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…to be a well-rounded Entertainer.
The evenings playlist can either kill you or lift you to higher heights.
Whether you are a solo artist or in a band…
You have a song list.
Your songs you’ve worked so hard on.
BUT…
Are they Good Enough?
Can you move around the list and choose a song freely?
In this post I will be focusing on the “SOLO” artist as it pertains to what I am.
It’s best to write what you know about…right?
But even if your in a band this information will apply to you also.
For starters…
You must play an instrument (or be in a band) I play guitar.
If solo – Have a fairly decent singing voice and be entertaining.
And you must have a good…
A list of the songs that you know how to play.
Original material or Cover songs.
These will be the songs that define who you are.
The songs you will be judged, weighed and measured on.
Which songs you put on your list is totally up to you.
Your audience will let you know if you made the right choices or not.
This ‘Song List’ will have to carry you throughout an entire evening.
Usually up to four hours…two hours minimum at least.
That’s a lot of material for a single artist to have to perform.
So where does one start when trying to decide what songs to play.
It’s easy if you are an International Recording Group like…
All you have to do is play the songs that made you famous.
You Can’t Always Get What You Want
Sympathy For The Devil
Satisfaction
Beast Of Burden
Ruby Tuesday
Paint It Black.
The list goes on and on.
And so don’t they.
If your music is good…it’s good.
The only problem these guys have when putting their evenings song list together is choosing which ones they…
DON’T
…want to play.
Boy…to have it that easy.
What is it that keeps them on top?
What’s the magic formula?
It’s their…
The songs they write and record.
They can perform a song they recorded forty or even fifty years ago and the fans still go crazy.
Good songs last…
You can have all the desire in the world.
Or be the best performer to come around in a long time.
None of that will matter if you walk out on that stage and start the evening off with a lousy song.
Or…you can’t sing…or…you can’t play that guitar you walked out on stage with.
That first song will tell your audience all they need to know about you.
It also sets the tone your audience will expect from you for the rest of the evening.
If it is the wrong song…your evening could be over just as fast as it starts.
If you see people leaving during your first song…it’s usually not because of a Dentist appointment they have to keep.
Or because supper is waiting for them at home.
Or that they suddenly realized that they have to leave unexpectedly as they give you the…
…look as they walk out the door.
Or their leaving to do all the above.
Regardless of the excuse they might give you for leaving as they walk out that door they are thinking…
It’s not you…it’s your music.
That’s not a good way to start off the evening.
Remember If your evening is going bad for you, what kind of an evening do you think the employees at your event are going to have?
Bartenders, Waiters, Cooks, Bar Help…Not too many tips for them tonight.
The list of songs that you are offering for the evenings entertainment has to be good.
A lot of people are depending on you to draw the customers in…and keep them in for as long as you can.
You always have to remember…
“There’s a lot of other musicians out there ready to take your place in a heart beat if you can’t deliver.”
People go out for the evening seeking…
They are willing to spend their hard earned money for over priced tickets to a movie, drinks and food…that’s okay with them.
So when they come to a Bar or Club to hear some music and enjoy the evening.
You better be able to satisfy their desires or it’s off to another establishment for them.
It’s all about the songs…
…to play that will determine if they stay or not.
That’s a lot of responsibility laid onto your shoulders…hope you got strong ones.
Having a good list of songs to play can make even an intermediate entertainer pull off a great night of entertainment.
In the end that’s what it’s all about…right?
Entertaing your audience.
That’s the only reason your on that stage and that is something you must never forget.
Once you do…your audience will forget all about you too.
Let me give you an example.
I went to see Joe Cocker back in the…
He hadn’t performed in quite some time and was giving a one night only performance in the area were I was living at the time.
I was able to get tickets to see him.
I couldn’t believe it and I could hardly wait for the night of the concert to get here.
I never had the chance to see him in the sixties when he first came out…I could never afford it.
So this was really going to be a great concert for me.
I was going to…
…with Joe Cocker!
Well I went to the concert along with about thirty million other people.
All of us expecting to hear one of the greatest songsters in our generation.
…was what we all wanted to happen that evening.
The smell of pot filled the air.
Many people were tripping on…
I thought I was back in the 60’s again.
