Ok.. so herez the deal. Our bands playing a 4 hour gig and our set runs 50 mins short!!! We have about 2 other songs to jam to but we're still like 38 mins short. I'm staring at my bass trying desperatly to come up with riffs.. luckily enough i managed to pull out a surfer riff and a little thing me and the guitar player were working on. In the end we ended up falling 10 mins short, but the manager didnt seem to care. I'd just like to know what are some good approaches to facing these situations, where you have to just pull stuff out of nowhere.. when the pressure is on.

I always make sure to know many many many songs, but I would say that it would be wise to work out simple chord progressions and such that you could easily make into a song....like if you lay down a bass line, and your guitarist lays down a little chordal stuff...then just play whatever for a melody, and you'll be fine....works for me at least :D


of course I never have super serious gigs...the longest gig I've ever done was 5 hours and we got a 1 hour break.

btw I'm no mod, but this MIGHT belong in band management and performance forum

Originally posted by JazZ-A-LoT
I'd just like to know what are some good approaches to facing these situations,

My preferred approach would be not to sign up for 4 hour gigs!! ;)

Learn more songs.... failing that, you could always do some of the same ones again. How many of the crowd were there all the way through, paying close attention to you?

Wulf

four hour set!!!

holy frikking moly!!!

i think bruce might be right there.. not even pro's do four hour sets.. why on earth put yourself through that!!!

4 hours... that's long. I've done gigs before with maybe 3 1hr sets before, but not 4 hours straight. I'll just say that you know you're running out of tunes when you find yourself doing a funk jam (with wah-wah Rhodes IIRC) with the drummer, based on the Ghostbusters theme :eek: :D

4 hours! :eek: Do you mean four sets, or four hours straight?

There are several things you can do. First of all, you should time your rehearsals so you know how much material you have, and learn enough songs so that you can cover the time necessary.

One thing you can do is to stretch out some of the songs on your list. Songs with catchy lines (ie, ones that don't get boring right away) can usually be extended by a few minutes by adding more solos. Again, try this in rehearsal to see how it goes.

Another approach would be just to do some on-the-spot improv. This takes a tremendous amount of practice and a lot of people will refuse to try it, but if that is something you can do well, you'll be able to play all day and all night.

I would recommend against repeating songs unless you are completely out of options.

A good idea would be to take a few practices and do "dress rehearsals": time the rehearsals, record them if possible, have some friends sit in and listen, and generally treat them the same way as the gig.

Originally posted by thrash_jazz
4 hours! :eek: Do you mean four sets, or four hours straight?

I would recommend against repeating songs unless you are completely out of options.



I'm not sure - if it was 4 straight hours, then I doubt any of the audience will remember the first few songs you played, by the end!! ;)

Yeah, we don't belong here......

Band Management and Performance time......


Chris A.:rolleyes:

I've filled in with bands who ran short of material, just because there were a few new guys filling-in and didn't know quite all of the tunes.

With a night that long, you could certainly get away with repeating some songs earlier in the first set. Odds are that the only people still there that heard it the first time were the bartenders.

If this is a regular band unit, you have to be careful never to run short, have at least half a dozen of "extra" tunes on your list for throw-ins.

theres also the good ol' instrumental improv jam. i've made one of those last like 15 minutes

Originally posted by FeTiS
theres also the good ol' instrumental improv jam. i've made one of those last like 15 minutes

Heck, I used to play in a band where that was all we did - from 10-2, every two weeks!

It IS possible to make it work!

U guys never play 4 hour gigs?? that surprises me we do that once a week. Probably twice a week pretty soon... I'm only 14. Thanks for all the tips guys. Appreciate it

WE did do one song over again but I'd actualy rather jam up there it's soo fun. It's tough though when ur on the clock getting paid.

Originally posted by JazZ-A-LoT
....In the end we ended up falling 10 mins short...I'd just like to know what are some good approaches to facing these situations, where you have to just pull stuff out of nowhere....

Solution - 12 bar blues with extended jam and repetitive lyrics, such as;

I went down this evenin'/
To see my missy Sue/
I went down this evenin/
To see my girl Sue/
I said "If you don't know what you want/
I sure got somethin for you"........followed by 10 minutes of guitar wanking.

You need at least 40 songs for a four-hour gig. Fifty is better. Learn 'em, THEN get the gigs.

Originally posted by JazZ-A-LoT
U guys never play 4 hour gigs?? that surprises me we do that once a week. Probably twice a week pretty soon... I'm only 14. Thanks for all the tips guys. Appreciate it

I'm confused. I thought your problem was not having enough songs to do four hours and now your band plays four hours twice a week? Did I miss something?

I regularly play 4-5 hour gigs. However, they are composed of 4 or 5 sets, between 40 - 50 minutes, with at least a 10 minute break between sets.

