PG Music Home Forums General Discussion Off-Topic I am up to three gigs now!

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

Tony,

You already have a taste of the gig thing.

Seniors are so appreciative of the time you spend with them.
My voice is passable, so about 1/2 of my gigs were vocals.

This was a life changing experience for myself and also my wife.

A lot of the centers, folks have very few visitors, and even less time
getting away from the place.

Your trivia idea is great, I also did some amount of this.
I had mentors on another forum that advised and supported me to try
this gig thing out.

One piece of advice given me was to NOT tell jokes. It is very easy to offend
someone.

I joked, but made fun of myself, getting lost, making a mistake etc.
almost always they never heard the mistakes.

There were "caregivers" or "people guides" from the places staff always on hand
a lot of times they would make some kind of humorous comment, this gives you the
perfect foil to bounce things off of.

Also getting to know the minders with a little more or less private chit-chat
will help you a great deal. Also your wife, can interact with different folks,
"fishing" for comments if you may.

The technical aspects of what you are doing regarding you audience, it might
not impact your gig as much as long as you down time between songs is short.
Pretend they are all Dancing. Down time is too long dancers go sit down.

Down thru the years with my career that kept us in house, grub and home warm was
highly recognized. BUT NEVER the focus of attention like when your gigging.
Your the only reason the folks are there, total focus in on you..
Sound like you handled it very nicely.
Took me about 6 months to get to a reasonable comfort level.

BTW, your an old timer.... I'm only 68 LOL

Hang in there, your life took a new turn down a different road.
One you will never forget.

Good Luck !

BTW, lot of professional folks with good advice in this link.
I made up to $100 a gig, but usually a bit less and time was 1 hour.
But usually played a bit longer. The $$$ you make will help you pay
for all the upgrades coming in the PG products and other cool audio
gigging gear.
http://www.pgmusic.com/forums/showflat.p...;gonew=1#UNREAD

Re: Jokes

I am sure there are thousands of jokes about children, Art Linkletter style. And in the future I see a projector and sometimes images or filler. Try and think something up.

Sometimes it can be something silly, I remember doing something about a 4 year old who followed her mother everywhere, carting her doll...and then I sang a medley of stuff like, Hello Dolly, Rubber Dolly, etc. Patter for in between right...

Tony,

I'm very proud of you for bringing a little joy into the lives of us old folks. I live in a nursing home (I'm nearing 71 in March) so I speak from experience. We like nostalgia which means music of our teenage years, probably the 40s through 60s.

I often tell of a HS girl who was assigned to do a written report on the elderly. Her initial attitude was one of dread. She instantly fell in love with us and still visits, on her own, over a year later. She learned that we are just folks trapped in broken bodies.

All the best to you.

One or two people have mentioned playing gigs in retirement homes and it is something I will look into this summer in Canada. My instinct is to play in places as a volunteer rather than expect payment. There must be places that have a very small or no entertainment budget that would welcome some free entertainment. I have some experience of turning a hobby into profit with photography and I don't like the way the relationships change once money is involved. On one side the stress level increases and on the other side the clients get more demanding. I think I will stick to volunteer work - it gives me more freedom.

Tony

I applaud you again, my friend. We have a singer/guitarist who comes unannounced and entertains for free. As a deterrent to thrift we are not allowed to carry cash so his only reward is the smiles of happiness he creates. No amount of money comes near that satisfaction. Kudos, amigo!

Tony . . . Good for you! Sounds like you have this gig thing well under control all I will do is wish you continued success.

Later,

Having done both I agree with you. A drummer guy I know, in his 70's fell. I have played at that long term care hospital 3 times for 125$ each time. The woman in charge was Attilla. She demanded this and that. Start times delayed by 20 minutes because Mrs. Brown is coming but her nurse says she's waiting for ...da da da ..some friend of hers is coming la la la.

I played the grand piano for my friend last week. The staff on the floor were all over me, play this, wow, come back anytime, and he and his wife liked it. I ended up with 50 people around, about the same as for the paid once a month thing an a way too big auditorium for 200 people on a stage too high.

At the end of the day, the volunteer places were better. Just a caution. Try to find a place with several facilities. I ended up paying for 3 Police clearance letters. Unless you go out in the country and someone knows you.