Im retired and living in Mexico, having fun, exploring new things, catching up on long-dormant hobbies. Large expat community here. Lots of bands with mixtures of local and expat musicians. The main genre for years has been 50s-60s rock-and-roll. Elvis, Orbison, etc. Very, very white, and a bit before my time. Nothing, and I mean *nothing* I ever listened to in high school gets played here, except for the occasional Skynyrd tune, at least until recently. And then Thomas came to town.
So now hes got a few guys he gigs with regularly. 70s soul/funk mostly. HIS gigs I go out of my way to see. We start talking and I try helping out with some sound issues now and then. And somehow my past music experience comes up, and he finds out I was thinking about getting a keyboard again and boom. He wants me. I try explaining that all of my experience was with school band, mainly percussion, but that I also had piano lessons along the way. Brief stints w/ a school jazz band. Lots of individual jamming to chords. Five years as praise and worship leader for a small-ish church. Another brief stint as keys for a Stevie Ray cover band. I explain that Im really a hack. I pound out chords, but I suck at improv. I tell him not to even think about throwing solos my way.
Somehow this does not discourage him. He seems to think this is exactly what he wants to add to a band. And until we get some actual brass players I have to play those parts too. So here I am, with a new midi controller and an iPad, working on the set lists, scrambling for sound patches and chord charts. So hi! Ill be posting some specific questions shortly...
