I am up to three gigs now! - 01/25/12 05:06 PM
I have just completed my third gig ever and thought I would share some things I have discovered about beginning to perform in public with BIAB. I would love to hear other ideas and share experiences.
I learned very quickly that it is my overall performance that matters, not just my keyboard playing. I also realized that it is harder to rehearse the performance because, although I can practice the keyboard for hours and hours, it is much harder to get the overall performance right unless you try it live.
The audience has been mainly a retired crowd like me and I had noticed, from an informal practice session, that they liked hearing songs that rang a bell, no matter how distant, in their memories. I decided on a "name that song/trivia" format that seems to work very well and they seemed to enjoy the performer/audience interaction. It certainly made me feel relaxed. Wikipedia is a great source for song trivia. My format is to load a song without generating it, play a few bars with solo piano, ask the questions and share some trivia about the song, generate the song and start playing with BIAB. My questions are sometimes to name the song or movie or even the actor and I will keep playing while people shout the answers. Even if only one person is familiar with the song there is a cheer when they get it right.
I have a repertoire of about 450 songs, all with BIAB files, so I put together playlists that gave a much variety as possible and tried to change the genre and tempo with every song e,g, I never played two fast pop songs back to back. I ended up playing a very eclectic mix from Andrew Lloyd Weber to The Rolling Stones to Ray Charles. This seemed to keep people interested because they never knew what was coming next and it allowed me to throw in a couple of jazz numbers without losing them. I also showcased BIAB whenever I could by playing songs that featured BIAB RT soloists and switching the instruments for repeats. Last time I played for three hours with a ten minute break and covered 40 songs.
My personal handicap is that I cannot play by ear or memorize so everything I play is read from the music, however I have developed a system that works well for me. Every song is photocopied from the original (yes, all 450 of them!!) and each page is put in a plastic sleeve and assembled in three ring binders. I write reminder notes and bits of trivia on the first page of each song and have developed a system of highlight colors to remind me of repeats. When I am putting together a new play list I simply extract the pages from the master binders and assemble them in a performance binder. I have got really slick at turning the page and haven't had a single problem when performing live.
There are some photos of my keyboard setup here.
https://picasaweb.google.com/117846125484557380837/FloridaGigs201112#
You will see my wife and I have made a screen system to cover all the wires and not show my knees - this is Florida and I am wearing shorts!
I wanted my performance to be as slick as possible as I didn't think it looked professional for the performer to spend a lot of time peering at his computer screen. Here is how I set up BIAB to suite my particular format.
1) Put my song list in a separate Windows folder and put numbers at the beginning of the file names so they would show up in the correct order in Songpicker.
2) Enlarged the mouse pointer and the font in the Songpicker so that I could see things at a glance.
3) Loaded the next song immediately after playing the last one but "play when chosen" is not ticked because sometimes I wanted to play solo first while talking to the audience.
4) I have a foot pedal that is configured to send spacebar and I have the spacebar option in BIAB set to "plays from start" I also have "pause until midi or key received" selected and all my songs are frozen. This means that when I have finished talking I just hit the pedal and begin playing, BIAB joins in immediately. This works really well and is so much better than getting an anticlimax while I peer at the computer screen again.
I tried using the Jukebox for a couple of medleys so the songs would flow from one to another but it was a bit of a disaster. It is too easy to hit something that stops the Jukebox then you have to restart it from the beginning. I have posted something on the wishlist about freezing the Jukebox but for now I won't try the Jukebox again - it is too risky. Now if BIAB would only allow more than 254 bars!!! But that is another story.
Being a beginner performer I was a bit worried about making mistakes but realized that most people don't notice them and the best thing to do it to just ignore them and keep playing. On one occasion I got completely out of phase with BIAB and just had to stop and restart the song. I remarked to the audience that they deserved better since they had paid such a high ticket price which caused a laugh and I actually got enthusiastic applause after the second time through.
I would like to avoid looking at the computer screen to load the next song so I am starting to look at Conductor for the first time. Toggling key B4 from the keyboard loads the next song. Knowing what I now do about live performing I will have to make sure there are no snags with this.
I am using a Bose L1 Compact PA and I am not really happy with the piano sound it gives. I am still experimenting with mixing, patches and speaker position but haven't solved the stereo piano into mono issues. I may end up with a second Bose and play stereo or perhaps sell it and buy two regular PA speakers.
My next challenge is to practice singing while playing. I can sing reasonably well but it is just too much at the moment for me to read the music, turn the pages, play the keyboard and sing at the same time. I am confident I will get the hang of it.
At aged 69 I have never performed in public before and this experience has given me a new lease on life. My wife, kids and grandkids are also very supportive. I have to say a big thank you to Peter and PG Music, without BIAB I would still be playing at home with my headphones on.
