I performed at a local political rally, last night, at the local American Legion, with around 150 guests in attendance. This was a first for me, so didn't know what to expect. I was supposed to share the stage with the honoree, but I was told upon arrival that the stage was to be filled with speakers(human). The staff apologized and offered me a spot in the corner of the room. This happens, and is fine except I had a full rig and 6' area.

This got me to rethinking gear in these high tech times. Had I known ahead of time, I would have brought my SD40, controller, and Bose L1., instead of the Pa4X, with all the attending gear. In fact, I could have left the keyboard home, using my DM40 wind controller, harmonicas, and vocals with just the SD40 module. The crowd liked the music fine, but all eyes were not on me, to be sure. When a crowd is busy talking, etc, I sometimes feel that the musicians, as we know them, are losing to backing tracks and DJ's.

Bernie, I played hundreds of these events and the bottom line is the people in attendance usually consist of political wannabes, lawyers, and building contractors. They could care less about the music, though I always got lots of compliments on how much they enjoyed the music. As the old saying goes, "follow the money." Who in their right mind would pay $1,000 a plate for finger food and to listen to a political wannabe running for office, or reelection?

Just take the money, and hope you get a call for the next job. BTW: My fee for these jobs was $500 and I rarely played more than an hour - they never blinked!

All the best,

Gary

Bernie, I think that superior musicianship is harder to find than it was in the past when you look at people in the "biz". That being said, there are brilliant new players that I find on a regular basis. Man, do they make my day!


There is a young guy in Lexington named Ben Lacy. He's so good, he just drives to NAMM, walks in without a contract, picks up a guitar, and 5 minutes later, is on the Ampeg stage with Victor Wooten. Really nice guy, too.


He and others give me hope for the future of good players and good music.


Russ

yes

Luckily, there were no prodigies at the Legion. It has a Tiki bar in a rear building that goes four nights a week at high volume, with no discernible talent, just screaming over distortion guitars. It is no wonder I went over so well.

It appears to me that a modification of my playing method is in order for "SOME" gigs, especially the wild and wooly ones. I shall automate some of my material to fit with the occasion. I am no Don Mason, who superbly accomps himself while singing, except for left hand chording, and that ain't gonna get it. Donny has been saying this for years, that the concept is changing. Make that "has already changed.

As for some of my old friends, I will make sure to play standards with an arranger.

Bernie, you ask "Is Musicianship Dying?". In my opinion, NO. I think there are just as many talented, well-trained musicians now as there were generations ago. What I think is dying is the general public's desire/demand for good, well-constructed music played by good, tasteful, competent musicians. Rock may be popular but let's face it; in terms of complexity, construction, melodies, and general sophistication, jazz (and the music of 'Broadway' from which much of it originates - along with blues) in most of it's forms, is several legs up the musical hierarchy from Rock N Roll. Let's face it, a kid with modest talent and two weeks of guitar lessons can hold down a lot of Rock gigs. If he can also scream at the top of his lungs while playing those three chords, he may end up spending the next few years boosting the drug trade, trashing hotel rooms, and impregnating 'groupies' (ah, to be young again ).

Soooo, it aint the keyboard, it aint the keyboardist, it's the dumbed-down audiences .

chas

I agree with Russ. Music and musicianship is as strong as ever. The problem has come from, oddly enough, the democratization of production and distribution, IMHO.

Professional popular music, back before Napster started the slide, was a heavily curated art form. It cost big bucks to get recorded, it cost big bucks to get promoted, it cost big bucks to get distributed. The other side of the coin (literally!) was the big bucks you could make (or the record company could, anyway!) because EVERYBODY paid for your music. The hard part was getting past the gatekeepers. A&R men ruled, talent was very carefully decided upon, and you never even saw the inside of a studio unless you had been vetted by several upper echelon bigwigs in the record company.

Yes, this MIGHT have made a few really talented musicians miss the boat, probably not as many as you might think, but what it did exceptionally well was to keep out the untalented, the semi-talented, the wannabes....

Nowadays, Napster and the Internet, Youtube, Soundcloud and all the streaming distribution avenues has made those gatekeepers moot. Music is cheap to produce, cheap to promote, cheap to distribute. And all but the very lucky, tiny few make next to nothing for their efforts. But, of course, everybody dreams, right?!

The problem nowadays is finding that needle in the haystack. The old system made sure there was no haystack. If it made it to vinyl, it had at least passed basic muster. So finding the talent was a search through, OK, let's just call it a MUCH smaller haystack! Not so today. Every hack can garner as much exposure as the most talented.

You can't really blame the kids nowadays for getting distracted. We never had to face that viral onslaught, we got spoonfed the best stuff right from the cradle. Who knows where popular music might have gone if the 60's and the 70's didn't have the music machine to promote the best. Might we have missed the Beatles in the throng of dozens of skiffle bands from Liverpool? Might we have missed Crosby Stills Nash and Young if every single California folk band had the exact same coverage?

The musicians are out there, but you have to spend a VERY long and quite horrible time sifting through the rejects who would never have got to see the inside of a studio back in the day to find them! But for every CardiB there's a Jacob Collier...

Between Chas and Diki lies a pretty thorough synopsis of the situation today. I agree that the mainstream audience has " dumbed down". Why else can mediocre performances garner such acclaim? I know I sound like my parents with the advent of Rock and Roll, but I can't believe people have changed so much that they wouldn't notice the performance of a true musician, everything else being equal.

In my case, I have learned more about playing to the crowd, also. You can't play Mozart in a redneck bar and expect thunderous applause, but a musician can do a better job in the right setting.

Bernie, an example of where we are today is when on 'career day', your kid announces that he wants to be an 'INFLUENCER'.
Arrrrgggg!

chas

Or you can offer humor while playing:

I tell my crowd: "I said to my mother-in-law, hey mom, I have a job coming up". She replies, "oh, do you think you can do it?" I said "why not". She replies, "because you've been sitting on your ass for a year and a half".

Another one. Told same mom-in-law, "once a piece of equipment fell on a guys shoes in the front row, but they liked me anyway". She replies, "that's because they are desperate".

True story