I wasn't going to get into this peeing contest, but the more I read, the more interesting the topic became. So here goes!

Hmmmmmm! Lets see now. If you sing to a pre-recorded midi file, a well recorded song that begins and ends exactly like the original song, does it violate the rules of being an entertainer?

How about if you sing while standing in front of a 17-piece orchestra, one like the Glenn Miller Orchestra, players that go strictly by the sheet music in front of them. And they too play that song just like the orriginal recording. Does that make the performer a non-performer? Whoops!

Oh, how about if you sing and play single finger chords with your left hand and put 500 people on the dance floor. Is there something wrong with this type of performance? Did the performer violate some sort of unwritten rule of entertainment?

Maybe it would be more professional if you only played full fingered chords and sang, putting 500 people on the dance floor. Would this be a more professional performance? Could the audience really tell if you were playing full fingered chords? Would they be less entertained if you played in the single or multiple fingered modes?

Lets face if folks--this is show biz. It doesn't make a tinker's damned to your audience how you acheive the goal of entertaining them--they just want to be entertained. They could care less, and likely will never know, if you're playing along with SMF's, MP3s, full fingered chords or single finger chords, just as long as they're being entertained. If you're not doing just that, providing them with quality entertainment, they're not gonna' hire you again--it's that simple. At that point, you're out of the entertainment business.

I'll be the first to admit that I'm not a great musician. However, I have absolutely no qualms about stepping up in front of 1,200 people that I've never seen before and being quite confident that for the next several hours they're going to have lots of fun--and for that matter, so will I. As an entertainer, I'll use every tool in the toolbox to keep the dancefloor filled to capacity and at the end of the night, give away a couple hundred cards to folks that ask for them. When they stop dancing, singing along with me or tapping out the rythm with their fingers and feet, I'll quietly bow out of this business and find another way to make a living.

Damned, I wrote another book!

Cheers,

Gary