To Mark79100 ...

re: going into the Lecture circuit. Some years ago, I found out that many of the senior places where I played, also had something they called "Enrichment Seminars". These were usually just talks/lectures. I presented them with the idea that if there was interest, I could do an Enrichment Seminar on some aspect of music playing with arrangers. Since then, I have done a bunch of these, including (at a couple of places) a whole series of such seminars. I do them as "lecture/demo" format, that is I do a fair amount of playing of songs too, as part of "demoing" what I am talking about. They seem to go over quite well!

I also have done a small # of similar talks in middle schools (via a friend who had the right 'contacts' to get me into a couple of schools). Kids ate it up! I did have to play different kinds of music than I'd play in a senior place though. Nothing more than some rock'n'roll, R&B, blues, so it was still "the older stuff", but as long as it had good energy and interesting rhythms, kids seemed really interested. The kids of course loved the "synth" side of things- how odd/unusual sounds can be made etc.

I had never thought about approaching other places (such as libraries) - sounds like a good idea, the lecture/demo/talk idea could be viable in a bunch of different kinds of places ...

Thanks ... interesting topic ...
Jim