Feeling Like a Dweeb

I'm odd and I don't fit in. That's one reason why I like music. Everyone else wants to dance and sing and party, and I want to play my guitar while they dance and sing and party. It works out. Bonus points if you look cool doing it.

Today I had to play the shaker.


There's not a lot to the shaker. You stand there and shake it rhythmically. OK. Actually it's the hardest instrument (besides French Horn) that I've ever played. Shaking it seamlessly is harder than it looks. Little glitches in your motion can be heard loud and clear. Plus, the sand has a slight delay to the motion, so you have to shake it a little ahead of the beat.

So, here I am... a little more than a tad over-weight... I'm standing in the middle of the stage right behind the singer and shaking my shaker. I closed my eyes so that I could concentrate, so that it might look like I'm worshipping, and so that nobody would think I was looking at the singer's butt. My wife said I looked like a dweeb.

*sigh*

When we go to watch a music performance... we really hope that they dig what they do. But when it comes down to it... we really don't care what they do or don't dig. We want them to play their music in a way that will draw us in to what they are doing. That means that we sometimes have to practice looking rockish. (I am tragically un-cool, so that's always been hard for me.)

But when I watch a band that does it... it really makes the performance come alive. Even a worship band.

Is it fake? Yes and no. On some level, we're like actors. We're portraying the song.

So... do you have to practice looking cool? How do you go about it?