El Lobo

Damn.

I'm not good at math either. I never had calculus or trig, didn't do well in algebra or geometry. But I get statistics intuitively. It's a different kind of thing than advanced math. People who don't know anything about statistics don't get this; they assume statistics is some kind of complicated math. The math is not that hard and software does all the calculations anyway. It's more about analysis and interpretation of results and applying the appropriate tests.

"it's not my thing" "it's not a good fit" etc. don't go into detail. the more you say, the more they know you're uncomfortable and not saying something like "you guys aren't very good" "the lead guitar is a jerk" or whatever

I sent the article to my business partner who sort of collects pianos. He said, "They say people "don't have room for pianos" as if it is a space problem. As a piano fanatic, I notice most people who say they don't have the room seem to have the room to me, but they filled it with unused seating or storage units displaying knickknacks. It's not a matter of room, it's a matter of priorities."

Agree. Playing bari is fun.

You're obviously a statistician, Moonglow. Or at least well-versed. I'm a research consultant in my day job. Yes, effect size is the crux of the matter here.

I'm 74. I've had my main band for 17 years, I recently joined an originals band, and I play in the house band for a weekly jam as often as I can. Load-in and set-up is daunting but I manage. My knees are shot. I used to play keys and sax standing up. Now I use a tall stool, so the next morning I can still walk. Most evening gigs are over by 10:30 or 11:00. I don't do those 9:00 - 1:00 gigs anymore -- unless they're close and the money or the hang is good. I also don't travel an hour away, again unless the money or the hang is good. I'm grateful that I still get to play at my advanced age and also that I'm still able to play. My biggest fear is that something will happen to me physically that will make it hard or impossible for me to play. I think about quitting while I'm still ahead. But live playing is a drug and I'm an addict. At some point though, I'm going to look too ridiculous as an ancient rocker. Maybe I already do. But if they will still let me play, I probably will ...

I'm trying ...

I take umbrage.

Life Expectancy and Cause of Death in Popular Musicians: Is the Popular Musician Lifestyle the Road to Ruin? "Results showed that popular musicians have shortened life expectancy compared with comparable general populations. Results showed excess mortality from violent deaths (suicide, homicide, accidental death, including vehicular deaths and drug overdoses) and liver disease for each age group studied compared with population mortality patterns. These excess deaths were highest for the under-25-year age group and reduced chronologically thereafter. Overall mortality rates were twice as high compared with the population when averaged over the whole age range. Mortality impacts differed by music genre. In particular, excess suicides and liver-related disease were observed in country, metal, and rock musicians; excess homicides were observed in 6 of the 14 genres, in particular hip hop and rap musicians. For accidental death, actual deaths significantly exceeded expected deaths for country, folk, jazz, metal, pop, punk, and rock." https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26966963

b9s?

A point of agreement: Chicago and BS&T notwithstanding, I've always preferred horn band instrumentation to be one trumpet, one 'bone, and two saxes. It provides many more voicing options. Agreed. Tenor and bari sax preferred.

On behalf of hornists around the world, nothing mentioned above is a horn. :taz Words are defined by their common usage. Everybody understands that a trumpet, trombone, and a couple of saxes is a horn section. You can't un-do common usage by a vote of 1.

Saxes are not brass instruments, but they are horns. Trumpet, trombone, and sax make a nice horn section. They do not make a brass section. In my band, I play keyboard and sax. When I play sax with the harp player, we are the reed section.

As a horn player, I agree with this. Play the horn parts on organ and it will sound much more ... organic. Pardon the word. But it will be more expressive and sound more natural. I've never heard synthesized horns that didn't make my teeth hurt, my skin crawl, and my face wince.

I was just about to say Casio PX-S3000. Black or white, whichever you think will work best. The 3000 will give a fair choice of organ sounds if you need those for weddings. Strings too. But the pianos are very good. It's lightweight, with very good piano action.

