I was recently walking through the store and Come Monday by Jimmy Buffet comes on. I play several of his songs but that's not a favorite, so, at first, I thought maybe I should add that one. But it's not a favorite. Sure enough, somebody requested that song at last gig.

Now, as far as requests go, you guys always seem to fulfill them but heck, I can't remember lyrics. But some people will tip you if you play a request. I like money. I need money. But I have to have a cheat sheet because I can only remember fragments of songs. I want to do this all on laptop but I haven't yet done it.

So, I was thinking, heck, no telling how many songs you could have with a laptop. I mean, there are literally thousands of songs I could play if I'm looking at the lyric/chords. I know the melodies.

I probably have almost a thousand song lyrics in text files. I guess I could just keep adding them daily and build a giant database.

How do you guys pull up a song? I mean, you are going to have to search for it on the hard drive. Anything that's made it faster to find?

Of course, in pop/rock/country/blues, my gosh, how many gazillion songs are there? A bunch.

Various different ways to do this...

I carry a file box of all my charts. I use charts for 95% of everything I play. Usually, when I get requests...I already have them pulled for that night's playlist.

If I don't have it pulled already-I know what's in my song database...I snag it the first chance I have. If I'm with the band...I can usually find that tune during a lead section that my sax guy covers...then we can play it right away...as long as it fits in the song flow...

If we've just played 2 fast ones...I'm not going to give my crowd strokes by overdoing it. After we play a ballad and then maybe a waltz or mid tempo piece, then he'll get his fast request.

If I'm by myself...usually, I'll pull it on my next break.

If I know I don't have it-I'll write the title down, with the venue name and the requesters name if possible. (This goes over great...) Next time I'm in the club, I intro the song as a request for "so & so"...Cash is almost always dropped on my keyboard in those cases. They're pretty impressed you tok the trouble to learn the song, knew it was THIS club where you needed to play it and who wanted it in the first place. Also, if the requester is a regular-that song gets added to the regular play list.

My song database is set up by song styles and and a alpha/numerical indexing system.

Standards (S-1, S-2, etc...)
Pop (P-1, P-2, etc...)

I update and print out an updated database master list very few weeks. Its not hi-tech, but it works well for me.

Bill

[This message has been edited by Bill in Dayton (edited 09-22-2004).]

All your lyrics are stored as text files in a single folder..From the explorer window, you only need to enter the first letter of a song, it will go to the selection immediately, displaying around fifty or more titles on the screen...use the arrows to select the song and push enter...bingo your text is on the screen..

You can locate and show your lyrics in about 5 seconds...

Also this same laptop can locate your SMF's and MP3's in the same manner...

[This message has been edited by Fran Carango (edited 09-22-2004).]

Just put all the songs in a folder, use MS Word and "click" on the song you want to play.
I use a cordless mouse.
You can edit the properties of each song file to include Title, Artist, Genre and whatever else you want. Then you can sort the list according to any of the properties.
There are dedicated programs for lyrics, but I think most of us use MS Word.
DonM

SemiLiveMusic:I use the user programable Music Finder database built into my Yamaha Tyros to manage my core song repetoire collection (600 Songs), which makes it easy to search for (by genre, era, artist, tempo, style) and pull up any song in just a short few seconds.

It's nearly impossible to know & have memorized every song request out there, so I usually try to take take along at least one thick fakebook with me. The toughest trick (for me) isn't recalling the melody, but figuring out the correct harmony (chords) that go with it. The lucky advantage though is that (for most requested songs) the chord progression follows a commonly played chord progression pattern.

One way to learn to pick up (by ear) the chords to songs is to learn to recognize & play these commonly heard chord progressions (I-VI-II-V; IV-V; etc) and then hear how they fit into specific melodies. Checkout this excellent resource book which lists all the popular chord progressions as well as the many songs which use them:

Money Chords, by Richard Scott: http://www.angelfire.com/fl4/moneychords/MC.html

Here's a terrific online chord tutorial to get you started: http://www.angelfire.com/fl4/moneychords/lesson.html


As mentioned in an earlier thread, this highlights the importance of developing good ear training skills (note internval recognition, chord and chord progrogression recognition) which is the key to playing by ear.

Further developing these above skills will increase your ability to satisfy audience song requests by ear & on the fly.