4 hours straight? Where are you playing?

Originally posted by jbplayer


I'm confused. I thought your problem was not having enough songs to do four hours and now your band plays four hours twice a week? Did I miss something?

I'm confused. I thought your problem was not having enough songs to do four hours and now your band plays four hours twice a week? Did I miss something?


Well let me clear the confusion.. That perticular night we only took 3 ten minute breaks in between sets and our sax player didnt solo through 5 songs where he usualy does, his solos are long, so that hurt us. Plus we were playing our slow songs too fast. So that's why we fell short. Usualy we're only 10 mins short and then we jam some blues. I just wanted some advice so if this happens again I'll be prepared. I know what u all mean by "Dont take 4 hour gigs unless you have the songs" , but we dont really have the time to wait for having 50 songs in our repetoire. This band's only gonna' be together for 4 more months so we want to play as much as possible together and get an album out. Sadly our sax player and guitar player are going to Boston for college.

Suggestions...?

Don't let the sax player pass on the solos and make sure you don't rush your songs (give the drummer a metronome) ;)

Apart from that, you've either got to learn more songs (how about Freebird :eek: ) or repeat some of what you've already done.

In the gigs you've done so far, what kind of things have really gone down well? My most constructive suggestion would be to answer that question and then learn a little bit more of whatever that is.

Wulf

Failing that, do a Bitches Brew style half-hour free form fusion jam.

:D

If you mean what kind of style went over well... lets see we only play jazz and some funk so ya'

Great suggestion moley....... actualy ummmmm NO

Originally posted by JazZ-A-LoT
If you mean what kind of style went over well... lets see we only play jazz and some funk so ya' That covers a pretty broad span. For example, one option would be to buy some Real Books - if you can read music, you never need run out of tunes again on a mere four hour gig. You'll find loads of material from a wide range of jazz based genres BUT it does depend on your reading ability and whether books on music stands are 'cool' at the venue.

That's why any suggestions need a context (and, BTW, if it is Jazz/Funk, wouldn't an extended 'Bitches Brew' jam be just the ticket?)

Wulf

Actually, if it is Jazz/Funk you could do something like that. Perhaps not as way-out as Bitches Brew, but you can just do an extended jam. Improvise a head section as a band, then take solos. Or just don't bother with the head section, and just take solos! But, don't base it on the Ghostbusters theme like I did :D But seriously, you could just pick a key, and funk for 10 minutes . G dorian works for me :) But you've gotta keep it interesting, keep it exciting, throw in key changes, change the mood etc. etc.

Actually there's this thing I've seen done... you can do it in the middle of a tune, just in a jam or whatever. This kinda has to have horns to work - I assume you've got horn(s) in the band? At least 1 trumpet or sax player? Say you're just doing a funk groove, what ya do is, you get the audience to call out numbers, then you do that many hits. By hits I mean like repeated staccato stabs - like on that James Brown tune Get Up (I Feel Like Being A) Sex Machine. So say someone calls out 5 - you do 5 stabs (say just on the key note, or you could to a 9th chord or something) - i.e. a bar of 5/8. Then you carry on grooving for 4 or 8 bars or whatever. Then you ask 'em again, and someone calls out 11 or whatever, and you do 11 hits (i.e. a bar of 11/8) then carry on grooving etc. It works better if you do the hits then carry on grooving straight away, with no spare beats if you see what I mean. For example if it's 13, don't just play 13 stabs, then fill for 3 beats (or whatever) to get to the end of the bar so you can carry on the groove - literally play a bar of 13/8, then go back to 4/4 (or whatever).

Of course, people will call out silly things like 57 or 103 or whatever - but if you're all on the ball, you can do it. Though, 103 would get boring. But 57 would be ok.

Originally posted by wulf
That covers a pretty broad span. For example, one option would be to buy some Real Books - if you can read music, you never need run out of tunes again on a mere four hour gig. You'll find loads of material from a wide range of jazz based genres BUT it does depend on your reading ability and whether books on music stands are 'cool' at the venue.



Yes - I've got a small A5 Real Book which has 625 Jazz tunes in it - that would be enough for many 4 hour gigs!! ;)

Have any of you guys heard "Superbass 2 - feat. Ray Brown and John Clayton". It's and awsome cd, learning any of that stuff would be awsome jam material.

If we ever run out of material we just break out 'Pick up the Pieces' and try and fit in as much variation as possible. It'll often be just me and the drummer or the sax and the drummer for a bit while everyone else goes off to the toilet or gets a drink! We even managed to squeeze in Teen Townand Birdland in the solo section once!

Most of our gigs are 4 hours, which is usually broken into four 45-50 minute sets. We did a five hour gig about a month ago and still didn't play all our songs. My band's been together for a few years, and we keep it fresh by learning new material. It comes in handy for those ultra long gigs.