I use a tiny netbook PC for my lyrics, and there's a good reason behind this - I cannot remember all the words to the more than 3,000 songs I have performed over the years. Carol told me the mind was the second thing to go - I forgot what the first thing was!

During his musical career, Frank Sinatra performed more than 15,000 songs, Willie Nelson probably wrote that many, and I can guarantee you that both relied heavily on lyrics sheets.

With my setup, no realizes that I am reading the lyrics because my device has a small footprint. And, they way I have it set up, I can quickly switch to another song during a performance and no one is aware of it because the mouse sits on a small platform completely out of view from the audience. Yes, my right hand was not on the keys for a second or two, but that is always the case because I was changing registrations, adding a layered voice to the right or left hand, changing RH volume, etc... The left hand often left the keys as well so I could work the pitch bend. DonM taught me that.

So, if you work it right, you can read those lyrics and no one would have a clue you were doing so. Same goes for reading the dots or tabs as well, something that can easily be incorporated with the music on your PC. Yep, there are times when I just cannot remember all those damned chord changes.

Gary