Do you like skating shows with live musicians? | Page 2 | Golden Skate

Do you like skating shows with live musicians?

StephenGfan

Final Flight
Joined
Apr 10, 2018
Shoot me now but I only really love competitive skating. I just tend to find most show(off) and exhibition(ist) programs Too Corny For Words.

I know. I know. We all have our moral failings...

:drama:

It's okay I think all exh programs boring or corny unless they are done by Skaters like Sui/han, yuna kim, Tessa/scott, yuzuru, mao and skaters with lots of personality like jason brown and balde and even then i find a handfull of exh programs done by these skaters as boring.
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
I don't know if this is really true, but I have heard skaters comment on it.

When a skater performs live to a popular band or singer there is usually not enough rehearsal time. So the skaters develop their routines to recordings.

But bands for the most part play faster live than they do in the recording studio. (You need a really good drummer to hold the groove against the band's natural tendency to rush. ;) ). So this makes the skater have to push through her/his prepared choreograpy to keep up. (?)
 
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Sam-Skwantch

“I solemnly swear I’m up to no good”
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Dec 29, 2013
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I don't know if this is really true, but I have heard skaters comment on it.

When a skater performs live to a popular band or singer there is usually not enough rehearsal time. So the skaters develop their routines to recordings.

But bands for the most part play faster live than they do in the recording studio. (You need a really good drummer to hold the groove against the band's natural tendency to rush. ;) ). So this makes the skater have to push through her/his prepared choreograpy to keep up. (?)

Nowadays most performances are done with an ear piece that usually has a click track and other cues that sync up the show. They do this to match visuals to audio. I would expect any large scale ice show big enough to incorporate live music would do this.

I agree about a natural tendency for live performances being sped up though. I’ve been guilty of this myself for several performances on the drums. It is a huge step for performances to have an ability to put a click track into a drummer’s ear to help sync up dramatic performances to visuals and other theatrics. It’s really is very exciting to perform live and hearing a metronome can help ease those jitter bugs. :)

Also....it does take a talented drummer to hold consistent time and play with feeling to a metronome.
 

heyang

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Definitely don't enjoy when shows are videotaped with live performers. Then the network airs the skating where it's about 30% live musician and 70%skating. I suspect it has to do with contractual media coverage for the musician - after all, why would they perform live for video without being seen on air? Given picture in picture/split screen technology, I don't understand why they can't show the musician performing in a small corner of the screen and the skater on the larger portion of the screen.
 

SarahSynchro

Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 7, 2014
Country
Canada
Personally, I’ve always found skating to live music to be distracting. I can’t seem to coherently explain why that is... But I’m exhausted at the moment, so I’ll think about it, then add my reasoning onto a subsequent post when I’m more alert. :bed:
 

Ic3Rabbit

Former Elite, now Pro. ⛸️
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Joined
Jan 9, 2017
Country
Olympics
I don't know if this is really true, but I have heard skaters comment on it.

When a skater performs live to a popular band or singer there is usually not enough rehearsal time. So the skaters develop their routines to recordings.

But bands for the most part play faster live than they do in the recording studio. (You need a really good drummer to hold the groove against the band's natural tendency to rush. ;) ). So this makes the skater have to push through her/his prepared choreograpy to keep up. (?)

There's actually one to two practices to get the choreo synced up as "good as it's going to get" with the band/singer. Most of the time, it ends up being close but not on during the performance and it's usually not the fault of the skater.
 

LenaRadiFan

On the Ice
Joined
Apr 8, 2018
I personally really enjoy watching performances sith live music. I do think however it tends to be more enjoyable if you actually see it live, rather than on screen. Because of the whole Singer/Skater screentime issue
 

iluvtodd

Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 5, 2004
Country
United-States
I have mixed feelings about this. If it's a performer we really want to see, we don't mind it, but we buy the tickets on the strength of the skating cast. My biggest issue is with how these shows are presented on TV, when the skaters are given short shrift. For years skating fans have requested the split screen approach, to no avail. These are supposed to be skating shows, so the emphasis should be on the skating!
 

ankifeather

Final Flight
Joined
Mar 9, 2018
I like it when the musician can play an intro piece (the camera focus on musician during this time) and then the skater comes in (with focus on the skater during this time and some occasional wide shot to include both musician and skater) - and you have best of both worlds.

