Embarrasing performance blunders

Recent one:

The 3K music rack (with book) fell at the feet of the person in the front row during a song.....every one gasped

zuki

Ya, but did you hurt the book???

Don't you love it when stuff like that happens. I couldn't believe it when it happened to my PSR2000.

The solution? I posted the questions a few years ago when it happened to me on the Yahoo groups Yamaha style forum. It was suggested to used what they called sticky tack. It's the soft putty type stuff in the office supply department that you can use to stick posters ect on the wall. It comes in yellow and blue.

Anyway, you stick it where your music rack slips into the keyboard. I thought, what the heck, give it a try. It worked! After awhile it seemed like the rack got seated better and I never had to add anymore.

Otherwise, I know over on psrtutorial someone made a re-enforced music rack that would probably also solve that problem. Either that or a floor music stand.

Yamaha needs to improve those racks on the PSR's. But then again, it's probably part of their marketing stategy to make people want to have a Tyros 2. That's the way it was done in the home organ business for years. I can't tell you how many people traded their organ up and spent a lot of money just to get a different bench, music rack, etc.

I'm glad to hear you're at it again and doing well

Scott http://ScottLMusic.com

how embarassing....



[This message has been edited by Dnj (edited 03-19-2007).]

I was told today by my repair tech that the PSR-S900, which should arrive sometime in late August in this part of the world, has a heavy-duty music rack, more rugged case, expanded onboard memory, and lots of other neat features.

One of the neat things he told me about was Yamaha's newest testing equipment that will actually allow their tech to trouble shoot individual components of all the printed circuit boards, thereby lowering repair costs by replacing only the failed components instead of the entire printed circuit board. This should also improve turn-around time for board repairs as well. The only downside is this will only be available to customers who opt to return their boards directly to Yamaha in California, or in some of the major cities where Yamaha has major repair centers.

The next few months should be interesting.

Cheers,

Gary

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Travlin' Easy

Ah but of course there will be SOME catch....Yamaha needs to make sure people will one day upgrade from the S900 as well...I'm guessing that instead of the typical AC adaptor, this thing will require coal...

[This message has been edited by MarcK (edited 03-19-2007).]

My most embarrassing moment:

I have a whole prerecorded high energy pumping introduction I play along with to introduce the bride and groom. Half way through the introduction, I accidentally hit a registration button which cut straight to a slow ballad style.

An unsalvageable embarrassment.

Can anyone top that?

Chony

I once sang in a choir whose conductor was accident and error prone and when she sang solo would forget words.
The audiences loved her as she had the uncanny knack to turn everything into an enjoyable experience for the audience through her personality and stage craft.
I have learnt from her and now do not worry when things go wrong but use it to my advantage with humour and any thing at my disposal and have a good time.
Murphy's law always prevails.

Cousin Ken

I agree. Eventhough one must be deft at sliding over mistakes, I have found ,in later years,that turning an obvious mistake into a joke on yourself,adds a bit of levity, and makes you human.

Bernie

Anything which helps to convince the audience that you are actually playing the thing and not some sort of Deejay has to be a good thing

We are all DJ's of a ought like it or not in todays music world...think about it.

Years ago,I was playing bass in a band on a stage about 2 feet high. Irma, a cute new waitress started working that night. I tried to look down her shirt, walked off the stage, broke my glasses, bloodied my knee and scarred up a new Jazz bass...it was WORTH it. Actually, Irma and I became, and are still good friends. I introduced her to a good friend, and they were married for over 30 years before he died.

Now, my "little" friend and I have a great time remembering!And I look at the scar on that old bass and have a good laugh.


Russ

They will get people to upgrade by introducing new features and better quality voices. They will introduce voices from the next Tyros. I wonder if Yamaha will introduce the chord strumming feature introduced by Roland.
Starkeeper

I've asked my repair guy for a complete specifications list and with luck he'll send them to me next week.

Gary

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Travlin' Easy

No way, Donnie. Some of us are NOT DJ's and never will be.

Think about it!


"Old School" Russ

Russ,

You just gave me a huge belly laugh - thanks

zuki

Back in the 70's I and another organist were the organ players for the Muskegon Mohawks hockey team. The other player was my teacher and we each took about half of the games.

Before the game people are wandering around and not really paying much attention to what you are playing. Then they announced that the "Star Spangled Banner" will be played by Tom Cavanaugh. All of the sudden 5000 people turn around and become quiet. I started to play and I LOST MY PLACE. I hung on a note at the end of a phrase for what seemed like forever, found my place and finished.

The fans would walk past the organ and say things like "what did you do with the money your folks gave you for lessions?" The theme song for when the Mohawks scored a goal was "Somethings Gotta Give". I would play that after a goal and the fans would say "You can play that but not the National Anthem?"

I practiced that tune for I'll bet a hundred times and never needed the music for it again.

Tom

[This message has been edited by Tom Cavanaugh (edited 03-20-2007).]

Couple of things come to mind.

One old Town Hall we played at had a sloping stage and in those early days of rock'n'roll, virtually every song was an assault on the piano. So there I am pounding away on some Jerry Lee Lewis tune and the piano gently starts to roll down the slope towards the front of the stage. It took me and the bass player to halt its progress, otherwise there could have been a nasty accident.