Tony
Waterloo, Ontario Canada and
Palm Harbor, Florida
I learned very quickly that it is my overall performance that matters, not just my keyboard playing. I also realized that it is harder to rehearse the performance because, although I can practice the keyboard for hours and hours, it is much harder to get the overall performance right unless you try it live.
The audience has been mainly a retired crowd like me and I had noticed, from an informal practice session, that they liked hearing songs that rang a bell, no matter how distant, in their memories. I decided on a "name that song/trivia" format that seems to work very well and they seemed to enjoy the performer/audience interaction. It certainly made me feel relaxed. Wikipedia is a great source for song trivia. My format is to load a song without generating it, play a few bars with solo piano, ask the questions and share some trivia about the song, generate the song and start playing with BIAB. My questions are sometimes to name the song or movie or even the actor and I will keep playing while people shout the answers. Even if only one person is familiar with the song there is a cheer when they get it right.
I have a repertoire of about 450 songs, all with BIAB files, so I put together playlists that gave a much variety as possible and tried to change the genre and tempo with every song e,g, I never played two fast pop songs back to back. I ended up playing a very eclectic mix from Andrew Lloyd Weber to The Rolling Stones to Ray Charles. This seemed to keep people interested because they never knew what was coming next and it allowed me to throw in a couple of jazz numbers without losing them. I also showcased BIAB whenever I could by playing songs that featured BIAB RT soloists and switching the instruments for repeats. Last time I played for three hours with a ten minute break and covered 40 songs.
My personal handicap is that I cannot play by ear or memorize so everything I play is read from the music, however I have developed a system that works well for me. Every song is photocopied from the original (yes, all 450 of them!!) and each page is put in a plastic sleeve and assembled in three ring binders. I write reminder notes and bits of trivia on the first page of each song and have developed a system of highlight colors to remind me of repeats. When I am putting together a new play list I simply extract the pages from the master binders and assemble them in a performance binder. I have got really slick at turning the page and haven't had a single problem when performing live.
There are some photos of my keyboard setup here.
https://picasaweb.google.com/117846125484557380837/FloridaGigs201112#
You will see my wife and I have made a screen system to cover all the wires and not show my knees - this is Florida and I am wearing shorts!
I wanted my performance to be as slick as possible as I didn't think it looked professional for the performer to spend a lot of time peering at his computer screen. Here is how I set up BIAB to suite my particular format.
1) Put my song list in a separate Windows folder and put numbers at the beginning of the file names so they would show up in the correct order in Songpicker.
2) Enlarged the mouse pointer and the font in the Songpicker so that I could see things at a glance.
3) Loaded the next song immediately after playing the last one but "play when chosen" is not ticked because sometimes I wanted to play solo first while talking to the audience.
4) I have a foot pedal that is configured to send spacebar and I have the spacebar option in BIAB set to "plays from start" I also have "pause until midi or key received" selected and all my songs are frozen. This means that when I have finished talking I just hit the pedal and begin playing, BIAB joins in immediately. This works really well and is so much better than getting an anticlimax while I peer at the computer screen again.
I tried using the Jukebox for a couple of medleys so the songs would flow from one to another but it was a bit of a disaster. It is too easy to hit something that stops the Jukebox then you have to restart it from the beginning. I have posted something on the wishlist about freezing the Jukebox but for now I won't try the Jukebox again - it is too risky. Now if BIAB would only allow more than 254 bars!!! But that is another story.
Being a beginner performer I was a bit worried about making mistakes but realized that most people don't notice them and the best thing to do it to just ignore them and keep playing. On one occasion I got completely out of phase with BIAB and just had to stop and restart the song. I remarked to the audience that they deserved better since they had paid such a high ticket price which caused a laugh and I actually got enthusiastic applause after the second time through.
I would like to avoid looking at the computer screen to load the next song so I am starting to look at Conductor for the first time. Toggling key B4 from the keyboard loads the next song. Knowing what I now do about live performing I will have to make sure there are no snags with this.
I am using a Bose L1 Compact PA and I am not really happy with the piano sound it gives. I am still experimenting with mixing, patches and speaker position but haven't solved the stereo piano into mono issues. I may end up with a second Bose and play stereo or perhaps sell it and buy two regular PA speakers.
My next challenge is to practice singing while playing. I can sing reasonably well but it is just too much at the moment for me to read the music, turn the pages, play the keyboard and sing at the same time. I am confident I will get the hang of it.
At aged 69 I have never performed in public before and this experience has given me a new lease on life. My wife, kids and grandkids are also very supportive. I have to say a big thank you to Peter and PG Music, without BIAB I would still be playing at home with my headphones on.
Tony
Waterloo, Ontario Canada and
Palm Harbor, Florida