My goal is to satisfy the bulk of the audience. Problem is, at dances there are always a few who make the same requests and want them NOW. It kinda stifles diversity...but its just something to contend with and a programming challenge.

In the course of most evenings I will slip in something I really like to play which I doubt most are familiar with. Sometimes it even works and I get requests for it later. Other times it bombs and I make a mental note to deep six it.

NHs are a different story. I stick with what is familiar to them.

Eddie

I like most of the tunes I play, and with the ones that are played a lot and/or start to get tiring to play, I try to find something in the music that I can add without affecting it's overall authenticity too much, yet give me a bit of inner satisfaction.

There are tunes I generally "have to" play...Last Date (Floyd Cramer), A Whiter Shade of Pale, Music Box Dancer (Frank Mills) to name a few...fortunately I like these tunes a lot...for a change I may play Whiter Shade using an orchestral string arrangement as the tune borders on the classical...for Music Box Dancer, I use acoustic guitar instead of piano. For Last Date I sub in a pedal steel for piano.

Playing all instrumentals does not give me the advantage of different lyrics for each verse/chorus, so I have to work a little harder on the arrangements to make them more interesting, for both me and the listener.

Thankfully, I find it a lot of fun.

Ian

Right you are, Ian. The day it stops being fun, that's the day to hang it all up. Glad to say I'm not even close to that.