Practical MIDI

Is it any wonder that I sometimes prefer the company of my computer or my MIDI keyboard to that of a live musician? Case in point—when I’m not playing my MIDI solo gigs, I have a part-time partner who forms the other half of my duo. We do almost the same show that I do in my solo act except for the technical overlapping harmonies in some of the songs we do requires two singers. My vocal harmonizer just won’t cover those songs. If it weren’t for that and the fact that sometimes clubs just insist on a duo, I’d be a solo act all the time. Heck, I have enough MIDI material to cover three nights straight without repeating songs. This part-time partner also has solo jobs of his own when he’s not booking my duo.

I also have an agent who books me as a solo act and that works out very well, since I don’t have to consult with anyone before accepting any jobs from him. I just look at my schedule and can give him an answer right then and there. Well, this time I made the mistake of asking my agent to book my duo for a night of Beatle tunes and he was hot to get us into some local clubs. He set up a job for two months in the future for the two of us. I immediately called my part-time partner and told him to put it on the schedule. Skip ahead a month (with just a month until the job) and I run into the part-time partner again and mention the upcoming Beatle job. He gets the usual quizzical look on his face and then informs me that he’s booked elsewhere by himself. I mean, how hard is it to write a date down on a calendar and hold that date open?

Since I already have the pre-paid contract for the duo with my name on it, I’m stuck without the other half of the duo. Sure I’m ready, willing and able to do the job as a solo, but this particular club insists on a duo. So now I have to scramble to find a replacement and teach them my material. Panic time? Not on your life. Remember, I have MIDI on my side. That is, I don’t need to find anyone who can rehearse and learn sixty songs by next month. I have a book full of cheat sheets (see Cybermidi’s cheat sheet section for your own copies) and I have a keyboard with a hard drive full of MIDI songs.

I can play my parts as usual and the replacement, whoever that turns out to be, need only grab their guitar and strum along to the cheat sheets in front of them. Heck, they don’t even have to practice any of the songs. If they get to a part of the songs they are unfamiliar with, they can just drop out, make believe they’re strumming and let MIDI fill in the missing parts. No one will be the wiser, especially the folks who pre-paid my contract.

Even if the substitute musician is a little more finicky and wants to practice these songs before the job, he needn’t even stop over to my house with his guitar. I can simply email him the cheat sheets and MIDI files and before you know it, he’s an expert with an unfamiliar song list. Ah, the marvels of modern technology.

Okay, the job is over and the club owner says we’re the best thing since sliced bread and wants us back again. Only the stand-in musician can’t make it for the next job. Now what? Simple. Just pull out my trusty stand-in list of musicians, pass the cheat sheet book over to them and I’m back in business as a duo, commanding twice what I’d get as a solo act. Versatility is the name of my game, thanks to MIDI

©2005 Bill Bernico for CYBERMIDI.com Downwind Publications