Just got back from the dentist and all novacained up...so please excuse any slurring of speach.

Audience questions - What do they ask and how do you answer?

Here are just 4 I get quite often:
1. What kind of instrument do you play?
(Some expect me to say "piano", some expect me say organ...virtually none understand the term "arranger".

2. What's on that little screen?
(I just tell them, Email.)

3. I have a keyboard kinda like yours. Can you come over to the house and show me how to play it like you do yours?
(Over 1/2 the people who ask this question have no idea of the make or model they own - one guy had a Lowry fun machine.)

4. Can you play my favorite song? I don't know the name of it. I can't sing or hum it, but, you're a musician, you must know it.
(Call the Phychic Hotline.)

Eddie

3. I have a keyboard kinda like yours. Can you come over to the house and show me how to play it like you do yours?


I used to get insulted with kind of question because it implies that it is all in the keyboard and nothing in the artist. Until I realised that the average person really does not know how to listen to music and appreciate music. They cannot be used to judge the level of musicship of any particular musician.

lol Eddie -
when I played last Saturday at a Clambake, the same lady kept coming over to me and trying to look at the lcd screen, wondering where I was getting all the "instructions" to play it!!! Drove me nuts! I'm gonna use your "email" line next time . . .

Jill

Much to my chagrin, most people ask me what instrument I am playing.

I try to laugh all the way to the bank.

Tommy

I had a situation last night at the supper club. One of the patrons was hosting a group of 8 and they were celebrating one of the group's election to judge. They were lawyers and regular, big spenders. One of the group wanted to sing a song, so I said o.k. He sounded pretty good and everybody encouraged him to do more.
Well this led to another and another, and all my old tricks to get him off the stage didn't work. It was a situation where I couldn't be rude, because this group's tab was probably $750.
Finally, after about five songs, another table sent up a request card and the guy took it out my hand, saying "WE'VE got a request, let's see what it is". I was just about to say, "No I'VE got a request", when he read the card. It said "Don, please get that guy down, we want to hear you!"
With that, he took the hint, and saved my having to handle it differently.
Later, after most of the other diners had left, he came back and I let him sing some more. He really wasn't too bad, or I wouldn't have allowed any of it. As they were leaving, I asked him, "Is it o.k. if I get drunk tomorrow and come help you with a case or two?" Fortunately for me, he thought I was joking!"
DonM
P.S. The good news is I made over $100. in tips.

You guys aren't like me. My answer would be, I'll be glad to come help you with your keyboard. My fee is $35 an hour or maybe more in your area.

A driving school I worked for use to charge $35 for the first hour of instructions on filling out the form for the permit. I would charge $35 for the first half hour or whole hour of getting familar with their keyboard functions and then start the lessons.

This reminds me of 35 years ago when a friend who I played in the band with gave guitar lessons. He had 20 or more students. He bragged one night about how he convinced the students to have a group session at his home so they could learn from one another. At the time they each paid about $15 an hour for the group session also. He'd give them a litte speech and then close the door to the studio while they all "learned from one another". He said you wouldn't believe what was coming out of the studio. He'd turn on the football game and at the same time earned extra money. He made more that day then any other day. He eventually bought a music store in New Orleans.

I know with me everything is a buck. It happens when you lay brick for over 35 years.

I get a lot of similar requests for lessons. I have helped a few people learn to operate their keyboards. They soon discover that it is NOT the keyboard doing most of the work. The ones I don't know usually pay me, but I always try to help friends and fellow musicians. Seems if you do something nice, it always has a way of coming back around to you eventually.
Even if it never does, it makes you feel good.
What I do charge for is locals who want lyrics, midis, programs etc., that I have spent time, knowledge and resources accumulating. You wouldn't believe the gall of some people who ask to copy song books, or want a copy of "all my songs". (They think it is all recorded).
Years ago, maybe 15, one of my "friends" wanted the lyrics and chords to a particular song I had in one of my self-made fake books. I said sure and handed him the book. He took it to his office and brought it back that night.
There were about 200 songs in the book, and over the years I've seen copies of them on bandstands all over the city. They are easy to identify because I used my own type-written or hand-written style (most were done before computers). I usually ask where they got them, and, although it is sometimes difficult to follow the trail, of course they all lead back to the "friend" copying my book, then giving copies to a few more, and they gave them to a few more, etc...
I now guard my collection (which has grown to several thousand over the years) carefully. Actually, they are now stored in my office and most have been transferred to computer.
From this limited experience I can emphasize with artists and who work on CDs, styles, midis, etc., and offer them for sale, only to see them copied and distributed everywhere.
What a bunch of rambling off-topic garbage, huh?
DonM

[This message has been edited by DonM (edited 10-09-2003).]

One thing here in the UK that amazes me is that people still seem to hang onto the term 'ORGAN' no matter what keyboard instrument you play on stage, I have played a Fender Rhodes onstage and was introduced as being on the 'ORGAN' plus all sorts of synths/electric piano's/arrangers have been called 'ORGANS'
Even the people I work with during the day say to me ' were you out playing your organ last night' no matter how much I tell them organs are a specific instrument and have been replaced by modern digital keyboards they always revert to the notion that if the instrument has black and white keys and needs to be plugged into a power socket then it must be an organ.

I always liked the generic term "Keyboard(s)".
It implies more than just a piano or organ, and is an honest, yet not demeaning description......................