Scott

I am starting on my third thick 3 ring binder of songs that I've accumulated, printed out, downloaded, etc.
Now I find that I'd like to have them on my computer but I'm not about to type them all out into Word or something. It would take me forever. I could scan them into the computer, I guess, but I haven't quite thought out how best to do this. MSWord? or make a database? I'd like to easily call up a song. Any ideas? Thanks.
Chuck

I also us MS Word, keep all the songs in a single folder, and as Fran said, access time is lightning fast. And, once MS Word is open, the next selection opens in less than a second with my 933-mhz computer.

The easiest way to access the style files and everything else you need is via the Music Finder Directory, or by using registrations with the information imbedded in the registration and titled by the song title.

This one popped up in less than a half second and this is how it's displayed on my laptop:

The top line shows the Song's Title, Tempo and chord I sing it with. The next line shows the PSR-2000s folder where the style is stored, the stye and the variations used in the performance. When I save the information in my music finder, the chord information is in parens such as: Who's Sorry (D) Now Always put the chord after the second word in the title so it does not affect the MFD sorting system.

WHO'S SORRY NOW T=92 (D)
(POP & ROCK—COUNTRY SHFL—B-D)

WHO'S SORRY NOW, WHO'S SORRY NOW
WHOSE HEART IS ACHIN' FOR BREAKIN= EACH VOW
WHO'S SAD AND BLUE, WHO'S CRYIN' TOO
JUST LIKE I CRIED OVER YOU

RIGHT TO THE END JUST LIKE A FRIEND
I TRIED TO WARN YOU SOMEHOW
YOU HAD YOUR WAY, NOW YOU MUST PAY
I'M GLAD THAT YOU'RE SORRY NOW

RIGHT TO THE END JUST LIKE A FRIEND
I TRIED TO WARN YOU SOMEHOW
YOU HAD YOUR WAY, NOW YOU MUST PAY
I'M GLAD THAT YOU'RE SORRY NOW

I use 14-point, Times New Roman Font, bold and all caps. When you get old your eyes will thank you for this. I also use a white screen with black letters. You can see the display on the 14.1-inch screen from several feet away.

In order to put as much of the lyrics on the screen as possible, turn off all the tool bars, rulers, etc. This provides the maximum viewing area and least amount of confusion.

I stopped carrying fake books and lyric books after meeting up with Uncle Dave and Donny Pesce. The laptop, IMO, is the only way to go.

Gary

[This message has been edited by travlin'easy (edited 09-22-2004).]

You're going to have to scan them. Which I am also going to have to do with most of my songs as I have penciled in the chords and all kinds of stuff in the margins.

Once it's scanned, I don't know how we should access them. I dunno how this is going to work, regarding load time and such. You could convert to pdf files. I dunno, have to investigate this. It's certainly not ideal.

another option, albeit pricy:
http://www.freehandsystems.com/products.html

I've asked for going on two years about these things... if anyone has used one. Nobody has replied that they have. It is actually more attuned to what I want but it's so expensive, you could buy a laptop for $1,000. Although, as I said, it does have merits. There are two of these type devices. I forget the other one.

Scanning is the easiest, albeit time-consuming method. I have a HP 1350 scanner/printer and the simple (?) software that comes with it permits me to scan and transfer to OCR (optical character recognition) and then to a Word document. If you want to bypass the OCR, you could probably scan directly to a jpg file, but I'm not sure of file sizes. This could take up a good portion of a smaller hard drive.

You can go to Lyrics world, select a song and copy the lyrics to word pad and save in your designated folder...about 20 seconds for a song..searched and saved..

You'll find most of the song you need right here: http://ntl.matrix.com.br/pfilho/html/main_index/index.html

As for scanning, most flatbed scanners come with OCR software and it can be used with any word processor software.

My Dell cost me $700, it's lightning fast and has all the bells and whistles. You may want to look into them at www.dell.com

Gary

I don't know about others here, but when utilizing a laptop in my shows in the past, it tended to draw interest away from my performance, and instead the audience's interest in what was going on in behind the laptop screen. This was particularly the case when I was playing an acoustic grand piano (piano bar lounge) and running custom backup sequences or when just using the laptop to view lyrics. The audience always appeared enamoured by the technology and less appreciative about the music, thinking that I was somehow (cheating?) as I was relying on the laptop to make me sound good, even though that of course wasn't always the case at all. Perhaps audiences have changed over the last few years, or that certain audience's have higher traditional musicianship expectations of us than others. I don't know, but this is one of the reasons I've been relunctant to the idea of adding a laptop to my act again. For some reason, because the arranger keyboard has all it's computer technology features built right in to the keyboard itself, this doesn't create the problems I had using a laptop (even just for lyrics) when doing an acoustic keyboard gig. Just my opinion based on my own personal gigging experience of course. - Scott

People tend to think the laptop is doing all the work. I've seen DJ's and Karaoke DJ's that run the whole show, lights and all from a laptop. And they have the same creditability problem. The people think they can just flip a switch and walk away, and the show will run itself.

