Thanks. I don't sing anymore. My vocal range has always been very limited and I have never been comfortable with lead singing, but I've always been a strong player. I feel like I'm getting better at playing expressively now that I no longer distracted by having to sing... the keyboard is my voice in a real sense. I also think people enjoy seeing really good keyboarding. It's an honor when parents bring children up to watch me. Gotta go with your strengths of course, but for me to compete with other OMB's I had to carve my own market out of an existing one. One of my main selling points is that you can clearly talk over my music even seated close to the stage - my audience tends to be older, and I really don't play as loud as most OMB's even though I play in good sized rooms. And so far nobody in my area sounds quite I do. So I bring something that restaurants like and makes them look good.

Honestly the music is left up to me. I try to be tasteful, contemporary and eclectic while still playing recognizable tunes from all eras. It's a wide variety; everything from "As Time Goes By" to "Wicked Game", and I encourage requests. I also like to throw in memory-ticklers and watch people as they struggle with them.

There's lots of good dialog here on this topic, and if I can add one point: one thing that helped me this year was that I coordinated my marketing/advertising materials and got serious about them. I designed a good logo and bought the best business cards I could find. I also collected the email addresses of every one involved in F&B in my area, not just restaraunts but caterers, wedding planners, special events coordinators, golf courses, civic groups, boating clubs, etc. and I send out a little note now and then. I get my clients to print my logo in their ads. I had some T-shirts made up and I'm looking at other small promo items. It adds up, and now every potential client in my area has likely heard of me in advance. My advice is to invest in quality when getting your advertising materials together, especially in a nice business card that doesn't look like it came off your home computer. People love a class act.