I like the idea of playing keys and sax at the same time. Are you playing a B3 sound? This inspires me to try to get a friend to take a similar picture during our gig this weekend. Yes, it works best with holding organ chords or doing simple chord rhythms or riffs in the right hand. Also, on tenor it works best in key of concert G because you have access to all the left hand notes for a blues scale. It can also work in concert A (guitarists love A) but the further you get away from those keys, the more you need your right hand to get the root notes, dominant 7ths, flat 3, etc. I only do it on a few songs where it works well and I know what I'm going to do. Sometimes I do it at the jam, as long as it's I IV V chords in G or A.

You're right. It's something like, "Gee but she's pretty." He's not calling the key.

Huzzah!

From brief looks at the guitarists' hand positions, it looks like they're playing in G. Unless they're tuned up a half step, which seems unlikely.

She's smiling through that whole thing, even gives Chuck a kiss on her way off stage. You hear Chuck say at the very beginning "G what your pitch is" or something like that. I don't know if he's calling the key or saying "Gee something something." I wonder ... could she really pull that off a whole fifth (or fourth, depending on which way you're counting) away from the key she rehearsed it in? It sounds like it fits her vocal range well. Should it have been much higher? Or lower?

Wikipedia says, "On October 16, 1987, Ronstadt joined Chuck Berry onstage at the Fox Theater in St Louis as part of a concert celebrating Berry's sixtieth birthday. According to production assistant Mark Slocombe, despite Ronstadt having rehearsed with the band playing in the key of C, Berry's guitar playing on the actual concert performance of "Back in the U.S.A." necessitated the band performing in the key of G: Slocombe â "Linda Ronstadt's such a pro, you really don't hear her strain or muff it. But ... she was so pissed off when she walked off that stage she went right through the Green Room, right out the stage door, climbed into her limo and never came back for the second show. [berry's birthday fête consisted of two concerts planned to feature identical set lists and guest performers.]" The Ronstadt/Berry performance of "Back in the U.S.A." was featured in the filmation of Berry's sixtieth birthday concert: the 1987 movie release Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll, with the track being included on the soundtrack album: according to Slocombe, "they had a hard time getting [Ronstadt] to sign the release for the [performance] because she was so pissed off." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Back_in_the_U.S.A. Here's the video of that performance:

I was just listening to a report on the news radio about how Amazon's rate of new Prime subscriptions is declining and this is an effort to get more new Prime subscriptions. I made a cursory look for deals and saw nothing.

The ukelele is making a comeback, partly I think for its whip-out factor. A good musician friend now performs and records almost exclusively on a baritone uke. He's a singer-songwriter and records most of his original material in his truck. (I recorded a sax solo on one of his original songs in my music room.) When he gigs, he goes electric but he always has the acoustic uke in his truck wherever he goes and can easily whip it out to play a demo of his latest tune. A band I recently joined uses an electric uke bass. It's about the size of a baritone uke but has different strings. The upright bass player switches off to it for some songs and the acoustic guitar player also plays it when the bass player switches to acoustic guitar. It actually sounds really good as a bass, but then the bass player really knows how to do an excellent set up for his string bass and the uke bass. It helps if you're an electrical engineer to begin with. Another pro musician I know sings and plays the uke, and friends are taking uke classes at the community center. My son bought 4 cheap ukes for my 4 grandchildren to play so the whole family could play music together. It didn't work out exactly according to his plan, but it was a cool idea. Anyway, consider the uke for ideal portability, travel, and whip-out potential. It's easy to learn too.

Oh yes, I've done it a few times. Like others in this thread, I used to travel for work a lot and be stuck for several days in conference hotels, many of which have a piano somewhere. I remember playing one in the bowels of one hotel where only the maids and maintenance workers were. It's late at night and I'm stuck in this hotel so I find the piano and play for a while. The housekeeping staff complimented me on my playing. I also remember being in a museum somewhere (Scotland? Italy?) where there was a small concert auditorium with a grand piano waiting for the performer to play later in the day. Of course I had to give it a whirl, just to see what it sounded like.