Solo gig with P3
2006-03-19 by Jim Combs
I performed my first ever solo gig last night at a small coffee shop here in Atlanta called Aurora Coffee. I was second on a bill including a solo blues acoustic guitar player and a gothic folk duo (think prog-y Kate Bush on piano with an awesome acoustic guitar player). The volume was set at a normal stereo in living room (lattes would drown things out for a few seconds). I was armed with my P3 with 3 banks completely empty except for 2 set with 4 patterns per track, and 1 set with lots of auxes [random note, random mask, random repeats]. The P3 was connected to a Novation Nova, Lexicon Jamman, and Korg ER-1 and ES-1, and I was driving the rig from a Roland JD-800. The first song, I solicited help from the audience in selecting what notes I would play (I had seven different audience members draw a card that corresponded to a note; a C7 chord as it turned out) and the tempo I would play at (87bpm) and then started with a 32-sec JD-800/jamman loop, then switched over to the P3 and built up the track, eventually brought in the Korgs, and finally faded back to the jamman loop. The second song was more of the same (though I talked in depth about Colin and his wonderful machine). And the final song, I spoke of the idea of prepared piano, and instead I was using prepared sequencer, having no idea what notes would come out once I started playing. A rousing ovation. People wanted to buy the CD that had what I had just played (and I had to explain to them that I had just made it up). The last piece seemed to be everyone's favorite (though the first piece was the best to my ears). If anyone had told me a year ago that I could walk into a gig without much prepared and be able to hold forth for 45 minutes with a mostly acoustic guitar expecting crowd, I would have told you you were crazy. Thank you Colin! Other observations (mostly from my wife who was in the crowd): One couple came in to buy coffee and the woman became entranced by the music I was playing, stating to her S.O "This is so unusual." The guy turns to look at me, turns back to her and says "He's not playing it." They turn and walk out. People have a hard time understanding what synths do, what sequencers do, and what musicians who play them do. Because much of what we do involved shifting data around through circuits (instead of fingers on strings), they have a hard time seeing the causation between us, the machines, and the music. My wife thought my explaining "the prepared sequencer" piece provided a link that helped the audience of normal everyday people understand my role in the process and perhaps that's why that piece was a favorite. The next time I perform in that kind of venue, I'm going to take more time to explain how I set up my canvas, prepare my paints, and then paint them the picture. -Jim www.touchxtone.com www.myspace.com/jimcombs