Good example is the "Change" program by Hanyu. This collaboration is also interesting when you have both a rock band and traditional Japanese string instruments "Shamisen" playing live at the same time, with rapping coming in halfway and Hanyu starts doing some hip hop on ice.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8s9ERB5329g

I personally really enjoy watching performances with live music. I do think however it tends to be more enjoyable if you actually see it live, rather than on screen. Because of the whole Singer/Skater screentime issue

Having been at ice show where there were programs with live singing/instruments and programs that used a CD recording, I must say the ones with live singing/instrument just had so much more emotional impact than the ones that don't. In some way, the live singing weren't meant for the broadcast, but for the audience that attended the show, although Japanese broadcast normally do a good job of ensuring the camera is mostly on the skaters whilst they are skating.

Example of singer and skater having resonance with each other - singer interacts with the skater a bit in the program, whilst skater sings along to the song too http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItgjXP7AteM&t
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-HsWxfLpls
 

Beckaboomer

Final Flight
Joined
Dec 2, 2018
I can only recall liking two exhibition skates with live singers:

1) Javier Fernandez skating to "Prometo" sung live by Pablo Alboran during his Revolution On Ice (2018)
2) Yuzuru Hanyu skating to "Masquerade" sung live by ToshI during Fantasy on Ice (2019)

Most of the time, I have an aversion to watching skating and listening to a live singer at the same time. Being a singer myself, I tend to start critiquing the singer's performance in my head and I find it hard to concentrate on the skater. Also, sometimes the camera work is so weird and you can tell they haven't quite found the right balance between showing the skater or showing the singer. I might feel differently about this if I could ever manage to watch one of these performances live, though.
 

Edwin

СделаноВХрустальном!
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Jan 5, 2019
I can only recall liking two exhibition skates with live singers:

1) Javier Fernandez skating to "Prometo" sung live by Pablo Alboran during his Revolution On Ice (2018)
2) Yuzuru Hanyu skating to "Masquerade" sung live by ToshI during Fantasy on Ice (2019)

Most of the time, I have an aversion to watching skating and listening to a live singer at the same time. Being a singer myself, I tend to start critiquing the singer's performance in my head and I find it hard to concentrate on the skater. Also, sometimes the camera work is so weird and you can tell they haven't quite found the right balance between showing the skater or showing the singer. I might feel differently about this if I could ever manage to watch one of these performances live, though.

True.

It also depends on who has the bigger ego, reputation, the larger appearance fee or who is the real advertised star to get the best 'director's cut' in the television report.
Live in the arena it is probably very different from the presentation on TV, almost disconnected.

Rehearsal time is usually very limited, so unless the skater knows the song very well, he/she is almost never able to cue the high points right on the beat with a spectacular jump.
Even then, acoustics can play tricks, requiring the singer to sing more slowly because of reverb or so, throwing the skater off.

The Hanyu performances do stand out however, like the other poster explained.
 

Beckaboomer

Final Flight
Joined
Dec 2, 2018
I want this to be Yuzuru's LP this season. :love:

I'd forgotten about that one (I'm a bad fan obviously). It's so cool! That instrumental section in the first minute is amazing, but again there's something about when the lyrics kick that just makes me lose concentration on the skating. I think this is just a character flaw of mine. :)
 

yume

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Mar 11, 2016

ankifeather

Final Flight
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Mar 9, 2018
True.
Rehearsal time is usually very limited, so unless the skater knows the song very well, he/she is almost never able to cue the high points right on the beat with a spectacular jump.
Even then, acoustics can play tricks, requiring the singer to sing more slowly because of reverb or so, throwing the skater off. The Hanyu performances do stand out however, like the other poster explained.

That is why the skater also needs to communicate with the musician to make it work. For example, Toshi, the singer of FAOI this year blogged about how if he (unintentionally) skipped a beat or note in practice, Hanyu will immediately point out to him that note is very important to him.

Rehearsal time for each skater is also indeed limited. But the pianist playing for FAOI last year mentioned even when it is not Hanyu's rehearsal time, and the pianist is practising a program with someone else, Hanyu will sit at the rink with lunch in his hand listening to everyone's else rehearsals to understand the acoustic of the place and the habits of the pianist better. That is a way to get used to the acoustics.

I want this to be Yuzuru's LP this season. :love:
Not sure if the hip hop section will get him the required levels (arr restrictive rules..) and it will be a pity to amend it, but the song is good for competition program. In fact it doesn't have to be "Change", I would like another Hanyu program done to Shamisen (that Japanese string instrument) again since I love this instrument.
 
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