Is so refreshing to see many Pro arranger players back to the forum(including myself), and such positive atmosphere like the "old" days. I now see post from members that I have not seen for some time.


I have a lot of friends (Many from other countries), that are not SZ members but check once in a while the topics, and they notice the good change on the forum, and contacted me to let me know about it.
I hope stays like this for a long time.

Happy holidays to all !!

Consider this a good tip....I suggest to purchase a digital clock that you can stick (Velcro) somewhere on your keyboard or stand, that is easy to see, so in case you are playing a Mixer or you have to play until certain time, sometimes is easy to loose track of time, distracted playing, having fun with the music, etc... BUT, if you have a clock visible at all times to you, and is discrete, so, when you look at your watch (wrist), it does not look like you are interested on getting out.
It may be trivial, but, when you are on the stage, this may be taken the wrong way, using this inexpensive clock, saves you that and is practical.


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mdorantes

Manuel, thanks for that 'timely' tip. Hope the keyboard manufacturers might read this as it might be nice to implement a clock to display on the arranger display screen window itself, and perhaps even trigger the keyboard to play "That's All" when the timer reaches 'O'!

In my case, using a laptop for lyrics, MIDI files and MP3s, I have the PC's clock viewable at all times.

Cheers,

Gary

All we need now is Diki and the forum would be perfect.

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TTG

I've kind of fallen into the ballroom niche the last few years and have been using a 3 minute egg timer, you know the ones that are shaped like an hour glass with sand in them. This way my partner can also see how much sand is left.

Never thought I'd be doing this, but the ballroom people are quite adamant about having tunes last 3 minutes.

One of the reasons I posted this tip, because I do not use a Laptop on my act, and also at some senior dances, the "board" has some Mixers that can be either whistle or "waterfall" and in some places want them 8 minutes long and in others want them of 10 or 12 minutes long.....basically a Medium Foxtrots mix of several tunes.

Some of my friendly competitors have adopted this, and it works nicely.



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mdorantes

So if you are in the middle of the last verse do you just stop playing ???
t.

lol, well I'll have to admit it was kind of strange and annoying at first, but it's just a matter of sensing whether you go back to the beginning, the bridge or the last 8.

And it's really only because the average time for a recorded song is about 3 minutes which goes all the way back to the old 78 RPM records which only could fit that much time on them. That became the standard even though you could go much longer on 45's.

Scott ... I didn't know that about the 78's ... I thought the 3 minutes and under was just a standard for playing tunes on the radio ...
t.

Scott,
Years ago I think it was GEM implemented a clock in the WK4(?) display. The clock worked fine till....December 31st 23:59.
At midnight worldwide ALL the WK4's locked up and using/playing was impossible.

The advised workaround : Open the case, remove battery, wait 10 secs, put it back