drama; –some tv shows here in the USA thrive on high drama. I sure wouldn’t want to work for one.
Ovidiu
July 15th, 2008 at 4:01 pm

You are right about the 2 kind of musicians. Personally I would like to dedicate more time to learning how to do proper music reading (not only those basic studies from school).

Indeed, if this was set up by the producers, was a very nasty thing to do, even if it seems that the relationship between the band and the moderator is very good. I don’t know what to say…

However, it may be that the band was indeed set up because the negative was ready too soon after the band declined playing with the singer, almost like it was already in place when the “joke” took place. Anyway, I guess Paula Seling(the singer) has her relations with the band damaged for good, no matter where they will meet in the future.

The TV channel is the most popular one here and this show is one of the most popular shows of that TV channel, so these guys have a lot of visibility and support. I can’t tell what really happened there, despite how it looks like. However I still have a bitter taste in my mouth after watching the video and somehow I still believe SHE was the one that lost more than the band.

And I couldn’t understand why she has done this because she had a very good image here and nothing to prove, really. Take a moment to watch this video here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIn8h9cw8IE
silviu
July 16th, 2008 at 6:21 pm

Intresting subject…

I have seen the show. It wasn’t nice of her.

Regarding the reading of notes. In my oppinion, it isn’t a must, BUT if a musician doesn’t know how to read notes, it is clear that he has no ideea about the classical way of playing an instrument. And i think this is VERY VERY important, no metter the style that he plays now.

I am convinced that you cannot go very far without some classical studies.
Ovidiu
July 16th, 2008 at 7:55 pm

Well, Silviu, I think that reading notes the right way is something that you usually learn studying at a music school and most of the guitar players are self-made musicians, and as much as I agree with the fact that reading notes helps you a lot, there are a lot of great players that don’t read notes and got really far. I wouldn’t judge them by not reading notes only.
Mike
July 17th, 2008 at 4:07 am

My initial thought: “A house band that can’t read?! Fire them. Now”
Seriously. If you can’t read and you’re in a house band, you better know every song ever written, otherwise you will inevitably have to read something at some point that was handed to you on the spot, or be asked to play something you don’t know.

My second thought. The singer was merely expecting professionals to be that. Professional. She did nothing wrong. It makes me think of if I went to a jam session of professional jazz musicians and called an obscure tune that not everyone knew, but I had the charts for it, I’d expect them to be able to read the chart and make music out of it.

My third thought. There are always exceptions. Does every great professional read music? Not a chance. It would be wrong to expect that. However, I think it’s perfectly fair to expect a bunch of guys claiming to be professional playing on a TV show daily to be able to read just about anything at sight, or at the very least, with two minutes to look at it.

Now, my opinion may be skewed, because I DID go to school, so I spent the time reading all that stuff. I know that without knowing how to read, I would not have been able to play with a couple local jazz bands and other artists that required me to read what was on the page. I also hold that reading flawlessly means absolutely nothing in the context of real musicianship. I feel like I should mention that I loath the “classical” way of teaching. I think it sucks, completely, but that’s another thought for another time.

Point is: Great musicians, in my opinion, should be able to do both and do them exceptionally well.
silviu
July 18th, 2008 at 11:45 am

Yes Mike. I agree with you totally. You cannont be a super professionist if you don’t have any studies, which implies reading notes also. It is true that you may find your place in music even if you don’t know how to read, but….. you will be traped in a few styles of playing. And this is not good.

And one mention: the singer knew that the band wasn’t able to read notes.

How not to behave in a live TV show

8 Responses to “How not to behave in a live TV show”

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