It was awesome!
You could feel the excitement in the air.
The great “Joe Cocker” was performing for us tonight.
We were all ready to be…
away on a…
of music and of days gone by.
To see and hear Joe Cocker once again…
…be still my heart.
What happened next that evening is the story that I will be telling you now.
It is a story about a young man who was seeking a Quest.
A Quest that had been building up within him for years.
Here is his story.
His story starts off as many stories do…
…there was a young man who went to work every day.
He worked hard at his job.
For his reward he received very little money.
With that money bills and obligations had to be met.
Leaving very little for personal enjoyment.
The small pleasures in life that he could afford, he was grateful for.
Wisely he saved a small amount of his money every week to be used for a special moment someday.
A moment so special that no matter the cost…it would be worth it.
Many years passed.
Our young man grew older with the passing of each year.
Throughout that time…still…he saved some of his hard earned money each payday.
Still believing that some day that special moment would come along.
Finally…like a bolt of lightning out of the sky…
THE DAY HAD COME
A quest worthy enough to unleash the power of our young mans savings onto.
A ‘One Night Only’ performance of a Bard known throughout the Kingdom as ‘Sir Joe Cocker Of The 60’s’.
It was the legendary Sir Joe Cocker of the 60’s to be performing here…this was unbelievable.
Tickets for the event were now being released to the peasants of the Kingdom for sale.
Almost immediately most of the tickets had been purchased.
For days our young man searched for one of the Golden Tickets.
Each time one was in his grasp…it would vanish into the grips of the many others seeking the Golden Tickets.
Now only a few remained.
Available only from the Streets of the Kingdom.
They were now in the hands of the Three Ballers.
There was always a risk making a purchase from them.
A gnarly group of thugs they be.
Our young man felt no hope of ever finding a Ticket to buy.
From what the rumors were saying even if he did find one he wouldn’t be able to afford the cost of such a worthy treasure anyway.
…before the concert our young man returns home from yet another day of hard work for little reward.
He fixes his usual meal he has on this same day each week, of each month of each year.
He turns on the small radio he has on the table where he has prepared his meal to be eaten.
On the radio the announcer says: “Caller number 976 will win a pair of front row seats to the Sir Joe Cocker Concert”.
The radio’s station number on the dial was 97.6, so caller 976 will get…you get the idea.
The young man was amused by what he had just heard.
“I never win at any of those things…NEVER” is what he was thinking to himself.
Seconds went by.
Then more seconds passed.
Still more seconds had passed.
Our young man was beginning to feel something come over him.
An urge to call the station!
Something was insisting within him to make that call.
Something was causing the adrenaline within his body to flow in a way that made him get up and make that call.
Having repeated their phone number so many times before opening up the Caller Lines…he had no trouble recalling it.
Like magic his fingers worked the numbers on his telephone.
He waits patiently as the phone at the other end of the line begins to ring.
One ring.
No answer.
Two rings.
No answer.
Three rings.
Still there is no answer.
All his…
…of winning was sinking fast.
Then…just a millisecond before the fourth ring…someone answers and says…
“You are caller 976.”
“You are our winner!”
“How do you feel right now?”
Words were unable to form within his mouth to express the joy he was feeling at that moment.
Finally from the depths of his soul a cry of Victory emerged from within him.
He was the…
WINNER!
Not only did he win a pair of tickets to the concert…
Included was a Limo ride…
…that would start the evening off by picking him and his guest up at his house.
Drinks and appetizers will be waiting inside the limo for the ride.
Followed by a ride right to the concert.
Through the side doors onto the concert hall floor…right up to the front row seats.
At the end of the concert…a ride home
After giving the radio station all the required information…
…he hung the phone up.
“What just happened here?” was all he could think at the moment.
“Did that really just happen?”
“I just won two tickets to see Sir Joe Cocker.”
“LIVE IN CONCERT”
All that remained now was to get to the radio station within 976 minutes and the Prize was his.
Out the door he went and made it to the station with plenty of time to spare.
In his hands he now held two Golden Tickets…laminated and on a chain to wear around your neck.
“It’s true.”
“This is really happening.”
“I’ve got tickets to see Sir Joe Cocker.”
