El Lobo

Thanks for the Better Sax vid about the YDS-150. I agree with everything he says. I haven't played one but his explanations about the features that are or aren't there are right on.

The video points out that the 120 has a recorder-style mouthpiece (as opposed to the fake reed and sax-style mouthpiece of the 150) and has the same sounds as the 150. In reviews of the 150 on Sax On The Web, the biggest criticism of the 150 was the sounds. The Aerophone Pro gets a lot of attention. There are videos and Facebook groups and software updates and help posts about resolving many of the problems that come with the more advanced and complex settings. I think the Aerophone Pro has emerged as wind synth market leader. I have the first model of the Aerophone and an EWI Solo. (I'm an inveterate early adopter of many things.) I prefer the EWI Solo. It does take some getting used to. I play sax and keyboard in my main band. I'm also playing tenor and bari sax in a 10-piece worldbeat originals jam band. I've tried out the Aerophone and the EWI at rehearsals but they just don't cut it for live playing, even through good powered speaker. I see videos of people playing the Aerophone Pro in live gigs, but that doesn't work for me. If you can play sax, play sax. It's so much better than a synth sound through a speaker. My 2¢. YMMV.

I'm a wind synth guy - I have a WX, an Aerophone, and EWI Solo. The reviews of the YDS 150 were pretty bad - people hated the sax sounds. Very quick look, the YDS 120 is lower cost and they removed the fake bell. If the sounds are the same as the 150 this is a no-go. If the sounds are much improved, Yamaha needs to make that case -- but that would downgrade the 150. Also the sounds are limited to sax emulations and a few others (i haven't checked this, may be wrong). All other wind synths have 100's of other sounds and can access unlimited other sounds. The 120 is a non-starter for me but might appeal to a niche market, especially players who want a practice sax they can play with headphones to work out scales and fingering and such. Wind synths are NOT good substitutes for sax because they do not require a sax embouchure. If you really want to practice sax, you need to practice on a ... wait for it ... sax. Duh.

I watch the Masters and I don't care if Tiger is playing or not. I don't play golf and I'm not even a golf fan. But the Masters is always great drama and a good sports story. That green jacket nonsense is anti-climactic, kind of like watching somebody get anointed as a real estate agent. But the actual golf is entertaining. I've been watching the delayed replay without knowing the outcome and just saw Rahm go up by 1 to 12 under, leaving Mickelson, the comeback kid, in 2nd place at 8 under. I can see the finish ahead and Rahm deserves the championship with very steady play.

Just read this part. Yeah, been there, done that. I've had some fun at rehearsals when we just start jamming something we've never done before. Sometimes something really nice comes out of that, sometimes nothing. But the part that really struck me was the same 6 songs. Every. Damn. Time. At what point do you decide that you've got those songs down and add something new to the rehearsal? If it never happens, yeah, I'm outta there.

wow. I'm impressed with the quality of advice and material offered here. What a great forum! I've played this tune on keys in a band but I made no attempt to solo like Bill Payne. That's way beyond my skill level on keys. But I do want to emphasize feel and groove. That's what Little Feat music is all about. And it's important that the rest of your band members get that part right. If they don't, it doesn't matter what you play. And if they do, then you can play anything and it will be right -- as long as you're in the groove with them. Dixie Chicken is a fun song to play, and usually turns into a singalong on the chorus so you don't have to work as hard. Just relax into it and let the song and groove carry you.

Thanks for suggestion of using Keynote (Powerpoint equivalent on Mac). I tried it out and it was a breeze. Never used Keynote before. Little bit of a learning curve to get the formatting to work. But generated a usable stage plot for my purposes. Now I'll do one for my main band. Thanks much for the idea.

Yeah, that was my immediate problem with Stage Plot Designer. Fail.

Thanks for the ideas. Yeah, that's what I did before - just use shapes and label them. I might try it in keynote. Or even in a photo program. I don't need anything fancy, just something to show sound engineer where things are and what the needs for mics, stands, DIs are.

