Notes_Norton

The best gig I had was playing in a jazz band. The leader played with Ira Sullivan for a while, and settled down to teach jazz guitar and theory at the University of Miami. It was all live, and heavyweight jazz stars would come by to sit in every once in a while. Players so great that I felt like I was faking it. Other players would come every week, some great, some good, and none were bad. I guess you have to be pretty good to show up at a jazz gig with your instrument. Sometimes, the leader would call songs I didn't know, he and the keyboardist, who pumped bass with his left hand, would call songs I never played before. He'd call the key, and I could figure it out by the time my solo came, I'd give him a nod. We'd also play Real Book songs that most people knew. Other folks would come to sit in, and we had a great time. The only problem was that it was on Sunday Afternoons only. It was during the time I had a day job, trying to see what normal was all about. I was a field engineer for a Cable TV manufacturer. I'd fly out Monday night to whatever system I needed to work on, work Tu. W. and Th. and fly back on the Thursday red-eye, so I could play on the weekends. It was fun playing 'art music' that I didn't have to depend on and not being in control, was living on the edge. It was an exciting gig, and a lot of fun. But I found being normal for me was over-rated, so I ended the CATV engineer gig, and started playing music full-time again. I'd rather play “Brown Eyed Girl” for the zillionth time, than be a wage-slave again. A bad day playing music is still better than a good day at any other job I can think of. I went back full-time and never looked back again. In retrospect, it was the right decision and the best thing I could have done. Notes ♫

Here's another. Giant Hi-Rez TVs with Hi-Fi sound in the living room. In the days of Black & White and later CRT Low Rez TVs, you got less than realistic picture and very tinny, mid-range audio. Plus, before CATV, there were only a few channels available. Face it, we have a lot more competition now. And for those who want to be recording stars, without the labels and radio stations being the filters, the competition is astronomical. Anybody can put up a YouTube video or put their efforts on a streaming audio service. Being discovered by a potential listener is like being that needle in the haystack. So we have to find a way to adapt to the changing times. Notes ♫

My saxophones and flute would become stars, and could drown out those acoustic guitars Notes ♫

I've played just about any venue a musical can. From seedy dives to big concerts and everything in between, cruise ships, weddings, condominiums, yacht/country clubs, singles bars, show clubs, grand openings, private parties, and so on. In a live performance, IMO, the musician(s) and the audience have a dialog with each other. We need each other to complete the circle. That's where the magic happens, and I hope AI doesn't take that away from me in my lifetime. Notes ♫

A have a friend who uses a looper. He's amazing. He'll be singing a song while playing his guitar, and before you know it, he's also playing answer parts, or adding background parts, and then playing a solo. When he turns the looper on or off, it's not detectable, no matter how hard you are listening. It's seamless. Me, if I accidentally turn the amp-sim/fx pedal looper on, I can't get it off fast enough. Everybody has their own set of skills, use what you have to the best of your ability, and work on the ones you don't have that well. I'm sure whatever you choose, Craig, will work out fine. You have the experience and the chops. Notes ♫

True. It's not what it used to be. When I turned pro, every hotel from a Holiday Inn up had a live band, at least 5 days per week. The market has changed, DJs took most of the singles bars and much of the wedding and party business. Plus sports bars, karaoke, open mic nights, and so many other things have appeared where it used to be the domain of bands. To add to all that, bands have had to downsize. I had to go duo to keep making a living, as the 5-piece band I was in before that, couldn't get more money as inflation made everything more expensive, and eventually lost gigs to duos and trios. No, the number of venues is only a fraction of what it once was. It takes more business sense, and you have to work to be better than your competitors if you want to make a living performing music. But it's probably tougher trying to write music and break into the star market. I chose live performance to make a living, and so far, it hasn't let me down. I'm old enough to retire, but have no plans to do so. You can still make a living by playing music live, if you are good enough at both the music and self-promotion. Notes ♫