The evening had come for the big event to take place.
Our young man and his guest waited patiently for the limo to arrive and deliver them to the event.
“Good evening sir…your Limo is here!”
A photographer and a slew of questions and then into the limo and off to the concert to see Sir Joe Cocker.
Talk about impressing your date.
Arriving at the Concert more photos taken and some more questions.
Then they were escorted onto the concert hall floor…right up to the front row!
The concert hall was packed.
The sound of all those people together was deafening.
Their excitement filled the air.
Soon the chanting started.
“Sir Joe!…Sir Joe!…Sir Joe!”
Then it happened.
Lights are dimmed into total darkness.
All are waiting.
An incredible display of lights are now being projected onto the stage.
Then…two spotlights shine onto the stage.
Both pointing to one spot.
You knew that was where Sir Joe Cocker was to appear.
It was electric.
Music begins to play then…
BAM!
An explosion of epic proportion and the stage lights up, the band is there and the music starts.
The screaming is deafening as Sir Joe walks into the spotlight.
It’s an unfamiliar song that the band is playing…but the fans don’t care.
Sir Joe Cocker is on stage and the crowd is going crazy.
The song ends.
The audience is still going wild with screaming.
The next song begins.
This again was another unknown song.
The crowds screaming is now lessened.
The peasants are aware that these are not the songs they know and love of their beloved Sir Joe Cocker.
What trickery was this.
Half way through the fourth song the audience starts to revolt.
All in unison are chanting “Help From My Friends…Feeling Alright” over and over.
The chanting feel onto deaf ears.
The band continued playing songs that no one knew.
It was the worst concert he had ever been too.
Sir Joe did not perform a single song from any of his past recordings.
He was promoting a New album that was soon to be released.
All the songs he played that night “SUCKED”.
Not a single one sounded like the ole’ Sir Joe Cocker they all knew and loved.
You could feel the disappointment in the audience.
Half way through the fifth or sixth song the BOOING started.
People were actually starting to BOO Sir Joe Cocker…
It was unreal!
The next song started and our young man and his guest joined in on the BOOING.
Before that song ended the audience revolted.
Everyone started chanting “Help From My Friends”, “Help From My Friends” over and over.
He didn’t perform it.
He started to play some slow song ‘You Are So Beautiful To Me’.
The audience went ballistic.
People were throwing anything they could get their hands on onto the stage.
Everyone Booed him so loud and for so long that they stopped playing the song and ended the concert.
It was less than an hour that he performed.
Not only was the concert over it also ended the evening for our young man and his guest.
They thought for sure the audience was going to tear the concert hall down.
Moving as fast as they could they returned to the Limo and requested to leave.
The next day on the news it was reported that there was a lot of damage done to the Stadium where Sir Joe Cocker had performed.
Fights.
Damaged property.
Arrests.
WHY?
Why all this damage and disorder?
They say that “You don’t try to fool with Mother Nature”…well “You don’t try to fool with an audience either”.
That was so disappointing.
To wait for days to go to a concert to hear something special and to walk away disliking one of your iconic heroes.
Why did that happen?
“Bad song choice that’s why!”
Even after playing an entire evening of music that no one…and I mean “NO ONE” enjoyed.
Then to be offered a chance to redeem yourself by playing the one song.
The one song that everyone in the audience truly wanted to hear him perform.
And for him to not honor that request.
…Sir Joe, you’re done.
And he was.
Below is a Link that will play Joe Cocker’s “Help From My Friends”.
For all of us that didn’t get to hear Joe sing his signature song that night.
ENJOY!
Joe Cocker – Help From My Friends
And now for another example.
A friend of mine who owned a Recording Studio gave me some advise a long time ago.
I’d like to pass it along to you now.
This advice when applied to the songs you decide to put on your playlist could save you a lot of headaches in the future.
I had approached my friend seeking to have a demo tape (CD’s hadn’t been created yet) made for me.
Paying for it of course.
I had written a couple of songs that I thought were awesome…Grammy winners for sure.
I thought these two songs were the ones that were going to get me noticed.
My friend asked me to first play the songs for him that I wrote on my guitar.
Great I thought.
I’ll rock out these two songs and blow my friends mind.
