Outkaster

Sorry for the weird title but I didn't know how else to say it. Have you ever noticed that there are people you can't play music with but can have a drink with. I say this because of things that have been happening since a band breakup back at the end of August.

I started a band ten years ago and have had very little attrition, maybe two members in ten years. Well those of us that went on got very close in the remaining 8 years. Eventually the lead singer called in quits and I have been doing damage control with the media ever since. Bands can become family but I feel like I signed up for marriage and took on some of her problems which wasn't a good thing. It was a bad break up with a couple people taking it very hard. I was one of them as I had the most to lose. I was interviewed in a local paper and did a local podcast as well and was professional both times as we never made an official announcement when we were disbanded. At any rate I think I have finally learned there are people you can have a drink with if you see them out but you can't play music with. It's almost as if you have to keep them at arms length for whatever past reasons. Dysfunctionality is always present with a lot of musicians and sometimes even really good players. Very talented people seem to often be the worst to deal with.
Some of the members still want to go on and a piece of me does also but with any band what you do is dependent on what other people do. People also reveal themselves as time goes by. What would be different if I put it back together is what I ask myself? It's easy to get sucked in because we had a lot of good times and it wasn't all bad. We did a lot for our community and I get people still asking about the singer all the time and I just point them to her Facebook page. Anyway I can put a new version together with other people but it wouldn't be the same which is OK. I know there would be former members that would want to join back and I'd have tell them "look we can't work with each other anymore" . That would be very difficult to do. There is three out of the 7 that I would keep going with but I’d need a new drummer and guitar player. I have been out to eat with a couple of them since the break up and it’s been difficult. It’s almost awkward to talk to them.

Sorry to be long winded but the whole thing has been {censored}in sad. That and losing my dad two months ago has been pretty devastating. It’s unfortunate when you see former band members, almost like seeing an ex in some cases.

Some of the lower end Yamaha and Casio keyboards are good places to start and aimed at the home market.

The K & M series

I think it's as easy to use now as Keyboard Korner is.  I have been here 20 years.

Get an XK 3 or XK3C if you want a better organ tone. They are a little older but they still hold up pretty well.

K & M

I have been lucky. Doing a lot of work in Western NY.  Not so much in Rochester though.  One thing constant is the crowds are just not there.

Yeah long time.  Actually I got rid of the mojo.  It broke internally once and it didn't come through the front of house that well.

Actually upstate NY. I am only 5 hours away from NJ really.  I think you and I might have known some of the same people? I can't remember/

Yes I was going to say. That is good advice.

Well it's too bad as I fear this year it will be more of the same.  Most festivals that usually have a lot of local acts are not having music this year.

Well that was always the things with these organs, they are touch to work on.  Are you going to sell it?

haha

Welcome back I think I remember your handle. I am still here and check in after 20 years. I can't believe it.

ha

I did three gigs as a small act with tracks and it just wasn't the same with my 6 piece band. People couldn't dance so they left the last gig we did. It was embarrassing kind of but the owner didn't want to get fined.  Two members are adamant about being distanced at rehearsals and it caused tension so we scratched it.  These vaccines can't come soon enough.

Yes.  This place was very active from about 2000 till 2011. 

Facebook is horrible for bands and music and hasn't improved much.  Even doing things for bands on the page app is terrible.  I actually think the forum is fine now and am trying to get the guys over on KC to come back.

Well implosion can follow that type of thing often enough.  Disfunctionality will kill a band on it's own.

Yes thanks to social media but I am glad it's still here.

I do disagree sorry.  

I kind of disagree.  I have opened for a lot of people also.  More people will know Bob Marley around the world than Dvorak hands down because of accessibility and what Bob did politically though music.

On 11/4/2019 at 6:09 PM, Notes_Norton said:

Artist schmartist. I'm an entertainer.

I'm a damn good sax player, wind synth player, and backing track maker. I'm a decent singer and an adequate but limited guitar player. I also play bass, drums, and keyboards. The composing I do is improvisations on sax, guitar and wind synth and I'm very good at that. But of course, there are others much better than myself, and others not as good. That's life.

I'm in a duo that has worked steadily since 1985. Before that many other bands. At one time I was in a band that was the opening act for headliners when their hits were top 10 on Billboard. I was in a house band that hosted jam sessions where heavyweights, real jazz stars, used to come to sit in (the guitarist taught jazz at the University of Miami and was in Ira Sullivan's band for a while).

I play rock, disco, jazz, country, blues, Musica Latina, Afro-Cuban, and many other styles. I've even played in classical bands and won "best" sax player in the state when I was in school. I'm not a rock musician. I'm not a jazz musician. I'm not a reggae musician. I'm not a country musician. I'm just a musician. I'll play whatever people want to hear and in whatever style they want (with the exception of rap and EDM, I don't think I could pull that off)

Artist???? I don't think so. If others think so, that's ok. I'm just a damn good entertainer, making a living doing music and nothing but music, playing whatever puts food on the table, having fun playing it, and doing it to the best of my ability.

I'm having a great life because playing music is better than any day job I can think of. I just have fun, entertain the folks, and bring home the bacon. To make things better, my wife, best friend, and lover is my duo-mate. We met when we were in different bands and when our bands both broke up, we decided to join forces. It's a match made in heaven.

I don't know what it takes to be an artist, and I know that term is sometimes abused for commercial purposes, and whether it's Taylor Swift or Buddy Guy or me, we aren't artists, we're just singing musicians, and some of us have better gigs than others.

When I was opening for major stars, most of them were pretty down to earth regular musicians. A few had the big ego, they forgot they were just musicians and singers and thought they were on that pedestal that the public can put you on.

Right now in our area, nobody wants to pay musicians so the quality goes down. That's good and bad for us. Good in that we are desired more because we are better, bad because they undercut us so badly we can't charge what we want and haven't increased our rates in a long time.

There are open mic nights around here, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Sometimes Tuesday too. What kind of quality can you expect there? It's variable, some are good, most are poor, some are terrible, but don't expect art there either.

It's really easy. Practice your craft, be professional, play what the audience in front of you wants to hear, entertain them, do a good job, have fun, and don't worry about art. Life is short. Have fun.

Some write run of the mill rock, jazz, folk, or country songs. Art? Not as far as I'm concerned. Some can be very, very good and well crafted, but not a thousandth of what goes into a great symphony. To me it's craft, perhaps fine craft, but craft non the less.

You want real art in music? It's there, by the likes of Shostakovitch, Beethoven, Dvorak, Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Suk, Mozart, Saint-Seans, Prokofiev, Grieg, Smetana, Janacek, Borodin, de Falla, and some of their modern contemporaries. Where to draw the line under that to separate art from craft and eventually from kitsch? I don't worry about that, I just play music. And I remember they call it PLAYing music for a reason.

Insights, incites and perhaps a minor rant by Notes

 

That's a loaded post.  Not sure really if it's that simple. There is tons of art in other music.

Yes I hope she gets better.

There are tons of Tonewheel organs out there.....a ton.  Leslie speakers not so much.  I just helped a guy sell one of these last year come to find out.  The aren't sought after but if you hook it up to a Leslie they don't sound bad. It's just that they don't demand anything because people don't want them.  They were supposedly going to replace the B3 but Hammond got it right the first time. Tough to work on and tough to sell.