Fred Coulter
Collector of ancient keyboards
Yesterday there was an original music festival in Daytona Beach called Daytonapalooza. Supposedly there were 130 bands and artists on something over ten stages. Other than getting 20,000 steps on my Fitbit, I have a couple of observations.
First, there's been discussion about the death of keyboards in local bands elsewhere on this forum. I was there from about 4 in the afternoon to about 10 or so in the evening. During that time, I saw at least eight bands using keyboards of some type of other. This means that at a very rough estimate, somewhere between ten and twenty percent of the acts I saw had a keyboard. Most of the acts with keyboards were full bands, but one of them was a pianist on a generic Yamaha electric something accompanying a female vocalist.
When you look at bands on television, the Kronos and the Motif are omnipresent. However, at the local level I didn't see anyone playing those keyboards. (Nor did I see a Montage, but that's so new I wasn't expecting any.) I did see an accordion, but that band was a bit strange. The accordion player also played drums, trumpet, and cello.
Second, there was some discussion on muffwiggler.com about whether women are playing modular synths. I didn't see any modular synths yesterday, but there are far more women in bands then I remember from my youth. Not just as vocalists, but as members of the band. I don't think I saw any women playing lead guitar in a mixed gender band, but lead guitar is pretty much the high testosterone part of the band, and probably the hardest role for a woman to be taken seriously.
My legs are recovering; I should be back to normal in the morning.
First, there's been discussion about the death of keyboards in local bands elsewhere on this forum. I was there from about 4 in the afternoon to about 10 or so in the evening. During that time, I saw at least eight bands using keyboards of some type of other. This means that at a very rough estimate, somewhere between ten and twenty percent of the acts I saw had a keyboard. Most of the acts with keyboards were full bands, but one of them was a pianist on a generic Yamaha electric something accompanying a female vocalist.
When you look at bands on television, the Kronos and the Motif are omnipresent. However, at the local level I didn't see anyone playing those keyboards. (Nor did I see a Montage, but that's so new I wasn't expecting any.) I did see an accordion, but that band was a bit strange. The accordion player also played drums, trumpet, and cello.
Second, there was some discussion on muffwiggler.com about whether women are playing modular synths. I didn't see any modular synths yesterday, but there are far more women in bands then I remember from my youth. Not just as vocalists, but as members of the band. I don't think I saw any women playing lead guitar in a mixed gender band, but lead guitar is pretty much the high testosterone part of the band, and probably the hardest role for a woman to be taken seriously.
My legs are recovering; I should be back to normal in the morning.