I have to do stage plots for a couple of my bands. I did it before with crude drawings but now I see there are apps that have icons for instruments, etc. Some of them are free but want you to pay for upgrade, some are more costly. I've read reviews and there's lots of criticisms of most programs. Do you use a program for designing stage plots? DOo you like it? I don't mind paying a small fee but I don't want to pay a large one unless I've tried it out and liked it. I'm on a Mac if that makes a difference. Thanks in advancee for any info

If you are going to live with a partner/spouse, only live with someone who supports your gigging and musical pursuits. Either that or don't live with someone.

Thanks for that. Listening to it now.

As a sax player, playing Bb tenor and Eb baritone in bands, when the guitar player tunes down to Eb, I hate it. I've played in rock bands all my life and I learned to transpose early on and play easily in all those usual guitar keys of E, A, G, C, D. I look over and read the guitar players' left hands (or bass player) and I know exactly where I am. When they tune down to Eb it really screws me up. But yeah, if the singer needs it half a step down to hit the notes, I can accommodate.

The Musician's Holy Trinity has already been mentioned in this thread – good music, good money, good hang – but it holds true. If you get 2 out of 3, do it. And 3 out of 3 is the winning hand, the jackpot, bingo, the musician's holy grail. Sometimes I've had to settle for just 1 of those but most times I get 2. You may have to decide which 1 to give up. At my age, I don't need the money so I tend to give that up. There were times when I've insisted on good money. Sometimes that's the only 1 of the 3 I got. Sometimes I played just for the good music, other times I played just for the friendly hang. But the thing is, I always played. You may make different decisions about the 3 things at different times. But you'll always play because that's who you are.

Yup. Me too. And I'm still doing it at what I call my advanced age. As they say, keep on keepin' on ...

Paul - as I read what you're saying, I think that you are musician, whether you want to be or not. 🤓 What I mean is, many of us go through various stages, sometimes playing more music or music that we like, sometimes playing less music or music that we don't like that much. But the thing is, you keep coming back to playing music in some form. Sometimes we may even take a few years off from playing music. But then we end up doing it again. You're in one of those transition phases. Sounds like you're moving to doing your own thing again, maybe with a collaborator or putting your own band together again. It's all good. Follow your own instincts. Do what feels right to you. You will play more music again. I've had a blues-rock band for 20+ years. I gigged occasionally in other bands, then the pandemic pretty much dried that up. A little while ago I started playing in an originals world-beat jam band. We've had a couple of freebie gigs. Sunday we had a gig with the full band, 10 pieces + sound guy. Good crowd, enthusiastic, lotsa fun, music went over really well. With tips, I got paid $21 for a 2-hour gig, close to home. I would have done it for free. I'm 77. I turn 78 in a couple months. If you're a musician, you will play music. Go with the flow and find out what music you're going to play next.

My Knox accordion stand arrived today. Light weight, stable, quick set up, folds up compact, height adjustable for standing playing, inexpensive. Why didn't I have this before? I would have saved on all the other stands I bought. I think when I looked at it before, I couldn't see any info that said height could be raised to the level I need it to be. Thanks to AnotherScott for saying that it went up to 38". That did the trick and I pulled the trigger. Happy with it so far. We'll see how it holds up to gigging ...

Listen to yourself. Also: advice on the internet should be taken with a huge grain of salt. You've told a big story about your existential musical dilemma and it will resolve however it resolves. For me, I made a decision a long time ago to not be a Vegas lounge act or make my living playing music because the psychological costs were too great. Part of that decision was realizing that the stress of travel was too much. You have to make your own decision and I wish you the best, but I think you (and your wife) will come to accept whatever the way forward turns out to be, together.

Excellent! Thank you. At that price and weight, I can't resist getting yet another stand. 😎

How high does that accordion stand go? it's not clear from the Amazon link. It says both 27" and 28.5" I'm not sure that's tall enough for me to play standing.

One of my last teenage fantasies done gone. Sophia Loren is still alive at 88.

It was a good game. Now can we trash talk the half time show?

Q. What do you call a drummer in a 3-piece suit? A. The defendant.

I have 2 Nords, 3 Casios, and a Roland. I'll take therm all.