He’ll be so excited that he’ll want to record them immediately after he hears them.
We’ll be out of here and heading to his studio for sure.
We were at my house so I got my acoustic guitar from my music room and started to play my songs for him.
Ten seconds into the fist song.
He tells me to “Stop”.
“Play the next one” he says to me.
Just about…
…was all that was allowed for the next song before I heard…”Stop” again.
“Chip, anyone in the business gives you ten to fifteen seconds of listening time to a song.”
“They can tell everything they need to know about the song in that short period of time.”
“If your material is any good they will keep listening…if not they will say to you what I just said to you.”
“So my friend I hate to inform you but…you’d be wasting your money and time on those songs!”
After I got over the hurt and embarrassment…several days later.
I was forced to take a hard look not only at my music but at my self as well.
My songs are…
…to record!
That was not what I was expecting to hear…that’s for sure.
…weren’t these songs good enough for my friend to record?
If I had been at some other studio that didn’t know me personally…I’m sure they would have recorded them for me.
Telling me how great they were and for a couple of thousand bucks more they could help me promote them.
But my friend advised me to forget those two songs.
I have to believe what my friend told me…I truly trust this mans opinion.
He has a great ear for music.
To his credit he recorded Tracy Chapman’s demo tape for her song “Fast Car”.
So…some people you listen too if you know what I mean
So what was the…
…with my songs?
Why weren’t they worthy of recording?
I went out and bought myself a tape recorder and blank tapes.
I was going to Record these songs myself and prove my friend wrong.
“I’ll show him…telling me my songs aren’t good enough!”
Well I recorded the two songs.
Then I sat back and prepared myself to have my mind blown away by the music I had just recorded.
I turned the volume all the way up on the tape recorder.
Then I hit the Play button.
After listening to both songs…twice actually.
I came to the only conclusion I could about my songs…
They really did.
I listened to them for a third time and once again.
I came to the same conclusion about my two songs.
Why did my songs suck?
To be correct here…my songs didn’t really suck…they just weren’t good enough.
Nothing stood out about them.
Nothing grabbed you.
They both began then ended.
There was nothing in the middle that spoke to you.
There also was nothing inside of me that wanted to hit the…
…button one more time to hear the songs again.
…what was the point of the two previous stories.
In both examples you could see that it didn’t take very long to be turned off by the music being played.
Your customers will fall under this same umbrella of thought.
They come in…don’t like what they hear…they leave.
Most people will stay for one drink.
I’m not sure if they are giving you another chance to redeem yourself or just checking the atmosphere out where you’re playing.
When you are out performing for the public…you will be judged under these same standards.
Within seconds you will be analyzed to be either Good or Bad.
Also it will be either…
…if they are going to stay any longer.
The point is you can spend the evening entertaining your audience with the songs they are familiar with.
Have them singing and dancing all night.
Stop them from walking in and turning right around and walking out.
OR
Play a bunch of songs that only YOU like and no one else really cares for.
Songs that seem great…and they probably are.
They just aren’t the type of songs that go over well at a bar on a Friday night when your audience wants to be entertained.
After all…it’s Friday night.
The greatest night to be an entertainer.
People have worked all week and they are ready to go out and…
And you my friend are assigned with the task of satisfying their desires.
To keep them entertained.
And if your not entertaining…people will leave and go somewhere else.
Playing to an empty room is about the worst feeling a musician can experience.
Even if you have a good crowd there is always the desire for more customers to come in.
Watching someone walk through the door gets your hopes up that they will stay for a while.
Just as you would in any business…and after all this is a business.
We all must remember that as we proceed along on our musical journeys dealing with the public.
Believe me I’ve seen many people walk in where I was playing.
Then just as fast as they came in they turn around and walk out.
Why?
I could never really answer that question.
A feeling always came over me that it was because of the style of music I was playing.
Or maybe it was the song I was performing at the time.
Or was it because I sucked?
Apparently what I was doing didn’t help to persuade them to hang around for a while.
Watching a customer walking out while you are playing…it hurts.
But that’s just one of the hurts you’ll be experiencing as you move along on your musical journey.
Just one of them.
Believe me there are plenty more to come your way!
