I may nominate this for 'post of the year'. Pretty much sums up the 'play for pay' music scene of the last few years.

chas

As a clinician/demonstrator for one of the major musical instrument companies, most of the tunes I played were picked because of how they showcased a particular feature of the instrument. Most of the tunes were instrumentals, although I did demo the Vocal Harmonizer feature, and also showed how it could be used as a vocoder.

Most genres were Latin, Country...well, mostly a tune or two from each style category on the arranger (if that was the instrument I was demoing...I also did synths and pianos).

My restaurant gig repertoire consisted of instrumental arrangements of standards, pop tunes, Country, Latin, Swing etc...plus requests. I'm of the belief the average listener may not always know what music they like, but they always like music they know.

I played mostly for the "common ear".

Since retiring from clinician and gigging work, I now play what I want to play...again, it's usually choice picks from Standards, Light Jazz, some interesting Pop tunes (Boz Scaggs etc), trad Country. I make some CDs for friends, and more recently I've been dabbling into video/speech Soundtracks, using some Custom FreePlay styles I've made on my Tyros4 specifically for this purpose.

My modest pension is enough that I don't need to gig, although I do take the occasional lucrative dinner music job, but overall, I must say I'm really enjoying the freedom of playing what suits me and my mood.

I'm fortunate to have the privilege of playing a beautiful vintage Hammond B-3 several times a month with a group of buddies I jam with...we play everything from Latin to Swing, and often have the occasional guest who might take us into less explored territory like Celtic music, or even Surf Rock.

But, my main love is still my Arranger Keyboard...it's my musical "buddy". There's not a day that goes by that doesn't have me playing for at least a few hours, and having a ready-made band is a wonderful convenience.

Ian

Great thread. Bottom line, do the kind of music that makes you happy. If you're happy, your audiences will be happy too.

We also enjoy the music we play. Many of our audience were in their early 20's during the 1950's. So we play a lot of music from that era.

Very well put across Don, you should have been a preacher man......maybe you are

One trick that has worked for me is to offer the audience, or people who want to make requests, a songlist to choose from. That way they will always pick songs that I know instead of stammering around asking for songs I don't know (endlessly). I can't play everything and wouldn't want to play it if I did so guiding the audience to where I want them to go seems to not only save us both frustration but it adds to my tip jar as well.

Jim, one of the best one man entertainers I've ever known did just that. He called himself "The Quiet Man". An Englishman, he had a printed playlist, and handed it out to all guests. He was a guitar player of considerable talent, so the act included many styles, instrumentals; even several kinds of stringed instruments.


Good positive approach!


Russ

That's a great idea. I experimented some with it years ago and it seemed to work o.k. It doubles as a sort of business card if you put your info on it too. Guess I got lazy as my list grew REALLY long. There are more than 5,000 files in my lyrics folder! Some duplications though--different formats, keys, versions, etc.
HEY! Just thought of something. Since everybody has a computer of some sort with them, if only a phone, a person could just give them a card with a link to the network or website and let them browse through a list there.
It would have to be just a list, not the actual lyrics folder, or all my years of hard work would have a million share on Facebook by morning!
Brilliant right!!?
Dang, I wish it would stop raining so I could go fishing.

Once you let the audience run the show, silly requests lists, etc, like a karaoke act in a bar, & your NOT in Control your done!...secondly all this means squat if your music ain't good enough to please any audience, & there are alot of bad acts out there, It takes YEARS & YEARS of experience and talent to get it right,........be the quarterback on stage run your team (Audience) the way YOU want them to behave with YOUR Music done right in whatever way you desire.....hope I didn't offend anyone its just my take on it, but what do I know?

carry on..

Donny, I'm playing four hours. I encourage reque$t$. This way they wouldn't be requesting stuff not in my repertoire.
I think I'll set up a private link to a page on my website where they can see the list I want them to see, and play an MP3 for free. Might get some private parties!