[Bards] Differing Styles

[T'Star]

No worries, Melody, I'm likely to stick my neck out further than you.

Much as we all like the performances... we're in this for the
audiences folk.  They don't listen it doesn't matter if we have the
most period piece on the planet complete with 85 page documentation in
the original gibberish, and is performed down to the last hiccup as
the great bard Drunkalotagin performed 800 years ago.  If it puts
everyone but the third judge from the end to sleep... or has them
fleeing from we in terror, we goofed, not them.

While diversity is a wonderful thing. I think we should focus more on
VARIETY in performance, not diversity.  There is a subtle difference,
but there is a difference.  Yes, we should all probably attempt to
sing, dance, perform (not recite, any parrot can recite) poetry, tell
stories, play instruments... It's a great way to learn in what ways we
might branch out; however, if you are physically incapable of carrying
a tune in a bucket... you should probably not attempt to sing.  You
will do yourself AND your audience a disservice.

Hearing 15 epic ballads back to back gets old. Hearing 20 Irish
drinking songs (sober) back to back can get mildly frustrating.
Hearing dramatic stories all day, can make you want to shoot whoever
tries the next one.

That said, I do agree that "Two pieces that show off different aspects
of the Bard's Skill" leaves a lot more breathing room and a lot more
room to improvise round an audience that has just suffered through the
5th variation on the cinderella story, and keep from losing them
completely.  Know your audience.  Know your audience.  When push comes
to shove, as with the noveling world: It doesn't matter what WE like.
We've got to sell it to THEM.  Which means knowing a little more than
2 or 3 pieces, and sometimes sacrificing 'period' for 'audience'.
There's a time and place for the excruciating period pieces, it's
usually not an open forum.

~Svetlana Andrejevna Volkova