General Music Chat

We've been playing pretty much the same set lists with a few new insertions thrown in. I decided to try something new for this next show (this Saturday). I wrote the title of each song on one index card, shuffled them, and then randomly drew each card and wrote down the songs in the order they were drawn. Pretty interesting results, I think all four sets will be fun to play. Anybody ever try anything like that? I think next time I'll assign each song a playing card (Pride and Joy-Ace of Hearts, Red House-five of diamonds, etc.) and then shuffle a card deck and pick the setlists by random order.

We just let Ray organize the order of the songs after the band votes on which songs to play for a particular venue. With > 20 originals and growing it is pretty easy to do. And so far Ray has displayed excellent leadership in the order.
One of our last shows he sat up a power point program and scrolled the lyrics on a big screen behind the band.
I'd really like to be able to do that for every show. It seems to greatly enhance audience participation,

One of our last shows he sat up a power point program and scrolled the lyrics on a big screen behind the band.

That is especially helpful for ORIGINAL bands, as you guys are!

In some of my bands, I have printed off original song lyrics (small) on card stock, with the 4-folds, and left one on each table. The fans appreciated it, especially newer ones, and several commented after sets how great it was to have the lyrics. Even though I sing pretty clearly, there are always a word here and there that people get confused.

And that way, they can also have the SONG TITLES handy, in case you don't announce each one every song.

Bob,

I think as a Blues Band, you guys can get away with that a little easier than the rest of us. Sets usually have to be thought out, as a DJ would do (should do) so that you are moving the crowd in the right directions. Like, opening with a strong song, and finishing with one that you KNOW will leave them wanting more, so they stay for the next set, or have the best impression if they do leave between sets. And you have to play fast danceable songs together, and give them slow ones intermitently, to take a break, or for those dancers that won't dance fast, but they wait for a slow song to come around. And location matters alot. If you are playing a place that has a strong food or dinner crowd, sometimes there is no choice but to play an easier more relaxed (quieter) first set, and then get stronger on the second set. Well, and for some places, it's good to set the DJ up, or at least not be upstaged by him, by playing a too mellow song that the band may not be that strong on yet, only to have the DJ follow that, with a strong set that immediately gets people up on the dance floor.

I prefer to end most sets with a really rockin' number, and when the DJ comes up, they may continue dancing... which means GET THIRSTIER, and the bar sells more liquor, which... smart owners, watch that, just as they do NUMBER OF PATRONS. Opens the door to more money for the band, when you can prove that bar tabs are bigger, when your band plays there!

But hell, some of this you have to be flexible on.

You can make the best set in the world, and then realize that the people in that particular place gravitate more toward a certain style, so you sometimes alter the sets on the spur of the moment, to keep them happy.

One of the things that's been bothering me was saving some of our best songs for the last set. I wanted to give people a good last impression. Problem is most of the time most everybody has left before the last set, and then those that are still there are too drunk to appreciate the music and we are too tired to play them well. So I decided to try and mix it up this time. Really interesting results by the way. I think all of our songs are strong, so it really doesn't matter what we play in what order. I think sometimes you can over-think or over-analyze the songlist or try and anticipate what an audience may or may not do. (Paralysis by analysis). In our case we're going to wing it and enjoy the spontaneity...

Sounds better than: (After every song.}

"What should we play now?"

"I dunno wadda you wana play?"

"Hey, I know. We can play that one song"

"Yeah!"

I could never do that. I'm kinda funny about trying to keep from playing 2 songs in order that are in the same key, I've always been particular about the order, cuz there's times when you can really set a mood with a certain order (at least it affects me like that).

I think I'll just buy a Blackberry and send suggestions to the members. J/K

The cards do sound kind of fun, it would help with monotomy.

Sounds better than: (After every song.}

"What should we play now?"

"I dunno wadda you wana play?"

"Hey, I know. We can play that one song"

"Yeah!"

LOL... True!

Although... The Doors had an internal agreement that they would not play any song that the WHOLE band didn't agree with. Before getting famous, they were known for standing on stage and arguing, sometimes for 30 minutes... yes, 30 MINUTES before deciding on the next song!

They were a different kind of band for sure.

People tend not to argue with me...

I'm with Phil, I arrange the songs so no two in a row are the same key. I also keep the danceable songs for the second half of the set and the anthems for last.

Ive done this so many ways.

Typically my cover band we have some set list printed but after a couple of songs we jsut start either following what the audience asks for or just each band meember will shout something. Its totally in the moment and keeps you on your toes.

I ussually try a couple of mellow vocal numbers up front to warm our vocalist up. I have sat down and written out a set with different keys, say start in E go to F#, G, A, B, C, D, and then around again. I like that cause it gives your sets some sort of contrast. I played with some guys as a fill in player a couple of times and it seems like we would play 20 songs straight in the key of E, as a guitarist, since I only know about 3 good licks it got very repetitious, LOL.

In an original group I would have a tight set list and keep it consistnet from night to night.

I think it's brilliant.

Talk about variety, I'm looking over the sets and Set II jumps out at me as real varied:

Mustang Sally-Wilson Pickett
Already Gone- Eagles
I'm Ready-Muddy Waters
Long Black Veil- (Can't remember the artist but many have done this one)
The Hoochie Choochie Man-Muddy Waters
Tell Me About the Blues- original (check it out on my profile page)
Hey Joe-Hendrix
Red House-Hendrix (what are the odds of randomly picking the only Hendrix songs we have in our repertoire?)
Monkey Around-Delbert McClinton

That's a neat way to do it Bob.

Wouldn't work for either of my bands though. We have too many alternate tunings that require guitar switching. So we tend to organize our songs to reduce the amount of switches we have to make.

But hey - if you're playing everything in standard or with a capo, I think that's a really neat way to shake things up from time to time.