The general public does not care one hoot about your perfect turn around or that signature lick. I can play A Whiter Shade of Pale and get thanked for my rendition solo on a piano and people love it and compliment it. And each time I do it 'new'.

I'm no where near the original.

It's like the rule in Karaoke. One person in ten can sing well and 1 in 20 can really catch you up in the thing. I just leave, but heck I have been on the road and stuck in some bar at 9 when it starts up with no alternative in sight. (Now that I've had my kids teach me an android phone I just go outside, grab a gps signal and ask the phone what's close and who's playing. Very useful)

Don't sweat the small stuff.

Spend time on your own notes. In the end it's your job to sell it. I have lots of M. Buble's CD's and can tell you, I don't remember the 'turnarounds' or the horns. They are there, but his words, inflection, and sense of good time come through. If you can't be up front and have less than the perfect everytime bass line you wrote, pray tell what software are you going to use? I suppose it's all in some DAW. Lots of fun.

I like Band in a Box because my set lists move around. And I don't have to spend hours on a lick. I like it that way. And that's how it should be marketed. We are losing sight of what the program is supposed to do, and starting to cater to special interests.

It is supposed to work OUT OF THE BOX. Well enough to do what it claims.

If the future was MIDI you'd see lots of new stuff for MIDI. But it's going the other way.

Within 5 years all computers will be touch screen, tablet shaped or folded up, have wireless multiple ways, AND Band in a Box will run on a new revamped touch interface. And midi will be a memory. I may not be here to see it but I'd bet my lowest loonie, or bottom dollar in the US that our music stands and computers will mesh and there will be no cables at all required if you have a wireless mic. Wireless transmission of music and data, controlled by something you stuff in your pocket.

John Conley
Musica est vita