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I got started with a Yamaha PSR-413 that had very limited registration facilities so never really got into using registrations. Instead, when I "graduated" to a PSR-S900 I started using the Music Finder to set up gig lists. The Music Finder is not as flexible as a set of registrations, but I found it satisfactory.

The Music Finder has a total capacity of 2,500 entries and about 1,500 are filled at the factory. Any or all of the factory 1,500 can be modified or deleted and, of course, any of the originally empty 1,000 can be filled. If you start with a totally blank file, then you have the entire 2500 entries available to be filled from scratch without having to tinker with any previously existing entries. I use Michael Bedesem's Music Finder View program to edit the Music Finder file, as it is much easier than trying to edit the file on the keyboard.

You could have several blank Music Finder files to start with if you wanted to fill each one with a particular gig list. But, if you use a song naming technique such as the one I describe below, you may be able to incorporate all your gig lists into a single Music Finder file. That's what I have done, and it works well for me.

Let's take a simple case where you want to set up two gig lists of three tunes each. The first list will contain Side By Side, Tea For Two and Moonglow. The second will contain My Prayer, At Sundown and Deep Purple. (I'm a 1930's – 1940's guy.) The trick is to add four characters and a space before the titles when entering them into the Music Finder records. All the tunes in the first list will start with the letter "A" and all in the second list will start with "B". Then, within each list, the next three characters will be digits that indicate the order of the tunes: 005, 010, 015, etc. So, the song names in this example will be:

A005 Side By Side
A010 Tea For Two
A015 Moonglow
B005 My Prayer
B010 At Sundown
B015 Deep Purple

After making the entries you can load the Music Finder file onto the keyboard, press the Music Finder button, and sort the entries by "Music" (song title). Now you have your gig lists displayed separately (the initial letter separates them) and in performance order within each gig list (determined by the digits). Using a single initial letter provides 26 distinct gig lists within one Music Finder file. If you need more, then use two letters instead.

Separating the digit values by 5's gives you the option of making insertions or changing the performance order of several songs without having to re-enter the entire gig list. For example, if you decide to start gig list "A" with Tea For Two then just change the digits to "003". Or, if you want to insert Heartbreak Hotel as the third song in Set "B", just name it "B012 Heartbreak Hotel" and off you go.

Of course, you can modify the details of this scheme to suit your needs, but the basic idea of manipulating the song titles to force them to appear in the desired order remains.

If you like this scheme, there is one more wrinkle you should add. That is to mark all your gig list entries as "Favorite". You can then put as many other entries into the Music Finder (up to the 2,500 entry limit) as you wish, maybe tunes in your repertoire that just haven't been added to gig lists yet or tunes you are working on but aren't ready for prime time. These "other" tunes should not be marked as "Favorite".

Now, when you are practicing at home, you use the "All" tab of the Music Finder to display all of its entries. But when you are on the job you use the "Favorite" tab where only your gig list tunes will appear and you'll never have to scroll past non-gig-list entries to move from tune to tune while performing.

Works for me. I hope something like it will do for you, too.

-- J.


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This page updated on February 15, 2024 .