Building the Setlist

[bigboy_78]

So what's everyone's opinion on learning new setlists (sort of related to Jive's rant).
A) Grab the low hanging fruit, rough out 50-60 songs and then go back and polish what needs work, add harmonies, decorative licks etc. Swap in more interesting tracks once you have enough "standards" for a show.
B) Polish each song as you go. COncetrate on the more interesting tracks from the start. Rehearse each track until you have 50-60 perfect, watertight killers.

I'm more a fan of method A. This way if a gig comes up you are 95% there. With option B you can spend 6-12 months just polishing, and often end up so committed to being perfect, that you forget to gig.

 

[cronker]

I think it depends on how experienced you are. Are you doing covers?

If you are playing with experienced players in a cover band, most everyone will know the "standards". That's a start.
Even without that, there are songs that are very simple, and very much the same:
Louie Louie
You Really Got Me
Summertime Blues
Gloria
(But please don't be that band)

I don't think you need 60 songs. Perhaps 30.

My approach is always to sit down with your band members, decide what you want to be, and then practice practice practice.
We would never go out and play before we were sure we had a solid offering for our audience.

 

[BazzTard]

I'm assuming you mean a new band has to determine a setlist then learn it?

I'd get a list of songs that you want to play, and group them according to difficulty, easy,medium,hard. This way you can quickly get easy and medium songs up to standard,whilst working on a few harder songs as well. This way may be the fastest way to get songs ready.

If it is just yourself joining an established band,group their songs the same and get the easy ones playable so you can at least jam with them.

 

[hrodbert696]

I agree with Cronker here. Having a plan is important, so that the set list doesn't wind up becoming a mess of a little bit of everything. You've got to define what you're going for and who you're playing for. If you have experienced people, chances are there's already a lot of shared repertoire. When I joined a band I'm in now, they asked me to audition four songs; when I got there I looked at the list of 20 or 30 tunes they had on a whiteboard and already knew half of them.

I think another thing is setting a timeline for how soon you want to be gigging. If you don't have a deadline, you can spin your wheels endlessly trying to be "perfect." If you say you're going to start booking gigs for, say, two or three months out, then you work to the deadline, add four or five tunes a week and when the first gig comes, you go with what you've got. I generally think of 40 tunes as the standard for being ready to gig.

And yeah, you can always jam on Wild Thing or Louie Louie if you need to fill time. We did that the first time.

 

[HailCorduroy]

We have a backlog of songs we want to do and add 4 of those each practice session as new songs. We spend about half of practice running through the songs we added the last practice and the few before that. Then we spend the rest working through the 4 new ones. So we end up practicing a song quite a bit for 5 or 6 practices in a row, polishing as we go. But we are constantly adding new songs as well. Every so often, usually right before a show, we run through the sets just like a show.

 

[s0c9]

We have a backlog of songs we want to do and add 4 of those each practice session as new songs. We spend about half of practice running through the songs we added the last practice and the few before that. Then we spend the rest working through the 4 new ones. So we end up practicing a song quite a bit for 5 or 6 practices in a row, polishing as we go. But we are constantly adding new songs as well. Every so often, usually right before a show, we run through the sets just like a show.

About the same here.... we dump the ones that don't work (or gel) for us.. even if it's a #1 hit. When we have to choose between a mediocre rendition of a #1 song or a GREAT version of the #3 (or 2, 7, 9. etc) then it's a no brainer.
Its not always obvious what doesn't work for the band at first.. but with a little practice.

 

[pklima]

I think it depends on how experienced you are. Are you doing covers?

If you are playing with experienced players in a cover band, most everyone will know the "standards". That's a start.
Even without that, there are songs that are very simple, and very much the same:
Louie Louie
You Really Got Me
Summertime Blues
Gloria
(But please don't be that band)

I don't think you need 60 songs. Perhaps 30.

My approach is always to sit down with your band members, decide what you want to be, and then practice practice practice.
We would never go out and play before we were sure we had a solid offering for our audience.

Yeah, pretty much this. Maybe don't even start with "standards" as much as make a list of songs that at least 1-2 people in the band already know, and start with the most popular ones among those. If there aren't 30, fill the list out with simple stuff, but newer and more dance-oriented - Rihanna, Pitbull and so on.

 

[swamp_bass]

Once you start getting towards the goal of about 50 songs, how do you keep them sharp in the time between gigs?
A) marathon practice sessions
B) rotate songs in each practice so they're each played at least once a month
C) band is experienced enough that re-practicing is less important at that point

 

[HailCorduroy]

Once you start getting towards the goal of about 50 songs, how do you keep them sharp in the time between gigs?
A) marathon practice sessions
B) rotate songs in each practice so they're each played at least once a month
C) band is experienced enough that re-practicing is less important at that point

Last band I was in had gotten to the 50-70 song range and we went with B. We practiced every other week and had the songs split into 2 groups. We would go through Group A one practice and Group B the next.

 

[eriky4003]

Swamp_Bass,
Our band doesn't play too frequently but we usually have the set list made a month before a gig to run through the sets so those songs get rehearsed the most prior to a gig. If we've been learning a song and it sounds gig-ready, we'll either slot it in or sub another song out.

 

[swamp_bass]

Swamp_Bass,
Our band doesn't play too frequently but we usually have the set list made a month before a gig to run through the sets so those songs get rehearsed the most prior to a gig. If we've been learning a song and it sounds gig-ready, we'll either slot it in or sub another song out.

So your band only needs a month to go from 0-60, or are you a seasoned band with a large catalog of songs you already know how to play?

 

[LowFish]

Once you start getting towards the goal of about 50 songs, how do you keep them sharp in the time between gigs?
A) marathon practice sessions
B) rotate songs in each practice so they're each played at least once a month
C) band is experienced enough that re-practicing is less important at that point

We are at around 95 songs in our bands catalog, we only gig out 1-2x a month. We will rotate songs at each practice, to keep them fresh, some we barley play at practice, just from playing them so many times, and they are easy( the easy ones are the ones that get you at a gig). We like to try 3-4 new songs at the start of practice, if they mesh with us, we will put them onto a list, if they don't, we just move on.

 

[Muttleybass]

#1: Start by play everything you know.
#2: Learn as much new, current stuff that sounds good and that you can pull off as you can
#3: As you progress, replace everything that doesn't go over with new stuff that does. (this doesn't mean you can't rotate the old stuff or keep it for requests... It's called "expanding your repertoire")
#4: Repeat to keep it fresh

Never do anything you can't do well. Pay attention to your audience. Try not to punch out your guitar player over whether or not you should drop "Highway Star" because the young kids don't get it.

 

[hrodbert696]

Once you start getting towards the goal of about 50 songs, how do you keep them sharp in the time between gigs?
A) marathon practice sessions
B) rotate songs in each practice so they're each played at least once a month
C) band is experienced enough that re-practicing is less important at that point

Depends on how much time there is between gigs. If you're gigging every week, you only need an occasional practice to add material or touch up problem spots. If you only gig once a month, you need more frequent practices and run through everything to make sure it's still tight.

 

[swamp_bass]

That makes sense. Thanks for the answers.

 

[eriky4003]

Swamp_bass,
In response to your question, we're that 'seasoned' band-thing. We have to rehearse the 'meat' of our set list because the danceable tunes don't get rehearsed much when we don't have a gig coming up. In order to be up-to-speed, we rehearse the songs to remove the cobwebs on the leads, harmonies, etc.