Bowled a little and golfed a little when I was still in school. After graduating, I toured the country in a rock band for a few years. Never went back to any sports after that (unless you consider chasing females to be a sport). I actually quit watching TV in 1986. We had a 3-week with options gig on a cruise ship. We set revenue records in the lounge we were gigging in, so we stayed on after the 3 weeks. 3 years later, Mrs. Notes' mom got sick, so we 'jumped ship' and became landlubbers. During the ship years, there was no TV, except for a movie that played over and over and over or the advertising station that promoted all the ship sponsored shore excursions. I got out of the habit of watching because it wasn't there. Instead I found other things to do. I got off the ship, hooked up the cable, and found neither of us were watching it. So we disconnected. I could hook up an antenna, the house is wired, and there was a mast from the pre-cable days, but I never did. I eventually took the mast down when I had the house painted. I'm in a fringe area, so without that, I get zero TV. We went over to our mother-in-law's house to watch the last Johnny Carson Tonight show and the first Jay Leno edition. Instead, I created over 600 backing tracks for my duo, from scratch. It's ongoing to this day. I learned to write aftermarket styles and song software for Band-in-a-Box, created a mail-order biz, which turned into an internet biz. I wrote the code for my websites. I also learned how to play wind synthesizer and lead guitar. There is nothing wrong with TV, but I guess I'm the type that prefers doing things than watching. Full disclosure. Mrs. Notes and I turn the TV on once a week to watch a movie. At first, it was Blockbuster, then the minimal disk-in-the-mail subscription from Netflix, and now either the library, redbox, kanopy or hoopla. OK, back on topic. On the cruise ships, there was a small orchestra that played to a click track. In the main production show, the musicians duplicated what was being broadcast through the speakers. The 'production singer' (star) sang live, but a dancer mimed any other parts. His/her voice was on the track. No microphones for the orchestra, they just fattened the sound of the track. That was in the late 1980s. It's been going on longer than most of us know. Notes ♫

I remember Bart Starr. But the last football game I ever watched, Bob Griese was the quarterback. In fact, I haven't watched any TV at all since about 1990. I'm too busy doing other things that are more fun for me.

That's why I have umbrellas. They look like beach umbrellas, but they have tripod bases. I thought about one of those portable canopy covers, but we don't go in the direct sun that often. 3 days a week we are on a covered deck near the ocean, and 2 days a month on another deck at a huge RV resort. Every now and then we get a pool party at a condo or retirement community. I tell them I need shelter, and they usually provide a canopy. But for the occasions when none is available, out come the trusty umbrellas. Not living in AC makes all the difference in the world for my comfort at outdoor gigs. I cool my home the way my parents did when I was a child. Nobody had AC back then. I have a white roof, and I planted shade trees (Live Oak) around the perimeter of the house, but not over the roof. The heat is reflected up by the white roof, and the cooler air from under the trees comes in to replace it. So I get seasonal acclimation, and don't 'die' in the summer outdoor gigs like the AC musicians do. Notes ♫

I work outdoors in the hot Florida sun all year. Most of the place we play have a cover, and if not, there is a clause to move indoors or cancel with pay if it rains. First things first. If you are going to this often, do not live in air conditioning. Seasonal adaptation is a slow process, and you will never adapt to the summer heat if you live in a refrigerated environment. BONUS: Air conditioners are one of the biggest contributors to global warming, so you will be doing your part to slow the demise. If you are going to be in the sun a lot, get one of those portable canopies, or at least some big sun umbrellas. Fans, you already know that. I prefer the squirrel cage type of fan, as the rotating blades of the conventional fan make my sax sound like it's in a high speed wah-wah. Tarp. Bring a tarp if you are outdoors. We played in a botanical garden one day with a 4% chance of rain. You guessed it. One tiny little shower came overhead and got us. The tarp saved us. If using guitars or wind instruments, open them up first, so they can adapt to the new temperature and stay in tune. Back on the OT topic. Highs in the low 80s, lows in the 60, Southeast breezes (Trade Winds) 10-15 mph coming in off the ocean. Notes ♫ PS, I have the opposite problem. Here in FL we get occasional cold snaps in the winter, where the temperature suddenly drops 20 degrees or more for a day or two and then warms up again. Because it's sporadic, we dont get seasonal acclimation to the cold. So if the temperature gets under 60, outdoor gigs are very uncomfortable.

