Musicians Karaoke
A new movement in karaoke
By: Johnny Stewart

When karaoke hit the scene. Live music hit the road.

Karaoke is a very affordable form of entertainment. Often times karaoke will fill the room as much or more than a high budget live band. I lot of great live bands found themselves out of work or working less. I was one of those karaoke kasualties.

Years ago I toured the country with a six piece band. Slowly, as the economy changed over the years the size of the band dwindled. One day I looked around and I was the only musician left. I kept my income up by replacing some band members with electronics. One of the first to go was the drummer. The new (at that time) electronic drum machine filled that spot. Then music computers hit the scene so I went out and purchased the first one. This unit cost $7,000.00 plus the expense of all the sound producing modules. There went the rest of the band. No more splitting the money.

After a while I realized that most people did not even know that I was using a computer. They just thought I was using tapes for the extra sound. By then I had invested thousands in electronics, which now sits at home depreciating.

karaoke had hit the frontier. I knew things had changed.

"If you cant
beet 'em
join 'em"

Many other musicians moved over to karaoke. They found they could make the same, or even more money and it was easier. No more rehearsals.

I really miss playing in a band. As a musician I was always growing artisticaly I was stimulated by other musicians. And music was spontaneous. I still sit in with my singers playing my trombone or trumpet. It gives me a sense of being part of the music.

Pete Pattynama, over at the Quails Inn in San Marcos has been doing a combination of karaoke and live band on special occasions. In fact he brought the band over to my show one night. The singers loved it.

One of Pete's musician friends, Barry Amundsen has now started a concept known as "Musicians Karaoke." He plays guitar along with the singers. Barry is a member of two top bands in San Diego, Time Piece (rock and roll) and Nitro Express a country band. You can find him at Pitchers doing Musicians Karaoke" on Sundays in Rancho Penasquitos. He is also at the Main Event in Escondido on Wednesdays. Also at the Main Event, guitar player Steve hosts on Fridays and Saturdays.