So what do you do about this problem of making…
In the end it will be you who decides which songs you choose to put on your list.
All I can do now is explain to you how I made my decisions.
Hopefully something I did during this process will help you with your decision making on this matter.
I will start off from the very beginning of how I compiled my Song List.
…my only assumption about any of you I will make throughout this tutorial is that you know how to…
Play an instrument.
You can sing.
You feel you are ready to try your hand at performing live.
You’re ready for the Gigs.
Ready for the Fame.
Ready for the Glory.
Ready for the Bright Lights.
Ready for all the Groupies.
And you’d like a little help with putting your Song List together.
– OR –
Your Mick Jagger reading this Post having a good laugh and saying…
“I’m already there man.”
– OR –
You already have established yourself and you might have a related problem with song choice during performances.
There are many styles of music.
Rock, Country, Rap, Jazz…you get the idea.
No matter what style of music you play.
No matter where it is that you have to play.
When the time comes for you to hit that stage and entertain an audience.
You best have a good variety of music to offer them.
There are many types of venues that an entertainer is faced with having to perform at.
A bar, a church, a pool party, a private home, an outdoor festival, on the beach, a stadium, a restaurant, a department store, a parking lot, even on a Pirate Ship.
Where you play and what type of music you play it is left up to a wide variety of options…endless actually.
Each one of them requiring their own style of music.
When you are hired for a gig…the people hiring you have either heard you perform or you come highly recommended to them.
They obviously feel that your music would fit their events agenda or you wouldn’t have received an offer to perform.
That’s half the battle over for you.
The other half is performing up to their standards throughout the evening.
How do you do that?
How does one choose the right songs to play at the right time?
Let’s see if I can break it down for you using the method I used to create my own ‘Playlist’.
First off let me explain to you a little about who I am.
I’m a single entertainer.
I play guitar and sing.
My music covers most music genres.
Some I stink at so bad that I tend to avoid them only because I can’t perform them well.
Rap, Heavy Metal, Punk…those types of music.
I do enjoy listening to them though.
When I was younger I played in a couple of bands.
None of them ever turned out to be anything more than a pain in the butt.
Having to deal with other peoples personalities and egos…
Mine too for sure.
During my first marriage I tried my hand at being a single entertainer.
I was terrible.
I could play a bunch of songs that sounded good but only lasted for a short period of time.
Not quite the two or four hour time limit that usually is required of a performer at an event.
My entertaining skills were down the toilet.
I was young, dumb and full of…let’s just say “Ego”.
It was embarrassing.
But at least I tried.
I plan to write a post about the ‘One Night Only Gigs’ that I performed while attempting to become a ‘Super Star’.
Let’s just say I never got a Call Back from them.
There were some real classics.
I guarantee that you will get a few…
… when you read them.
My personal song list contains two hundred and twenty two songs that I have worked out and can play complete.
I always learn all my songs on the acoustic guitar first.
To me if a song sounds good on the acoustic guitar it will sound even better with a little electricity added to it.
Besides learning to play the songs on the acoustic guitar allows you to become the hero at many different events.
Nothing greater than whipping out the old acoustic guitar while sitting around a campfire and proclaiming…”Let me play a few songs for you guys”.
Then actually being able to pull it off.
Yes my friends, learn those songs on that acoustic guitar first.
Then I tackle the words.
I use a drum machine…so figuring out the beat comes next.
Who doesn’t like a good beat to a song…helps people get up and dance.
That’s it.
That’s the learning process for any song I add to my ‘Playlist’.
From this list of two hundred and twenty two songs…
I have placed one hundred and sixty three of the songs onto the playlist that I perform from when I’m playing out.
It’s a lot of…
…trying to remember all the words to all the songs.
Then there’s the guitar playing to remember and the drum machine settings.
I’ve had my share of having to make up words to songs I was performing due to going totally…
…while singing them.
One hundred and sixty three songs I have on my list.
I print a few copies of this list out for the customers to see which songs I play for every event.
This also will help you from saying “I’m sorry but I don’t know how to play that song” all night long.
This way they know what and what not I know how to play.
So how did I choose the songs that I put on my list and…
Believe me it wasn’t…
When I perform I consider myself to be an entertainer.
