I'm in a garage band with some friends and we are preparing for our first concert to family and friends. I've been grappling with volume levels for a while and wondered if anyone can give practical suggestions.

I play keyboard in the group (keytar actually) which requires me to play a lot of different sounds. The volume levels of those sounds can vary quite a bit, ie piano generally sounds softer than the searing lead guitar sound. Also, sometimes I am playing an accompanying part and other times I'm playing an instrumental solo that needs to stand out.

We are using a mixer so that has helped a lot in our band. I would rather control volume on the mixer than my keytar however the variety of sounds I use means I probably still need to adjust my volume manually on the fly (on the keytar). I would then need to ensure I can hear the mix well enough that I can adjust my own volume during a song if required.

Another option would be to have someone else manually mix volumes on the mixer while we are playing.

What do you guys do? Any suggestions?