Another time, when I'd just got a Hohner Pianet, we were playing at a function and a couple of recording co. reps were coming to check us out. Now, the volume, or swell, control on the old Pianet was by way of a knee-operated lever suspended from the underside of the keyboard. Well, I was so nervous that my knee started to tremble uncontrollably and the volume was suddenly all over the place. Couldn't have done any harm, though. We did get our contract with CBS.

[This message has been edited by renig (edited 03-20-2007).]

I once hit the stage and had forgotten to zip my fly!!!

Lucily nothin popped out!

I was playing at a healing service on Monday evening, and was working my way through a set of 7 Praise and Worship songs. As I changed the registration to the sixth song my foot must have accidentally touched the footswitch (I do not use it on that song) and muted the whole keyboard. I obviously still had the default footswitch setting at Volume (I hate that setting!).

Anyway after a moment of panic I figured out what must have been the problem, pulled the footswitch plug out of the back of the keyboard, put my hands in a prayer position and carried on (much to everyone's amusement).

Graham

Got to the gig...forgot my keyboard at home !!
had to DJ & Sing for a paycheck that night usibng what I had a LT/Mic & powered speakers!!

Its happened to me countless times. What you have to do is press down again on the foot switch and just hold it there until you can change the foot switch setting. As long as it is held down, you get your volume back.

I once blew out my pitch/mod joystick in the middle of a solo Boy was that something.... I was having a great time with the solo, and when I released the joystick, it slapped back to the left, and just kept on going..... Clean off the keyboard and into someone sitting at a table near where we were playing.

I had no idea the spring in that stick was even that strong. I could only imagine if something like that happened today.... Imagine if it hit someone in the eye... yeah I would have gotten sued over that one.

Squeak

[This message has been edited by squeak_D (edited 03-22-2007).]

Many moons ago I purchased a Casio CZ101, but I had a decent-looking power supply available so I used that at the gig.

Not a good move. Power supply blew up and took out the main breaker at the venue. Total darkness, everything stopped. Even the beer.

Who's shown up for a gig to find another band on stage? It's happened to me several times. Fortunately, I've had signed contracts and waited for the other groups to pack up. Once, while playing a real tonk during college days, the owner came up on stage during a song and said, "Boys, I'm gonna have to shut her down. Somebody's ripped out all the plumbing in the men's bathroom." Sure enough, the dance floor was soon flooded and we cleared the place. If you've never gigged in the real fighting, red-neck joints, you've missed something.

I can add an embarrasing experience. When I was in college, I was in a band called The Three Aces (you know, "call us for a full house"). HA HA. Well, our biggest competition in the town was another trio (organ, drums, and sax) and they were called "Two Hits and a Miss" (the miss was the drummer).

As luck would have it, one night of nights we were both playing at the Shrine Club. The competition was upstairs and our trio was downstairs. On our first break, we wandered outside the place and saw a big blackboard with the entertainment listed on it. So, you guessed it, being crazy college kids, we changed the "Two Hits and a Miss" to "Two S#its and a P#ss". We thought that was funny.

So we mosey back down and play another set and then come outside only to see that the board now says "Back by popular demand - The Three ASSES".

Sometimes it pays just to "hold your tongue".

Randy

On my way home from the day job one Friday, my wife calls and asks me if I wanted to meet her at her sister's for dinner ... knowing it was going to be all-females I said I would skip that and go home to work on a couple of songs I needed for a party I was playing the following night ... I am home, going through the tunes and the phone rings ... when I answer, the woman on the other end says "Tony, where are you??? .. The party is about to start!!!" ... I tell her I have it down for Saturday, not Friday, but she says "No, it is TONIGHT" ... Fortunately, the hall is about 10 min from my house ... I call my wife and ask her to pick up my tux at the cleaners and meet me at the hall ... I don't 'pack' my gear, I just put it in my truck and get down there ... I end up starting about 50 min late ... I play straight through to try to make up for it, and took 1/2 pay, but at the end of the night, the woman tells me that even though I did a great job, and everyone had a great time, she would never recommend me to anyone... I just thank the Lord that I passed on dinner at my sister-in-law's ... imagine finding that message on the answering machine at about 10:00PM ?!?!?
I've NEVER missed a gig, and that's as close as I would want to come ...

t.

Tony,

Didn't you have a contract?

Gary

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Travlin' Easy

Gary ... the contract had the right date ... I just placed the gig info in the wrong box on the calendar ... had no reason to check the contract because the calendar is ALWAYS right (NOT!!!) ...
t.
PS ... I was the one who made the offer on the 1/2 pay, and the client accepted ...
t.

[This message has been edited by tony mads usa (edited 03-26-2007).]

Tony...
It has happened to me as well. Once I even showed up at the wrong venue for a wedding. The venue thought they had forgotten a booking and were going crazy, til I realized I was at the wrong place.

Confirmation by phone a day or two prior to a job can be a big help. Some clients call me to confirm. And, sometimes I will call, especially if the client is not a regular. But I don't do it as often as I should. The fact is, clients do appreciate a call to be sure everything is right.

eddie

Now that's not very nice. In all the bookings I've done to date (100's), there's been only ONE person that's indignant. I still try periodically to book there - but same response every time - very rude (has never heard me and no intention to). Man, she makes me mad

zuki

You are absolutely correct, and that's something I do 99% of the time ... didn't do it on this one ... it was just destined to be a problem ...
t.