Organaut, the trick to eliminating dead time between songs is actually very easy - it's just a matter of organization and planning. Many years ago, my dead time between songs was horrible, often as much as 30 seconds while I scrambled to find the right page in my loose leaf binder filled to capacity with lyrics sheets. Despite the fact that I had tabbed the pages in alphabetical order, it still took forever.
About 20 years ago, I traveled around the mid Atlantic region of the US to see how the other One Man Band (OMB) entertainers coped with this. Most chatted with the audience while they pressed the appropriate buttons on the keyboard, then went into the song. Their dead time was still horrendous. I ran into a few, however, that had no dead time at all between. They could actually transition into the next song while the current song was ending. WOW! I was excited.
First and foremost, I perform nearly 3,800 songs, therefore, it's pretty rare that someone might request a song that I do not know. However, when they do, I merely told them to write the name of the song on one of my business cards, and I would learn it before I returned the next time, and I always did.
Obviously, I cannot remember all the words to all 3,800 songs I perform, therefore, I copied the lyrics off the internet, then saved them into my netbook PC in Microsoft Word, all in a single folder. This automatically puts them in alphabetical order, which makes them very easy to access and recall.
Next, I created my own, personal Music Finder Directory, one that contains about 800 songs, songs that are frequently requested and usually please the dancing crowd. This took a couple weeks, but in the end, it was well worth the time.
My registrations are categorized, and I have about 400 songs in registrations, but ironically, I rarely use registrations - just the MFD.
Now, the beauty of this is that you can scroll through the registrations or MFD while performing a song, stop at the song you wish to play next, but as long as you do not press the enter button, you can continue the song you are currently performing uninterrupted.
Upon ending the song you are currently performing, merely press the Enter button and the song you stopped at on the MFD or registration will instantly kick in. It's that easy.
The attached video link will give you an idea of how this can be put into play and be quite effective. In the video I used both the MFD and registrations. The lyrics were mainly in head, but if necessary, I could have instantly called them up on my netbook pc which sits atop my custom made music console that I designed and constructed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMQDzrS3658The photo of my rig and I was taken at an outdoor marina party back when I was using the PSR-3000 and Bose L1 Compact PA system. If I loved closer to you, I would be more than happy to show you how this works in person.
Hope this helps,
Gary :cool:
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