I’ve had to perform on every day and evening of the week.
Playing music isn’t only for the weekends you know.
Nor is it only played in the evenings.
Trust me on this one…I’ve played them all.
Every day and night of the week and weekend!
To me that means I have to perform for a wide variety of people.
I don’t play just one style of music.
When I perform I perform for whom ever is in the audience at that time.
I live in…
…so there is a variety of bars, restaurants, festivals and many other types of venues to play at.
There is also a lot of tourist.
Men, women, boys, girls, old, young, American, Foreigners.
People of all ages and from all walks of life.
Then there are the Locals…never forget about the Locals.
All these people want to be entertained.
All at the same time…in the same place
I’ve played at a few beach side restaurants where hundreds of people are there at one time eating, drinking enjoying a sunset.
It’s almost like playing at Disney World.
How do you choose what song to play at the right moment to make it memorable for your audience.
That’s a pretty big question that really has…
There is no way you can guess which song to play at any given time before hand.
And try following a ‘Set’ List that you can’t deviate from.
Sometimes the crowd just doesn’t fit the next song you are about to play that’s on your ‘SET‘ list.
So how do I handle this situation?
As mentioned earlier I have one hundred and sixty three songs on my Playlist.
I use to go out with just a list of the songs I play and just start playing from the list.
As I’d be playing a song I would be glancing down at the list trying to pick out the next song to play.
Have you ever tried to look at a list of one hundred and sixty three song titles and try to pick out your next song to play?
You’re not just trying to pick a song.
You’re trying to pick the right song that’s going to fit seamlessly into the mix.
The song that will continue your audience dancing on the floor or raising their glasses in song.
It’s…
Especially when your eyes are shot and you need glasses to see close up.
And of course you need a pair to see far away.
So once again; “How do you pick the next song to play”?
Well…this gets you right back to having a good “Playlist”.
All the songs on that list should be able to be played at any time.
It’s up to you to determine which song at which time to play.
A fast dancing song?
An Easy Listening song?
Is it time for a Slow song?
Your main concern is to choose a song that fits the mood.
If your playing a fast dancing song and it’s over…what next?
What if some of your dancers are standing on the dance floor waiting for you to play another dance song?
I have panicked at times trying to choose a dance song from the one hundred and sixty three songs on the list.
I’ve seen the people standing on the dance floor waiting as I frantically searched for the next dance song to play.
Here’s what I go through when that happens.
“Three couples standing on the floor waiting for me to play another dance song.”
“Pick a song…pick a song…quickly.”
“I need to find a dance song to play…right now.”
“Which one…which one?”
“Come on your wasting time…come on!”
“Let’s go, choose one…hurry up.”
Then I realize I’ve already played all my good dancing songs.
And the one I’d like to play, the one that’s my best dancing song.
I just got through playing…what do I do now?
Well, when I did nothing as I searched my list frantically searching for that song to play.
The three couples waiting to dance return to their seats.
“Too late, they left the dance floor.”
“I’ve failed.”
“I’ve failed miserably.”
I let my audience down and believe me they won’t be forgetting that too soon.
I can see the smart phones being pulled out already.
The comments about how I suck and how I couldn’t deliver I’m sure are already being re-tweeted around on the internet.
“All I had to do is play a song for them to dance to.”
“And I couldn’t deliver.”
That’s what I usually go through.
Not a pretty sight right?
I’ve gotten so confused at times by all the song titles on my list.
It would be only a matter of seconds before I’d find a song to play…but still I’d be too late.
The dances would have already sat down.
Like I said before it’s easy choosing your next song to play if you’re a headliner act.
The people that come to see you play already like you and usually will like any song that you play at any time.
As long as you give the audience what they want, unlike my example of the legendary ‘Sir Joe Cocker’.
I kept…
…at my song list trying to figure out how to handle all those songs and to be able to choose one quicker.
Each song I play I catalog as follows:
Song Title__Artist__Date Released
Starting Guitar Chord
Drum machine selection
Drum machine speed
Bass setting
Capo if used
Guitar effects peddle setting
Guitar tone settings.
The following is how a song appears on my Playlist sheet.
This is only one of my one hundred and sixty three song settings.
