I don't really look good in hats. But I have thought about gluing on some chest hair when doing a Tom Jones tune.

One word I should have included in the last paragraph of my prior post along with showmanship is 'entertainment'. It kind of stinks sometimes but the ONLY reason people hire any of us is for the entertainment value. If you are entertaining to a given audience, it doesn't matter if you have a lousy voice, or that you couldn't play your way out of children's sing-a-long, it only matters that you are entertaining. If that means I push play and stand there with my hands in my pants (well OK, I don't typically play those types of gigs)... but you get what I mean.

To be honest, it does bother me that I spent many years learning my craft, both from the playing standpoint and the technical knowledge of keyboard instruments and related products, only to be referred to as a karaoke artist. But a couple of things about that;
First, I still play in two real bands, my four piece traditional jazz group and an 8 piece group that ranges in styles from Reggae, Latin, R&B, jazz, blues, Zydeco, Rock and Roll and whatever else we can think of.
And second, other than doing demos and clinics at dealers, or making online product demo videos and other than demoing in a NAMM or Music Messa booth for the past 20 or so years, I had never used an arranger keyboard for a solo gig until just several months ago when I filled in for a friend. It was very last minute so I didn't have much time to prepare so I used an assortment of smf's I had from a past employer, I found a few styles that could work for a variety of songs and went for it. I enjoyed myself as much as anyone who was there listening to me. There were times that all I did was press the play button and then sing the song. Now I didn't just stand there or even pretend to be playing, I got out in front and joined the crowd, and I had a blast. This is just another form of performing, another from of providing entertainment, that's all. Of course I am proud that I can then turn around and actually play the keyboard without any help from a micro-processor but it is fun to provide entertainment in general no matter how I go about it.

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Wm. David McMahan
LearnMyKeyboard
JazzItUp Band

[This message has been edited by WDMcM (edited 06-02-2009).]