"You're gonna wanna know this !"

Chapter 1 (by Uncle Dave)

Making money in the music business is easy.
Making a LIVING in the music business is a lot harder.
Making a living, creating something beautiful .. AND enjoying it -- now, that's heaven!
There are a few things you're gonna wanna know before you buy a portable keyboard and head out to Hollywood. As a professional entertainer spanning 5 decades of music I have learned a few tricks along the way that I will gladly share with you now.

First: It's not all glamorous. When you see a performer do a two hour show -- you never see the work BEHIND the scenes that led up to the stage. There are hours of caffeine powered rehearsals, fueled by fragile psyches and inflated egos that all go unseen to the audience. This is the "BIZ" part of Show Biz!

Second: It's ALL about energy. Say it with me ...... "It's all about energy"
Music is much more than notes on a page. Without the soul and emotion of a performer -- the notes are meaningless. Add a "human" element and a collection of random dots can take on a beauty so powerful that lives will be touched, eyes brought to tears, and heartaches mended. Music is THAT powerful, and musicians need to harness that power and respect it's place in the world.

Many people depend of music to enrich their lives, calm their nerves or simply entertain them. We, as the makers of music have an obligation to provide a creative product that can lift the soul and enlighten the spirit.
Today's digital keyboards are so "packed" with automatic features, that it's easy to rely on the machine for inspiration, but don't fall into the lazy trap of auto-everything! Even the fastest cars need to be driven, and it still takes a human pilot to land the space shuttle as it thunders toward earth in an anti-aerodynamic race with death. The same is true of playing the keyboard. YOU need to pilot the unit to get the most out of it. Don't be satisfied with pushing the start button, and watching all the pretty little lights. Get your hands ON the keys, and get to know the joy of creation.

The simplest tip I can give you is "Have fun"
Music is supposed to be fun ... according to Mr. Holland, anyway.

Try this at home kids -
Learn a simple note sequence or melody, and memorize it. It can be short or long -- easy or hard. the important thing is to memorize it.
Now - rearrange the notes while playing the same rhythm and see what you come up with. Then rearrange the rhythm and keep the same notes. Now you have three separate ideas from one simple starting point.

That's it! You've just created a fresh new, original idea! Congratulations!
You are now ready for your next tip on making music with your portable keyboard!
(batterrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrup!)

AUDIENCE PSYCHOLOGY 101
(The 'people' side of the biz)
by Bsharp

Be it a concert, lounge, Elks lodge, wedding reception, private house party or background music at a fine dining restaurant, no one in your audience gives a hoot about the technical things you have to know in order to entertain them. They just came to be with friends or to enjoy an evening out. So, help them.

As entertainers we have to be chameleon-like, ready to change the nature of our music and entertainment as the evening progresses and be intuitive enough to recognize when we should be "background" and when to be in in the forefront...and how to seque from one mode to another.

Most dinner/dances and parties have a common thread or unspoken format to them. When guests arrive, and maybe for the first hour or so, there is a "sniffing period", similar to when dogs meet each other. The purpose of the "sniffing" is for the guests to get acquainted or re-acquainted with each other. The music takes a back seat.

When meals are served, the food is the star of the show. Don't even try to compete with that. If you are playing during dining, the music should enhance the meal and table conversations by being pleasant and at a reduced volume.

But, when the "sniffing" and meals are finished, don't be shy about stepping up the pace and the volume a notch. If your thing is music only, get them dancing. If you are a personality type of musician/entertainer, talk to them - get them involved - make them smile - or better yet laugh out loud while providing what you think is the most appropriate music for the ocassion.

Taking requests can often help you gauge what will please them most...but don't let them program your performance. Keep them guessing. Give them treats and a variety of tempos and styles.

As the evening progresses, the natural flow of your material and the mood you create will permeate the room and build an atmosphere of enjoyment they all expected to have when they left for the event. Nobody came to have a rotten time. Build on their expectations.

Structure your sets so when you take a break you leave them wanting more.

Always show your appreciation for a good audience. Never show your disdain for a bad one.

Finally, have a big finish - something for them to remember you by. And, be sure to have your business cards handy. If you are lucky, you will need them...hopefully, lots of them.

A man stopped to ask a street busker how to get to Carnegie Hall.
The street busker replied PRACTICE MAN - PRACTICE MAN - PRACTICE MAN.

Graham UK

[This message has been edited by Graham UK (edited 12-15-2001).]

Very good points.

Thanks guys.

Eric

U/D & BSharp: These were beautiful and true
posts. Your thoughts and words flowed to-gether so smothly, and I am sure your music flows together in the same manner. There is no substitute for experience coupled with talent, and so many on this forum have them both. Please inspire us again, every now and then as you have done here. ARJ

Thanx guys, but lets try to keep the comments OFF this thread, so it can be more of a work in progress. We can talk about it in another post, kay? I want this to be as close to a group-written book as can be.
Thanx, now lets hear some other points on the biz !

Other than the advice allready posted, the best advice I can give is this:
When all else fails, take a break. Step back for a couple of days, you'll be suprised at the results.

The sound of silence . . . . .
(by Uncle dave)


Nothing sounds sweeter than beautiful music, and sometimes, it's the NOTHING that makes it so beautiful! We have the technology to add, add, add and layer upon layer till we have the sonic equivalent of ...................................
a huge Farfisa organ!

