Yes folks you heard it right.....after using a laptop on stage for the last few years while performing with my KB it is really becoming a Pain in the Butt with the advent and popularity of a Karaoke Bar thinking public who looks at your performing and doesnt see anything EXCEPT the LAPTOP SCREEN and is totally oblivious to you as a LIVE MUSICIAN doing your thing.....all they know is "hey theres a screen that he's reading Lyrics from" "oh boy Im gonna go over there and ask him if I can sing a song" or "hey Joey go over there and ask that guy if you sing some Sinatra"
The mere fact is this you can be the greatst player in the world but if they see that Screen your a gonner for legitamacy in their eyes due to the publics lack of knowledge of this "thing of ours! the OMB show.." Last week a woman stuck here head in between me & the laptop screen while IM playing & singing!! to look at the scren and says to me "Hey wheres the words? [which arent there..] & " what else do you have that I can sing?" as GOOD as a Laptop is to use Live, is as BAD as it is in another way! What YOU think is normal is so Bizzarr to the publics eye when they hear all kinds of music and only SEE One Person sitting there playing it all somehow as they GUESS DJ?, KARAOKE? KB PLAYER, LIP SYNCING?
etc etc its getting weird when 80% of what the public sees nowadays is DJ's, "K" artists, etc etc etc etc typw entertainment vs the "LIVE PLAYER" anymore......with this in mind and trying stay belivable & Still entertain MY LARGE DANCE CROWDS in the WAY THAT I HAVE TO DO IT by playing live styles & singing as much as possible....peppered with SMF & Mp3's...
IM looking at alernatives to the LAPTOP style usage, I have a few ideas........we'll see what turns up...have you had any experieces too?

Your thoughts?

The lip syncing one is the best I ever heard. A woman actually came up to me one night and told me I wasn't playing or singing, I was lip syncing. My response to her was "Who was I lip syncing to? Was it Sinatra, or Tony Bennett?" If I was going to lip sync, why would I do it to myself? And catering people always get miffed when I ask them to remove the "DJ table" from the bandstand. They look at me like I'm from Mars. I've quit using labtops. I just use the G-1000. I can play SMF's thru it but I ues them sparingly, just for major dance tunes. I try and do as much as I can without relying on all the extra stuff. The downside to that is it does somewhat limit me as to what kind of gigs I can go after. I've been thinking of adding a DJ setup to my mix to take care of the newer stuff, much of which I wouldn't want to play myself. Has anyone done this and what is your experience with it?

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Songman55
Joe Ayala

Joe take a look at the Ketron Midjay
http://www.ketronus.com/midjay.htm

A friend of mine who plays sax/piano/keyboards did this for a number of years ...he would play kb for the ceremony, piano and mix in sax with backing tracks for the cocktail hour, and add that to DJing for the reception ... it helped that his son-in-law also did DJ and radio work and kept him up-to-date... it worked well for him until he got tired of hauling all that 'stuff' around ... now he does mostly ceremoies and/or cocktail hours on piano or kb ...
t.

Not one playing live (yet), I'm not qualified from experience about using a laptop...however...it is refreshing for me to continue working out songs by using styles and registrations only. I find myself very busy pushing buttons and looking as if I am a musician/singer. I'm practing audience participation by memorization and keeping my eyes off the keys as much as possible. Next, I'll incorporate some SMF's and sequences that I have harmony to, but hopefully limited.
Having fun with the PA50.

Donny ... Do you think all that stuff doesn't happen if you DON'T use a lap-top ?!? ... I don't use one and it happens all the time ...
When someone comes up to me and looks at the kb and says "what other songs do you have in there?" , I tell them "they aren't in THERE, they are in here, here, and here, and point ot my head, heart and hands !!!
t.

You are so right Tony. It seems that almost anyone under the age of 40 or so just does not understand what live music is. I cannot begin to count the number of times over the last few years that the words "Have you got so-and-so" have been heard. Everything they see on stage is, to them, simply another type of disco equipment.
Whatever would Mozart think of it?

Trevor

There was a time when I didn't use a laptop, probably about the same time I was wrestling with a massive setup that took 45 minutes and involved two keyboards--dumb. Even then, when I had lyric books on a music stand, had the keyboard set up sideways so the audiences could see my hands playing the keyboard, it didn't make a damned bit of difference. People still came up to you in the middle of a song and began talking to you as if you were a DJ. I'll stick with the laptop until something better comes along, which I don't think will be anytimg soon. I've even had the laptop on a music stand to the side of the keyboard where no one but me could see it, and it still didn't make a damned bit of diffeence. Like my father always said "The average person is well below average, and common sense is very common these days."

Cheers,

Gary

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Travlin' Easy

You have an excellent KB .....practice Playing & Singing with a 'BLINDFOLD ON" his will force you to NOT rely on Lyrics and Looking at the keys when you play as litle as possible making those two things secondary, But it will let you concentrate on reading the audience and entertainig them

Good Luck

Tony.....after 35+ years of performing live I can tell you that electronic music as a whole is beyond the rhelm of the laymans ears & knowledg to a point .....
But the Visual of an audience of a Large LT SCREEN is a major factor in their "YOUR FAKING IT attitude. Lets face it total believability would be PURE ACUSTIC playing eg: Piano, Accordian, Guitar, etc, etc, & vocals......anything else confuses the masses....so to eliminate whatever veiwable gear you can to LESSEN the Audience Doubt factor by a few Percentage points makes for an easier gig all around



[This message has been edited by Dnj (edited 10-17-2005).]