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'Sharing Ideas that make your Song more Interesting' was the heading, and I would like to take this thread in that direction.

As a professional performer and entertainer most of my adult life, I have had to make my music interesting, to keep my audience's attention.

To make my life even harder, I rarely sing, other than when doing home recording, when I can use all the gizmo's, like my Helicon VH Machine, and I also still use a 1950's Tape loop echo, which I love, almost as much as my Valve Amps!! - Can anyone remember the lovely glow, and smell of those old 6V6 valves as they got hot ?? - Ahhh! - an almost forgotten era!
The majority of my work in later years was playing 'strict tempo' for Modern Ballroom Dancing.

The first asset for my music is non-musical. I 'win' the audience with 'patter' - Not 'And the next song I will play is 'So and So' written by 'So and So', and made famous by 'So and so'. I am talking about interaction between the Audience and yourself - Light hearted banter and repartee. The audience will WANT to hear my music! They love me, I have them in the palm of my hand !!

If you are the most miserable and anti social being on the planet, you become an actor, and are the most kindly and loveable person your audience has ever met!!

OK - off we go !!... A song has verses that are repeated over and over again - BORING!! So what can we, as musicians do, to relieve the boredom? ..... Start off nice and quietly, with just a single instrument leading - if its a piano, just single notes .. End of first verse ... Same again, but with right hand arpeggios, twiddles and trills, triad chords here and there, and build up towards a crescendo - end of second verse. Time for a 'Fill' here, while you set up (lets say) orchestra and Violin - another verse, a fill at the end of it, change to Brass section and Trumpet, transpose up a semitone, and give it some 'welly', heading towards the end of the verse with a massive crescendo, and while the 'Outro' plays, some little light twiddles in that key with your right hand. Just one of the many ways to 'build up' a song - adding as you go, keeping interest.
Vary this by building up to the penultimate verse, and go out quietly on the last one, potherwise the format of your music becomes stale and boring.. Using these methods plus whatever you can add to the above example, will make you sound more competent, more 'listenable', and most importantly get you more work !!

Here is a little example of 'variation' - Played on my FX20 Organ, that was new in 1983 and cost almost 6,000 pounds (9,000 US Dollars) - in todays equivalent due to inflation, at least twice that amount! I played it for over 15 years, and still regret selling it !!

Click Here ........ BLUE VELVET


Now and again, turn, or lift your head to look at the audience - my audience is always the clock or similar at the end of the hall or venue, and I smile, cast glances at it, and between songs talk to it !! People can put you off!

Playing Music is an art. Presenting your art is a job that you serve an apprenticeship to, and is much harder than learning or playing an instrument - Just as some players are 'Naturals' - so are Presenters. You present a performance.

I believe I was so lucky, as when I started, I played piano around the pubs (in the days when every pub had a piano, and employed the same pianist 3 or 4 nights a week). No different voices, just same old piano ssound. You HAD to be an entertainer! Then about 1965 we had electronic organs, then keyboards around 1980 which quickly got better and better, then finally, Karaoke, which killed everything!


Just like a good meal - Presentation and content go about 50% each, without good packaging your music will fail !!

Oh dear! I have waffled and reminsced again (its an old 'farts privilege!!), and possibly upset those who dislike 'chat' on the Forum !! I hope just one member finds my 'epistles' interesting and informative'.

Kind regards

John


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