sugarplumsss,,
Unfortunately, my health precludes me from ever going on stage again, thus I have retired.
In my case, I used a single registration per song, 8 songs per bank, and I placed them in categories such as Country, Rock, Oldies, etc...
I used my music finder most of the time, which provided all I need to perform any song. I custom made my music finder directory, which consists of about 700 songs, all of which were popular for my audiences. Ironically, it seemed to fit audiences of any age, including spring breakers in the Florida Keys. The beauty of using the mfd and registrations combined was that I could easily search both of them for the next song while I was performing a song.
I kept my lyrics stored in my small, netbook PC that sits atop my custom console, while the mouse sat upon a small platform situated out of the audience's view on the right side of the the keyboard. Most of the time I had the lyrics in my head, so I rarely had to rely on the PC.
Now, this activity requires you to be able to look around a lot, look at the keyboard display, look at the buttons, but at the same time, maintain eye contact with the audience. I was primarily a singer, not a player, and I relied heavily on my vocals, not my right hand abilities. Yes, I can play the fill-ins, riffs, etc..., but my vocals were my strong point. Now, in order to do this multi tasking, I had to maintain proper position with the mic, which eliminated a hand held mic. Instead, I used a very high quality headset mic designed by Garth Brooks. One less worry while on stage.
Out keyboards are designed in such a way that we can multi-task while on stage, yet keep the attention of the audience by maintaining eye contact with them, which is a key ingredient to any successful performance. For a home player, none of this matters, though. A home player could spend an hour working on a single song, and only he or she would know the difference. In contrast, a live performer must be able to seamlessly transition from song to song with little or no dead time between songs.
This time of year, the boat sits on dry land, waiting for the arrival of spring, while the captain (me) sits in a recliner watching TV and sipping a tall glass of Jim Beam Honey Bourbon. Once a day, I climb aboard the stationary bicycle and get a bit of exercise, but I must be tethered to an oxygen line in order to do this.
Hope this helps,
Gary