We have 550 songs, which are way too many for me to memorize.

The ones we do often of course are memorized, but especially the ones that only come out every couple of months need help.

Also, while playing with backing tracks, someone can come up while you are playing/singing and make a request or some other conversation to disturb the flow. The backing track goes on and on though. So by having the words or music chart in front of me, when I hear a cue in the music, I can get back on track easier.

So I keep two laptops on stage, one to play the backing tracks and the other for a 'cheat sheet'.

For lyrics I just use Windows WordPad, for music I use an old copy of Encore.

More details on how I make backing tracks and use them on stage can be found here:

http://www.nortonmusic.com/backing_tracks.html

Notes

Bob "Notes" Norton smile Norton Music
https://www.nortonmusic.com

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