Lefsetz Nails the State of the World

[Notes_Norton]

If I'm not playing music to an audience, something huge is missing from my life.

 

As others have expressed, I have to make music. It would be a very sad day if I couldn't.

 

Notes â«

[Piktor]

Some people really like my music, which is enough for me. But, although this may sound odd, the main reason I make music is so that I can listen to it. It's the kind of music I enjoy. If someone else made it, I'd listen to that instead

Yes! I think that personal satisfaction has been my big driver at this point. I try making music that I want to hear in order to scratch some sort of itch. Sometimes the itch is just a desire to try my hand at a particular approach or style, but often the itch is there because I have trouble finding someone else"s music that does a particular thing that I want to hear. As far as determining whether anyone else likes it, I just might not ask for their thoughts. Maybe that way I can pretend that they actually listened to my music and just maybe they liked it. ð If the goal was to produce something marketable/popular, of course I would take a different approach. I don"t try to put anyone off, but I do not want to make music that I personally find boring.

After spending decades supporting other people"s vision or playing for other people"s enjoyment, now I hope to just represent my own musical thoughts as well and as honestly as I can. Captivating a live or devoted audience is a great and rare skill, but that is not the motivator for me at this point. Of course, just like the guy who buys lottery tickets without expecting to win, a man can always dream, right?

[Notes_Norton]

I guess I'm weird, I enjoy playing for other people's enjoyment. It's like we are having a party together.

 

I do cover songs, sometimes close to the famous recording, sometimes similar, and sometimes totally different. It depends on how I think the audience will react. I make my own backing tracks, so there is almost always a place for me to improvise a solo on the sax, wind-synth or guitar, and if I'm not singing, to improvise fill-ins (responses) to the lines Mrs. Notes is singing.

 

When the song starts, I'm in that place where there is no space, no time, no words, and no me, just the music flowing through me, the energy from the audience feeding back through me and flowing through me again. It's pure bliss.

 

Between the songs we have running gags, joke around and talk to audience members, and generally just goof-off with them.

 

I need to play music more than I need the money I earn. I like entertaining and I love my audience. Many of them are like extended family members to us. We've known them for decades, celebrated their triumphs and sympathized with their losses. Many of the northerners and Canadians have extended an invitation, "If you are ever in our area, please come stay with us." or something similar.

 

I feel I am a very lucky person to be able to do what is blissful to me and make a living doing that.

 

Insights and incites by Notes â«