Aw Frankie .... C'mon - Britney is hardly an ADEQUATE singer. No one buys her music for the music...not even the kids. It's the package that sells her.

I think it's a little different here. Those 'artists' have already made the music and are just recreating it, maybe faking it. We, on the other hand, are covering their music. We need to impress the audience with our musicianship. I go back to my original thought. Use the midis, mp3, arrangers, etc, BUT PLAY! This ain't no karakoe forum.

Scott...

Two points about playing with a SMF. First, there is a difference between SMFs and SMFs! If you have any doubt, go to:
http://www.manythings.org/midi/search.html

and type in a song title. In most cases, you'll find several midis of the same song. After downloading and auditioning a few, you'll see what I mean. Better yet, check out some professionally made SMFs, like from Styles & Music:
http://styles-music.com/default.asp

and you'll hear a marked improvement. So if you're playing with SMfs, use the good ones.

Secondly, a big advantage to playing with midis, is that you can concentrate on playing the full keyboard. Check out some mp3s by Esh... I believe that's what he's doing and it sounds great.

Furthermore, with a free left hand, you can continually work the the pitch and mod wheels when playing sax (and certain other instruments, like blues guitar), which IMO is the only way to sound like a sax. Between playing full piano and sax (which I love doing on the SD1) this works great. And you're definitely not faking it!

Glenn

I use sequences so as to play my sax. I probably play my sax as well as anybody here can play their keyboard and maybe better. Does that make me a cheat. Some may be surprised to see me play the keyboard and say wow! You're a Sax man!

I have about 7 great Ray Charles midi files that sound just like the record and I enjoy singing Ray Charles more than any other entertainer, so I use them. However, I do play the keyboard along with them and play an improvised solo on most everything I do whether it's the Sax or the Keyboard.

Look at all the folks on TV making a fortune faking strumming a guitar. And many that can strum can only do it in the key of E. Ha! Ha!

If you're just doing Karoake then you're a fake musician. If you play live most of the stuff you're doing yourself and use a super midi file here and there, I see nothing wrong with that.

Probably the ones that are most insulting in this respect are the worst players. I'll put my sax playing against any body here with their keyboard playing. With the exception of Mycoy Tyner, Wynton Kelly, Oscar Petersen, Bill Evans a hand full of others if any of you guys are on this site. They don't count in this challenge.

So shut up! and go make a living like these good people on this forum entertaining with their equipment.

How much money a year are you complainers making doing musical entertaining??? Not anywhere near what Uncle Dave, Donny, DonM, Scott and others are making. I know for a fact that DonM has made hundreds of dollars and I can't count as high as the amount of money Dave pulls in and he can't even carry a tune in a bucket. Got em' again. I love ya Dave.

Some can play, some can't and out of the ones that can play, some can swing and some can't. Some have it and some don't. We all have a good idea of where we fit in. So, other than the ones that can't play at all and are faking it 100%, let's keep putting up with one another and learning to improve ourselves and quit sounding jealous.

Like I said I'm not jealous of Dave and he makes 5 times the money that I do and he can't carry a tune in a bucket, but he sure can sing.

I bet Dave, Donny, Scott, and DonM could just stand in front sing and not play any instrument and make a living.

Boy! I need to quit here. I am getting jealous, envious and suffering strife as I write. Guess I'm just another weak human. Boy I hate when I get like this.

I can also lay more brick than all of you guys here on the forum put together. Put that in your pipe and smoke it. I also challenge any one here on the forum to nine ball anytime anyplace. Now ya'll have something else to think about. Oh and the loser pays for my round trip ticket to anyplace you want to meet to play some nine ball. Boy my feathers are up. I'll be OK in an hour or so friends. I'm going to get my Prozac now.

CD-R's work well in my case. Arrange the tunes on an arranger keyboard, or Band In A Box, bounce to a 16-track recorder. Add appropriate overdubs---strings, choral oohs and aahs, extra percussion, etc.. Burn to CD and presto, personalized backing tracks for solo guitar/vocals. Works great if you're careful about your bookings. Obviously, it's tough to play requests if they're not on the CD.

Boo,

Forget the Prozac--Kickapoo Joy Juice, a glass of which I just happen to have in my hand, tastes better, goes down smoother and after a glass or two, has the same effect. Besides, it's a lot cheaper. I'll have to send you a bottle so you can test it out.

Gary

Hmmmm, Requests? here is where the tricky part comes into play.....Its called "Playing Live" besides the other tools.. and definitly is a MUST HAVE part of the overal musical arsenal when you got hundreds of people out on the floor or in the audience!

carry on..

PS.. Easy There Boo..

Donny,

Some of the comments on this post reminds me of the guys on TV and in the press box that can't throw a football 10 yards or have any idea of what a pair of shoulder pads smell like and comment about how they would have run this and that play.

Some folks probably can't make a nickle doing a one man band so they have to find something to bad mouth the ones who are a "one man band".

Boo, having a bad day? I missed where this comment came from. Even though we've digressed from from Scott's original question, I think the thread has been lively and helpful. Smile.

Glen, good post. Lots of useful info in that post.

[This message has been edited by cassp (edited 11-11-2003).]