------------------
qqqwq@hotmail.com

Uh, what IS he actually doing? Moving a mouse?

I'm not using a laptop (yet), but have a hard drive in my kn6000 ...sometimes when I've sensed this attitude from a listener I've asked if they would like to try it .. ...I also tell them anyone can do it .... after 40 yrs of practice... ...

I think most audiences are more familiar,comfortable with, and accepting of today's technology ...

On the other hand, the fact that their 9 year old kid is D/L and playing music off the 'net feeds into the "anyone can do it" mindset ...
t.

I was going to post this tip in a seperate thread, but this'll do:

Requests can make you look and feel like an idiot - people always ask for what you don't know, and sometimes by the dozens. It's not possible to know everything and even if you learn the "most requested songs" it's almost a certainty that you won't get asked for those songs again (I learned "Lara's Theme" from Dr. Zhivago after months of repeated request, and sure enough noone asked for it again after I learned it!). So I started printing and giving out a list of 200 songs that I do know. 200 songs doesn't sound like a lot but when you print them out by song title it's actually very impressive. And I've come to find out that people just ask for songs to be involved in the act; not because they especially want to hear something in particular (except for the couple that asks for their wedding song or such).

So rather than wait for requests I now visit tables and give patrons my "song menu" and invite them to choose from the list. I do this at the beginning of a break and revisit the table just prior to going back on stage. Their first reaction is always "you know ALL of these songs?" or "that's quite a list!", and then it's suprising to see what they actually choose - it's often something I wouldn't expect. But at least I no longer suffer from the embarrassment of called-out requests that can make me look stupid... and my tips have improved!

I have done exactly this and think it is a great way to do it. I've just been wondering how far to take it. Thanks.

Scott: Once in a while, someone will come up while I'm performing and take a look at the computer screen just out of curiosity. Most of the time they see the screen saver, which is a scrolling marquee that says "Travlin' Easy."

Regardless of whether you use a laptop or not, the vast majority of the audiences don't a have a clue as to whether you're actually playing, and for that matter, singing. If I had a dollar for every time that someone came up to me to request a song while I was playing and singing I would have as much in the bank as Bill Gates. Some actually come up and begin talking with you as if you were a DJ. This, despite the fact they can see your fingers working the keys and can see you singing into the mic. Then at the end of the night, some will come up and say "Wow! That was really you playing and singing all of those songs--I thought it was the machine."

The other statement that always gets me is the lady that comes up and says "Isn't that cute. I gave my grandson one of those for Christmas last year, only it doesn't sound as good as your."

How many times has someone come up and said "Does you have any Elvis, Sinatra, etc., songs in that thing?" Usually, I'll just smile and say "Yep, just put the dollar in the slot and make your selection."

As for the books, I used to have five of them. They were 3-inch thick, ringed, binders that weighed an average of 10 pounds. That's 50 pounds of excess baggage to haul around, plus a music stand and light. The laptop weighs about 7 pounds, holds more music, easier to see, don't have to fumble through the pages to find the next song, holds the midi and MP3 files, and provides a back-up if my desktop PC fails.

I believe part of this is because the audience cannot see your fingers moving over the keys, therefore, they don't know if you're actually playing the keyboard. When I was using a pair of boards, plus had the vocal processor on the third tier of an Ultimate stand, I sat sideways to the audience, similar to the position piano players often use when performing. Then could see my fingers moving and realized that I was actually playing, and yes, it was me singing. The books were on a music stand directly between me and the audience, but I kept the stand low so I maintained eye contact with the audience. The tip jar filled just as if I were a piano player. When I switched to the single board that sits directly in front of me, the perception was that I was not playing--it was the machine doing all the work and all I did was push a few buttons.

I think the one statement that really used to p*** me off was when at the end of the job someone would come up and say "You're the best DJ we've ever had!" I used to really get upset and reply "I'M NOT A DJ--I'M A MUSICIAN AND SINGER!" Now I just smile, say thanks, and take the check.

Gary

EXCACTLY!

I have never understood. On a bad day, I have wanted to just stop cold and stare and then say "Can't you see I am PLAYING? Do you think this is pantomime or what? Tell me you are not that stupid." Some day, I'm going to do that. These people that carry on conversations. Not one statement. Not one little bitty question. No, they want to friggin yak. Never ceases to amaze me.