Nevermind which keyboard..instruments etc...

Tonight we hosted Allen Edwards...very enjoyable entertainer. He used 'canned' music managed through a laptop.

None of the 200 some silver hairs in attendance cared a hoot that the music was canned...everyone had a great time.

The last three concerts or so have all been some sort of preprogrammed music. The silver hairs don't care...they enjoy the entertainment.

I'm not a fan of preprogrammed music...too restricting and the concert then has to be programmed...not very flexible. But I have to say...it sure seems to work...for the silver hairs and the folks that entertain them anyway.

Yes, I'm afraid that appears to be the way things are going...you don't have to be a "player", or even have a keyboard, as long as you can sing some tunes.

And, you don't even need a great singing voice, just as long as you know the right tunes and you possess some degree of "entertainer" talent.

It's happening here too, so it's not restricted to your area.

Most people are content to be "entertained"....kind of sad, but kind of true.

Makes me kind of glad I retired and don't need to gig for a living.

Ian

The same goes for arranger OMB players... Most people think its canned music anyway...

You get paid to entertain people, and entertaining is much much more then just singing.. I am a lousy singer and medicore musician.. But still i would make a great entertainer, i can make people laugh and smile or cry ... And i dont even need music to do so... Music only adds to the mix...


Its not about the wrap.... Its all about the content, and if the content is fun, emotional and sounds great, who cares...


I think only the musician himself cares about creating true music... Not the publicum.

And creating that so called "Canned Music" isn't musical talent?

We have a local duo (two attractive young ladies) who use a PSR-3000 for their backup tracks. They are both fine singers, and quite charismatic, and the audience really likes them a lot.

One does the "keyboard" duties (and sings) while the other just sings.

What makes it rather interesting, is that the "keyboard player" (if you could call her that) who has no real knowledge of actually playing one, simply loads in a full commercial midi file (minus the vocal guide track, of course) presses "PLAY" and away they go.

To add to the "entertainment", the girl in front of the keyboard, actually mimics playing along with the tune on the keys, the keyboard itself being de-activated by using the local-off midi function, and some are heard to exclaim after one of their shows, what a nice little keyboard player she is.

Pretty amusing, eh?

They are booked pretty much every weekend and get top dollar.

Ian

Ian what I am talking about is recording, arranging & playing all musical parts to achieve custom Vocal backing tracks that could never be done live on any arranger KB due multiple track part limitations ...
especially over and over again each night where you always want the arrangement to sound exactly the same,...including all parts, & breaks.. This is where the real musicianship happens in the studio and then be able to present that work on stage successfully. It has been done like this and is the standard for thousands of
Live venues & Tv shows, commercials, & major Movie background music worldwide. There are some super talented Musicians working in studios everywhere creating the coordinated background tracks for Broadway shows, Disneyland shows, etc,. etc, .......IMO Live style play using an arranger doesn't exactly fit into these applications.
There is a place for an arranger KB use,....and then there's many other musical venues that do not require the use of an arranger its as simple as that,.....musical creation in ANY shape or form and the enjoyment of those who listen have NO Bounds and day after day more new way to create are invented and that is exciting for the future of Music.

So who is going to notice if you played all those tracks yourself, or just copied pasted them from the interwens?

None but yourself, would be my answer....

Dont get me wrong, for me personally that would meke a big difference, but for the crowds, why would they care as long as they are having a good time..

Exactly, Bachus! Commercial or home made SMF makes no difference, perhaps only to the ones using the instruments, or, who are familiar with them.

When I learn that an act is using SMF or MP3 (exclusively, mind you) I usually don't bother to go hear them.

One or two is okay, but when the majority of the act's background is pretty much Karaoke, I'd rather pass on it.

And, that's my choice...most times the public don't care how it's done.

Ian

Watching a performance with one person,.....playing one instrument,......producing one sound, piano ...Guitar, Accordion, Violin, Harp, etc, ....... is all a listener sees and hears to be sensible to them in their mind.....

With that said..and you can try to twist it all you want using an arranger kb which in its own right is technologically Alien to the layman, which produces countless sounds,rhythms, etc, etc, over whelms the listeners senses and in turn you become some sort of automated karaokeish electronic device operator in their minds and who can blame them when they see one thing that produces so many things sound wise? Nothing wrong with it but call a spade a spade I say.

It never, ever bothered me that the arranger keyboard was alien to anyone...to me it was just another tool to make music with, and since there were lots of solo piano players and guitarists on the go, what I did was different, and that managed to get me some pretty nice gigs.

Of course, I worked hard at it, always keeping my repertoire fresh, while still remembering the favorites of repeat customers...I managed an 11 year run at a high end restaurant where the longest any other solo performer lasted there was two weekends, so I must have been doing something right.

More than once I explained how the arranger worked to patrons, and other performers, who dropped by, and I never really felt any alienation by either...in fact, some of the piano players I knew, eventually got an arranger. Being a demonstrator with Yamaha really helped force me to keep trying to improve my playing, and also prompted me to learn the arranger keyboard's inner most workings, so I was always coming up with newly edited styles, and different musical arrangements of mainstream tunes as well as the old standards.

To put it more bluntly, I never did give a shit what other players thought about the instrument I used, so the alleged stigma never bothered me in the slightest, and I was always working steady and making a pretty good living at doing what I love...playing music.

I never wanted to be a singer, and I'm not that interested in vocal tunes ( probably why I like fusion and jazz and classical so much) so watching/listening to someone sing mostly over SMF never had much attraction for me...that's not to say it isn't a viable way of entertaining...I just don't find it very interesting.

The business of entertaining is continually changing, and kudos to those who can adapt/modify to keep up with it and still make a living at it. I'm comfortable with being out of the loop, and, other than the occasional wedding supper gig, and, some recording, most of my playing will be for my own entertainment.

I thought I'd miss it more than I do, but I suppose I was ready for retirement...plus, I still play everyday, and that's how it all got started, so I guess it was full circle.

Ian