I play bass at several bluegrass jams. Clapping out of rhythm can be kinda distracting, seeing as I am pretty much the rhythm section. But any irritation is outweighed by appreciation that they are enjoying themselves. Now that old guy who occasionally stops by with his spoons…:rolleyes:
Sure, I get that, but it was still an obvious distraction. Would be even harder if you were strumming a guitar or something.
What song did his audience request occur on? Clapping just off the beat would cause some hindrance on certain songs or passages of his discography. If it was a song like “Tell Her About It” though, I’d join in the hindering.
I need to make this my sig line.
Yeah, fun link.
I’m not a professional musician but I’ve played some concerts and many “improvised sessions” with friends back in the day and having people out of sync with you can be very distracting.
I rembember one particular song that I was playing at a party with another guitarist and the rest of our friends singing along. It was not a difficult song at all but for some reason he was on 1 and 3 and I was on 2 and 4. I tried to fix it as we were going along but couldn’t. A real chord barrage so to speak, with no room to breathe.
Another time I was playing guitar with a group a young teens at a music school concert. The drummer, who was 12 at most, was pretty much on the beat but he hit his kit as if he was trying to knock down a dinosaur. LOUD. That almost threw me off, I was constantly bracing for the next blow. Fortunately, the bassist was actually one of the teachers. I locked in on his groove and I was fine.
Heh. We had rehearsal for the Last Night of the Proms last night (the concert is tomorrow), as part of which we’re doing a “Sound of Music” medley. Conductor Marin Alsop asked at one point about some small point in the ‘Edelweiss’ bit and said “Is anyone else going to be singing here?”. At which point the chorus en masse said “Yes - the entire audience”.
Alsop: “Ah. Not much point in finessing this then.”
Us: “No.”
You work with Marin Alsop? Cool.
Unless the performing group encourages it (and usually by doing an exaggerated clapping motion on the 2 & 4), audiences attempting to clap in rhythm make me crazy. I’ve had a highly developed sense of rhythm since childhood, and a bunch of clods attempting to keep time ruins the music for me.
My “not-a-racist” drummer friend tells me that white people clap on the 1 & 3, and black people on the 2 & 4.
As a part-time musician, I will tell you that you don’t need bad clapping to throw the band off…if you lose the “1”, it almost immediately falls apart. A good drummer/percussionist will pick up the problem immediately and adjust.
On rare occasion, yes.
I’m a fairly terrible drummer and always end up a half-beat off after a few bars. A well-timed audience might help me! 
Yeah, I’ve heard that many times from a variety of musicians and other people.
That’s why I love drummers so much–the rhythm section, in general, is the most important part of a band to me. A great drummer can bring everyone back together like a good conductor. Those types of drummers are quite rare but when you find them, they make everyone sound and play better.
Justin Townes Earle told us to stop stomping to the beat in St. Louis a couple years ago. He was solo, just him and his guitar, and I imagine it could have been pretty distracting. Still, it’s a pretty rare request from a musician. However, he’s a rare solo guitarist who isn’t playing folk or something most people wouldn’t stomp or clap to. It was pretty rhythm-heavy blues.
When I go to a concert I want to hear the performer, not the audience.
With a lot of acts, most bands I would say, audience participation is fun and not too distracting for the band or the audience. A big part of why we enjoy music is a sympathetic response, where we imagine ourselves as the performer. That’s why we love to sing along, and play air guitar, and bang on boxes and tabletops to the beat. I can really only see solo acoustic acts getting distracted by the audience, because they aren’t as loud nor are there other band members to maintain the rhythm if you lose it momentarily.
As a fan, it doesn’t bother me when other audience members sing along, because the PA is loud enough that you can still hear the band. It does annoy me when the singer stops singing and just expects the audience to do all the work, though.