Direct long distance telephone dialing put operators out of work. Phone answer bots put receptionists out of work Chatbots put technicians out of work. Assembly line welding machines put welders out of work. Self-checkout lanes put cash register operators out of work. Turbo-tax put accountants out of work. License plate readers put toll-takers on the highway out of work. AI is putting photographic models out of work. 'Smart' electric meters put the meter readers out of work. DJs already put thousands of musicians out of work. (When I was young, every singles bar had at least a 4-piece band — playing recordings didn't draw a single customer.) AI will put songwriters out of work. And the beat goes on (cue Carol Kaye's bass line here). Right now, it seems that corporate industry is trying to minimize the number of employees they have to pay. After all, less labor costs means more profit for the shareholders. But that raises the question, “When workers are all replaced, who is going to have the money to buy the products they produce?” In the 1800s, the Luddites destroyed the looms when the punch-cards put the weavers out of work. They protested against manufacturers who used machines in “a fraudulent and deceitful manner” to replace the skilled labor of workers and drive down wages by producing inferior goods *. But the automatic looms are still here and there aren't many weavers employed. * Wikipedia Can we stop AI from taking the jobs of songwriters? I doubt it. It didn't work for the Luddites or anyone I know of since. There still will be songwriters, but the number of them who can make a living at that craft will be a fraction of what it is today. I don't want to sound all doom-and-gloom, but history does repeat itself, and it looks like this time it's going to affect our industry again. Survival of the fittest is survival of the adaptable. We all need to constantly be on the lookout for how to survive the ever changing world. Insights and incites by Notes ♫

AI is after a lot of jobs in a lot of industries. I doubt it can be stopped. I agree with KuruPrionz, support live music. One thing AI cannot replace (yet) is a musician or group of musicians, in the flesh, playing music and reacting with to entertain an audience. There is something about the human to human connection between the entertainer(s) and the entertained. A good entertainer not only plays music, but reacts with the audience to have a dialog with them. The good entertainer knows when to play a particular song, what to follow it with, and the next, by reading the crowd. He/she knows when to talk on the mic, and what to say, whether it's serious or a lame joke. He/she knows when to crank the volume up, and/or when to keep it mellow. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. Entertaining takes intuition, experience, and the ability to react to changing conditions of the gig, and the differences that come with each and every gig. When AI takes over songwriting and videos, it'll be our last foothold. Some day, probably sooner than I'd like, I'll be playing AI songs recorded by an AI 'artist' to an audience of live people who won't even know the difference. If I do the job correctly, they will have a great time and come out to see us again. I'm glad I chose to hone my performance and entertainment chops instead of songwriting chops. The mortgage is paid, I have zero debt, and I'm living a happy life doing what I love to do. "The supreme accomplishment is to blur the line between work and play." Arnold J. Toynbee, historian (14 Apr 1889-1975) We had a gig this morning through lunch, and then went out and supported the musicians at the local jazz/blues society. It was a very good day. Insights and incites by Notes ♫

You are exactly correct. It happens to me on stage, and in the recording studio, too. I'm a very good player, a good improviser, a decent arranger, but not a good composer. I've never written anything that I liked, especially lyrics. When I write, the chord progressions sound so standard, not bad, but not great either. Melody sometimes comes out good, sometimes not, and that's expected. But the words sound too corny. Probably because when listening to music, the words are the least important thing for me to hear. But I haven't really put enough time, effort, and dedication to writing songs. I did close to 25 gigs last month, I'm learning new songs requested by customers, and I do my own tracks. I'm having a great time doing all this, and it's my passion. If AI writes decent songs, I'll be happy to play them. But since my love for song writers goes back to the Gershwins, Tin Pan Alley, Brill Building and others, I'd really rather support live people. Notes ♫

Unless it was in the very early days, when they still had marching bands performing at halftime. And as far as I'm concerned, they should still have marching bands at halftime, the super-star-super-show at halftime to me is totally inappropriate. But they aren't marketing their wares to me, in the last football game I watched, Bob Griese was the quarterback. Notes ♫

In my case it's, “do you want to pay the mortgage by doing music, or getting a day, wage-slave job.” When playing music for a living, there are certain compromises the musician(s) must make. But to me, the ultimate compromise is working a day-joy so I can play 'art music' on a Monday or Tuesday night when the club isn't busy. So for my own integrity, I make my own backing tracks. It's the best I can do to keep working without relying on someone else's music. And Mrs. Notes and I have been doing this since 1985, and the only time we were out of work was during the COVID lockdown. The 5-piece band we were in before we decided to go duo, was out of work 3 months in the last year we were together, due to personnel problems. And that wasn't the first band that I had difficulties with. Sure, I want to hear 100% live music, but I'm a musician. I don't care if the musicians are putting on a theatrical show, but I'm a musician. I prefer to hear high-fidelity recorded music instead of 45s, cassettes, or mp3s, but I'm a musician. But I'm also a businessman. I have to be if I want to make my living doing music and nothing but music. So what's probably even more important that what I want? What the audience wants. So for me there is that point that is a compromise between me and the audience, and that's the sweet spot I aim for. I'm gigging, life is good, and I'm happy. Insights and incites by Notes ♫