I've found that the more tones I layer together -- the more it gets "organ-esq". Less is definitely more in many cases. When laying down a backing sequence of chords under a melody (live or recorded) make sure you leave room for the melody to skate around and take some liberties. Backgrounds should be just that ... in the background. When it's time for your solo -- then you can show them what cha got!

When playing with today's modern keyboards, try to remember to add some silence. It makes ALL the difference between music & noise. Wind players need to breathe, so if you are using a sax or trumpet tone, make sure you end the notes at a reasonable time. It will sound UNnatural if the instrument is played out of character. Learn the correct note range of the solo instruments, and stick to it. Nothing takes away from the realism of a sound like the wrong playing range or style technique.

For example -
* don't use pitch bend on an acoustic piano
* don't glissando (with a trumpet sound) on all white keys
* don't play an acoustic bass in the highest register, or use 5 note chords either

All these things will "suggest" to your listener that the sound is phony.
Sure, we ALL know that it IS phony, but we can pull off a few tricks with smoke & mirrors if we learn the "inner" personality traits of each instrument we emulate.

Here are some more tips to add realism to your solos --
* add pitch bend and vibrato to all guitars, especially steel(Hawaiian) guitars
* make sure the sax player "breathes" once in a while (all wind instruments)
* if you use auto arrangers, make sure you turn them off every so often! Use a break of silence at the end of a phrase to let the melody "sing through" or use the sync start/stop in tandem to produce dynamic "hits" to accent a phrase, like a quarter note triplet in a 4/4 measure. (rest..rest..) DAH.. DAH.. DAH... DAAAAAH !
(That sounded great, here at my desk !)
A good place to try the start/stop sync is in the Don & Juan song
"What's your name" - At the end it has a tag line .....
What's your name (DAH DAH DAH) ............
What's your name ..................................... Shooby doo, bop ba dah !

and lastly, play some million sellers, using the right instrument sound
eg:

"Stranger on the shore" - clarinet
"I can't get started with you" - trumpet
"I'm getting sentimental over you" - trombone
"Music box dancer" or "Last date" - piano
"Whiter shade of pale" - organ
"Europa" or "Songbird" - saxophone

These songs all have an identifiable sound that is an audio "signature" to the listener. If you play them with the right sound -- your crowd will identify with them as they did to the original. It really helps to add to the legitimacy of a show. It's great to develop YOUR own special sound, but remember to give the people what they know too. One of the reasons that DJ's became so popular was because many bands stopped learning the "feel" and "identity" of the hit songs. If you have a loyal following -- you can experiment with styles and feel, but if you play the "outside" (meaning -- weddings, banquets, and other private parties) you NEED to know how to please a wide variety of ages and backgrounds. Versatility will save your butt more times than creativity.

Here's the thought for the day -

Sometimes the best notes are the ones you DON'T play!
Celebrate the silence !

"Hello darkness, my old friend............................................."

Great discussion! Does all this apply to DJs?
Mario

Mario,
I'm trying to keep this post JUST for the tips & tricks. Maybe we can start a Q&A post to go alongside it. As for your DJ question -- if you're serious, there is an entirely different school of thought when approaching entertainment as a DJ. I sometimes go out as one, and the mind set is distinctive to the craft.

First - One thing that's missing is the "personal" touch in each song, so the em-cee needs to add that on his/her own. I don't recommend talking over every number, but a little chatter can really help to open up a room.
Second - A lot of DJ's play too d*** loud. ( bands too ) Look at the size of the room, placement of the speakers, and age of the crowd. Factor all these in together and play accordingly. I like to make the host ask me to turn it UP, before they ask anything else!
Third - Develop your own collection of "specialty" songs. These are lifesavers at parties that need a jump start. Some guaranteed crowd pleasers STILL include:
*The electric slide
*The macarena
*Old time R&R
*Hot hot hot
*YMCA
*The chicken dance
*NYNY
* * * This list can go on for pages ..........
It doesn't matter if YOU'RE tired of hearing this stuff - it fills the dance floor and brings the crowd together. Take my advice and play the hits!

Soft, instrumental jazzy stuff is great during cocktails,.
Smooth big band ballads, and classic singers work great at dinner
(Sinatra, Bennett, Streisand, etc)
After dinner - Motown classics (like Temps, Tops, & Supremes) will ALWAYS get the floor crowded. Once the dance floor is active -- you "play the room"
Never do more than three of ANY type song in a row, always give the crowd a second chance at a dance they seem to respond to. Too many times, there is a handful of young girls hogging the floor, so the DJ will cater to them because it's fun to watch them dance.... but 100 others are SITTING at the tables! Next he plays a slow song, and the floor fills up, and right after ..... it's back to the modern tunes, and he loses the floor. Give 'em at least two chances if they respond to a certain type of song.
Mix it up -- use all the tricks in your bag - Cha Cha's, Disco, Swing - use it all!

Try not to avoid the younger set, but don't play the harder edge stuff that will be offensive to the older folks -- there are plenty of tunes that fall in the middle of the road, that the kids will love, and the old folks won't hate. This is important -- you never want to isolate any part of the crowd. Your job as an entertainer is to unite the crowd and provide a vehicle for them to enjoy the time together with. It's a privilege, and don't ever forget that performers are in the service business.