She’s Not There
The Zombies___1964
Em_00_136_B – K1-8_K2-1 – S-2
I have to use a large type setting so I can read the information at a distance while I’m playing.
This information is spread out over seventeen sheets of eight and a half inches by eleven inches.
Put into a three ring binder set up alphabetically by song title.
When the music starts so does the frantic searching of the song list.
Turning page after page after each song trying to find the next gem to play for the audience.
It was…
…what I put myself through.
I did this for years torturing myself night after night as I searched my list to pick the next song to play.
This happens because every night is…
From different customers to different weather to it just being the night that it is.
A different crowd comes in on Monday night from Wednesday or Friday night.
So the songs you play will be different each night.
It’s a constant struggle choosing which song to play next.
This was literally making me sick every night.
I was always worrying about this list and how long it took me to choose the next song to play.
What to do?
What to do indeed?
Then one day while I was rehearsing I had a moment.
Something came to me that was so clear in it’s inception.
I was shocked that I hadn’t thought of it a long time ago.
I started going through every…
…that I played.
I played each one and updated any information on my song sheets that needed changing.
I then started to brake down my one hundred and sixty three songs I played into two groups.
An A-List of the songs that I knew were received well by many different groups of people I’ve played for in the past.
My second group is my B-List.
These are the songs I know but they really aren’t suited for playing out.
It’s not that they aren’t good enough…it’s that they are mood changers.
…music and play what the people want to hear!
I bring this list with me anyway…just in case a customer might happen to request one of them.
Which has happened quite a bit.
Now I have my A-List of the songs I play and their required settings and play information and they’re all up to date.
Unfortunately I still have seventeen sheets as before that I have to search through.
But now there is a big difference.
Something that has made my playing experience a much happier one not only for me but for my audience as well.
I took all the songs from my A-List and broke them down into two separate groups.
AND
I chose these two titles because they cover all the types of places that I play at.
I’m either playing in a Bar or at a Private Party where the music is geared towards drinking, dancing and having a great night out.
Or I’m playing in a Restaurant, an Outdoor Festival, an Art Show some place where the general public gather.
For these events the music has to be more of the Family, Audience participation type music.
A lot of the Club songs wouldn’t go over well while people are dinning or looking at Art Works.
Just as a lot of the General songs tend to not fit the atmosphere of a Bar or a Club.
And yet a lot of the songs can be played at either venue.
These type of songs are put on both lists.
In these groupings I list only the song title.
Then I printed each group out.
I put these sheets into my three ring binder separated by subject dividers with tabs indicating what group it is.
Now when I go out to perform I choose either my Club Playlist or my General Playlist.
This makes my playing songs and choosing which song to play next much easier.
I can now be at a Bar and look at my Club song list and no matter which song I choose it will…
The same goes for when I’m playing at a General event.
All the songs will…
I’ve…
…several other Categories to my Song Sheets to make my song selection easier for me when I’m performing.
BEATLES (I play quite a few of them)
COUNTRY (a lot of popular Country songs these days)
DANCE (Now I can look at a list and choose a song quickly)
OLDER (Music suitable for the older crowd…hey, I live in Florida, what can I say)
ORIGINALS (All the Original song titles that I’ve written)
SLOW (Lots of the Slow stuff)
THE 50’s (Everybody loves the 50’s)
The point here is that by breaking my large group of songs into smaller specific groups, it’s much easier to choose a song to play from that type of music.
Then I can quickly look up the settings for that song and quickly input them into my equipment.
As I’ve mentioned, I have to play for all types of people at any given time.
So for me to look at a listing quickly to see the titles of the songs that fit…well it’s a blessing.
My audiences seem to be enjoying my new found freedom as much as I do.
To conclude this sort-of Tutorial about creating a Playlist I leave you with my final thoughts.
What ever type of music you play I’m sure your song selecting is just as much of a problem for you as it has been for me.
I found that by breaking my songs into groups it made it so much easier for me to choose the right song at the right time.
Be it a Slow song or a Dance song they are all listed separately for quick access.
Seeing just the name of a song on a list of songs of a particular type…doesn’t get any better than that.
At least for me.
Keep on gigging!
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