Greetings all you "Gig Getters." This works great for me, so thought you might be interested. I recently have been getting requests from Service Clubs (Hi-12 Club, Lions Club, Optimists, etc) to present a musical program for their meetings and luncheons. Having served on the Michigan Grand Lodge Speakers Bureau for 25 years it seemed like a good oportunity for me as I can speak, better than I can play. Now this is not a 30 or 45 minute musical plying presentation, but rather a dissertation on the revolution in electronic instruments, coupled with a demonstration of the many features on my KN-6500. I did one of these, and several invitations soon came in from other Clubs, as they all have difficulty presenting new and different entertainment to their members. You receive a great lunch,in nice surrondings, $25 to $50 bucks pocket money, meet many new influencial people of the community, your skill and personally is put on display for other true gigs, and it don't require any K/B programming, or music, etc. Most of these people display high interest and great pleasure in these talks and demo's. because many organizations are more interested in "Technical information". than they are in recreation presentations, during their Club Luncion Meetings. I start with the early 60's when automatic features first appeared on home organs, and bring them up through the historical developement of keyboards, to the present day, with its 880 rythums, 1,050 different sounds, demonstrating each feature as I go along. I know from your many Posts, that most of you have that special intertainer "gift of gab," when doing your gig's. So maybe this could be another opportunity to appear before the public, just doing your thing in a little different way. Anyway its been fun for me, and of course we are dedicated to shareing our experiences with all the great members of this Forum. Your response would be just "honkey dorey" with me as this is my first thread on this forum. ARJ

Welcome Arthur!
That's a good idea. Sometimes I incorporate a brief explanation of the technology in my shows, but this is something completely different.
I can imagine you would get many offers for parties from these appearances. It might even be worthwhile to do them for free.
DonM www.donmasonmusic.com

Funny - I did a local TV show a few years back on that same subject. It was a Channel 6 show called "Perspectives" and they dealt with all sorts of interresting topics. I did a short series (3 shows) that showed how the electronic keyboards of the day can help with song writing. The odd thing is that this all came about BEFORE anyone made a really quality, portable arranger. I demo'd a Roland D-10 with an outboard sequencer (MC500) The real "catch" was the advertising it gave me. So many people called to say they saw the show, and it gave my business a sort of "legitimacy" that I didn't have before. Two years later, there were at least 3 or 4 pretty good arrangers on the market, and the stores had no trouble selling them. Maybe I paved the way for the onslaought of buyers !
The biggest part of my demo was showing how a single line of a song was not locked into the chosen sound, like on a conventional tape recording. It was pretty "space age" for it's day. The hands "off" demo of the sequence really had the moderator in awe. By todays standards - that show would be a great cure for imsomnia. It was fun at the time, though.

Arthur...
That is a very interesting concept I had not thought of. Before retiring to play music full time, I was often asked to make presentations relating to my experiences in radio and advertising. So many times these business and civic groups are exposed to really dry speakers and subjects. I can imagine your presentations are entertaining, informative and stress relieving.

A little stipend would be nice...but FREE LUNCH... YEAH!!!!! And a very nice way to showcase your talent, expertise and equipment in an entertaining way before some of the movers and shakers in the community. I like it.

Eddie