i am not sure i put the right words in the subject, but i'd like to know what do you do when you are hired to perform at some event?

for instance, how's your wedding program looks like? what are your moments in your show at such type of performance?
at a dance afternoon, what do you do beside playing dance music?

how do you interact with the people? telling jokes? asking them to come in front, say something?

maybe the topic was already brought up before, but i can not remember...

please share your way of doing it...

Two different crowds, two different shows.

I'm sure Donny will agree... Reading the crowd you have is far more important than some preset system.

This topic will have as many treatments as posters. For me, here's my "hafta do" list:
1.Produce a roomfilling, entertaining musical experience that will satisfy the client and please most, if not all of their guests.
2.Get my check and go home.

What Diki and Dave said. Just entertain them--that's what the paid us to do.

Cheers,

Gary

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Travlin' Easy

Exactly Diki....
no two gigs are Ever the same....
the audience dictates the performance always as you go along!

I try to remember lyrics and chords. Try to remember not to pick my nose on stage.
Seriously, as others have said, you must read the audience, try to find out what they really want, and then MAKE THEM BEND TO YOUR WILL!
No, really seriously, in most places they want to hear songs they know or remember and can dance to. The beat and tempo of the song must be accurate, the rest of the performance can be really personalized the way you want.
You can look at the ages of the audience and usually guess what era their musical favorites are from.
After all these years, I've pretty much learned what will work in most situations.
I do play some instrumentals but they are almost always songs that were HITS as instrumentals, such as Last Date, Dr. Zhivago, Yakity Sax, Tuff, Wonderland By Night, Honky Tonk, Tequila, etc.
Almost all my work is done by using styles and playing right-hand fills and solos, while using both feet to activate sustain, vocal harmony, fills, breaks. As an added bonus, I've found it is difficult to pick your nose when all of your appendages are busy.
DonM

can you share some experiences? of course you need to adapt and to read the audience, but in practice, what do you do (also beside playing/singing songs)? and i am not interested in presets anyway...
how did your last performance go for instance?

[This message has been edited by adimatis (edited 03-12-2008).]

Although I can read....I personally NEVER use any fake books, charts, or any music whatsoever on stage it really holds me back from performing in the manner I want too & shows much better stage presence........
it might sound crazy but I was taught to play with a BLINDFOLD ON as a great exercise to play & sing without looking at the keys or reading music/lyrics.....this will Definitely help anyone once you start doing it song by song, day after day try it sometime....
being a slave to the charts is a big hindrance for a OMB that can be overcome with much practice for sure.....plus it allows your music to breath and gives you the ability to ad-lib, & improvise which makes for some really fantastic sounding musical playing it your way!!
Good Luck

I do hundreds of songs completely from memory, chords and words. I have perhaps another thousand digital charts with lyrics and chord changes, at my fingertips for those reque$t$.
I have all of them on my PC, my laptop, my PSRS900 and SD5.
As for the latest performance, that was last night. It was rather uneventful with small but steady flow of diners/dancers. I start with a middle of the road song. Last night it was "I Can Help". Then I will so a slow 6/8 ballad. I think it was "Can't Help Falling In Love". Then I had a couple of requests; one for "Wonderful Tonight" and one for "#@%&! Brown-eyed Girl". Then a Happy Birthday (I usually always do that several times a night. I've even written a special birthday song for the club I play in.}
After that, it went something like: Fly Me To The Moon, Suzie Q, Spanish Eyes, That's All Right Now Mama, Margaritaville, He Stopped Loving Her Today, Can't You See, San Francisco, Sweet Home Alabama--maybe not exactly in that order.
Most were requests. I took a break after about an hour and a half. I try to time that so that I'm on stage when people are leaving so that can't sneak out and not leave me a tip!
Later I had a reque$t for Cajun music, so I did Jole Blon, Don't Mess With My Toot-toot, Diggy-liggy Li, and Big Mamou.
Later some "ballroom" types came in and I did Misty, Begin The Beguine and Shake, Rattle and Roll (Big band style).
As it cleared out and only a few regulars were there I experimented some, jamming with the Riff feature on the SD5. Some of the Riff styles progressions work really great, some have a their own agenda!
This was a night when I did only a few Country songs. They are usually a larger part of my evening, because a lot of our clientele is older people and/or wealthy Texans in town for the casinos.
They are filming a lot of movies here now. One night last week Michael Douglas and Oliver Stone were guests.
Tonight, it might be totally different. I hope so; I love the variety. One night I did every Hank Williams song I could think of, and that's a lot!
As far as talking to the audience, sometimes I do it more than others--depends on the feel of the night, whether I know anybody, whether they are paying attention or talking, etc.
I have the obligatory arsenal of one-liners and jokes. (I'm taking a short break, because I don't want to short anything out, but I'm warning you I'm coming right back.)
(If there's a song you'd like to hear just . . . keep it to yourself/NO I mean let me know what it is, I probably don't know it anyway.)
(Are you folks from Texas? I thought so. You can always tell a Texan, just can't tell them very much). You know, corny junk. They love it.
DonM

yeah, that kind of experiences...
thanks!