I have been thinking lately about the ways that a solo music performer can sustain interest by continually shifting the audience's focus of attention. Yesterday I was able to refine my ideas by observing two solo acts at a local concert hall.
The opening act was a young singer/songwriter who accompanied himself on an acoustic guitar (that is to say, a guitar instead of an electric guitar). He was a capable singer and an excellent rock guitarist. He kept the audience interested by alternating between two states: 1) expressive vocals plus generic guitar accompaniment or 2) impressive guitar licks. This simple binary approach worked well except for times when he repeated lyrics or guitar licks too often. The audience must be given something new with each shift of focus from voice to guitar and back, or attention wanders.
During Bob Dylan's early career as a solo performer, he often maintained audience interest by alternating vocals with harmonica. He also managed to perform the more difficult feat of shifting the audience's attention from the lyrics being sung to the ideas provoked by the lyrics. This mental shift, which is the mark of true poetry, occurs for me in the first stanza of his song Blowin in the Wind:
"How many roads must a man walk down
Before you call him a man?
Yes, an' how many seas must a white dove sail
Before she sleeps in the sand?"
At the mention of the white dove, my mind is instantly diverted to the memory of Noah's release of the dove in the Genesis account and associated ideas about the Flood and judgment. A less lofty mental shift is provided by the last two lines of the first stanza of Dylan's Desolation Row:
"They're selling postcards of the hanging
They're painting the passports brown
The beauty parlor is filled with sailors
The circus is in town
Here comes the blind commissioner
They've got him in a trance
One hand is tied to the tight-rope walker
The other is in his pants
And the riot squad they're restless
They need somewhere to go
As Lady and I look out tonight
From Desolation Row."
In this case, the shift is from being entertained by cryptic descriptions of a troubled society to having my mind captured by the perspective of the last two lines: in my imagination I picture a woman and myself watching the turmoil from a squalid outpost at the edge of town. The shift is between listening to clever words and entering into a story.
The second solo performer of the evening was a very polished entertainer whose specialty was playing the guitar by tapping directly on the fingerboard. He employed five approaches for maintaining audience interest.
1. Playing two musical lines on the guitar
For his first piece, he tapped out an intricate treble line with his right hand and added a syncopated bass line with his left. This virtuosity was impressive but became wearying to the audience if prolonged. He returned to this approach several times during his act.
2. Bringing in a second player
For about a third of the songs the guitarist abandoned his solo act and had a lady violinist accompany him.
3. Playing with looping software
On several songs the guitarist taped a line of music using looping software and then played a synthetic duet with himself. This was an interesting novelty at first but quickly palled.
4. Performing covers of well-known songs and having the audience sing along
This approach worked well. The audience's attention alternated between listening to the guitar and belting out the lyrics themselves.
5. Playing the guitar and singing
The guitarist evidently had little confidence in his vocal abilities and sang nothing during his act but one halfhearted attempt at a rap song. This fell flat.
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It is a daunting challenge to keep an audience interested for a half hour or more. I admire any solo performer who takes up the challenge.
