This past weekend, I saw a duo consisting of a KB player/vocalist and a drummer. They were playing at a well attended outdoor function.

Gear-spotting, the guy played a Casio Privia. He had a laptop which I think was mainly for charts/lyrics.

While there were other stages and bands performing to audiences, a crowd of folks sat there and enjoyed the duo too.

As musos, it is easy to get caught up in the details. Personally, I strive for a level of perfection that would not matter to the average listener.

In the end, most folks just want to hear *good* music.

Of course, regularly gigging musos already know the deal and/or could care less providing the check clears.

While perfection is always something to strive for, sometimes it's the imperfections that make the music enjoyable. Case in point, it's the imperfections that made the Hammond B3 such a coveted instrument.

In many cases, especially if they're good players, audience members like duos because the music gets stripped of all the extras, down to the essence of the songs. The simplicity can be very appealing to many.

I approach the music where if I'm playing what to me is well, interacting well with the other band members, and having fun, it translates to the crowd, and they'll enjoy themselves. The main thing is to never take myself too seriously, and lose the joy.

You're funny, ProfD.

I can always depend on you for posting about your two favorite things in life:

1. Playing music
2. That other thing you talk about


er, and not necessarily in that order.

Tom

When I find myself getting too caught up, thinking about the imperfections in the best music brings me back.


In the words of a former leader explaining the financial markets, they're interlinked.

Kind of hard to argue against the “performance” element. A killer performance on a marginal keyboard always trumps an average performance on the “latest and greatest” board. But I do feel that attention to detail is important, especially within a pop/rock context, when so much stuff is going on in terms of layers, idiosyncratic parts, etc. I love to hear when a keyboardist crafts a program/patch that sounds "just like the record." Over an entire night, I believe this attention to detail, especially when shared by the entire band, has a cumulative effect that the audience experiences at some level.

As a muso, I would like to believe it too.

However, as a muso who also attends performances and quizzes folks about what they saw and heard during the show, like/dislike about a band, etc., they aren't listening for the same thing.

The band and/or sound system has to be "off" to discourage the average listener.

Except for a few music enthusiasts who can identify with the instruments, 32nd note runs, arrangement, etc., it is mainly musos who listen with critical ears.