All great stuff everyone. Thanks for the reassurance. I do feel very lucky and I am appreciative for my band.
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Minding the dance floor
- Thread starter jmon
- Start date
Analysis is a great thing, but further analysis will probably show that it isn't your bass tone causing this. Examine the tunes and how you guys are delivering them. Sometimes it's surprising which tunes end up not working and that's why pay cover bands play 90% of the same stuff.
Just throw some 80s in there (not metal) and get the ladies moving.
buldog5151bass
Kibble, milkbones, and P Basses. And redheads.
One more thought re: tone. Lots of cover bands playing Motown tunes to get the floor bopping, but not many bassists come close to a Jamerson tone. Think about it.
Dancing to Green Day? Now that I would like to see!
I've seen many party crowds dancing and singing like there's no tomorrow to "Longview," "Basket Case," "American Idiot," "When I Come Around," and a couple of others. With a lot of crowds, that mainstream crossover punk/garage rock thang gets them plenty uninhibited.
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in my experience people will dance when they want to dance and no one wants to be the first one on the dance floor.... the drummer in my old band used to think there was something wrong if people weren't on the dance floor and he'd often start the drum beat to 'Twist and Shout' (Beatles) and we'd play it in an attempt to get people on the dance floor....
Sometimes we'd play "Play that funky music white boy" and fill the dance floor, and other times we'd play it and no one would get up
it's not a reflection of how good or bad the band is.... it just means people aren't interested in getting on the dance floor.
if you're playing well and the band is playing well and you're playing popular songs then there's not a lot you can do really except enjoy yourself!
You're giving your audience way too much credit. Unless it's a signature and very unique tone, they don't care. But if you're constantly fiddling around with your knobs for no apparent audible reason, rather entertaining and engaging the audience, that can be off putting. And finally, if you're "fattening" up your tone for a song, it may sound different on stage right in front of the amp, but it may be propagating into the room as a big bloomy mess. Again, off putting to the audience. I'm not saying that any of this is specifically happening; I'm not there. Just something to think about.
People dance when they're a little bit drunk, and they sit down when they're tired or bored. Bass tone has little to do with it; if the bass is loud enough, the groove is solid, and the crowd is in the mood, there will be dancing. If you want to keep people dancing you need to pay attention to song selection and the transitions between songs. Slow songs will send people back to their tables unless the crowd is full of younger couples who want an excuse to get close.
One thing I noticed when I played in an original world fusion band was that how I played something, even the same line as I was playing before influenced how the dancers responded. There's a lot of subconscious stuff going on that people aren't aware of when they're dancing. I felt like the puppet master sometimes. "When I do this, they do that." So changing you're tone affecting the dancers? Yeah, I could see that happening.
I mostly agree, especially about bass tone as a driver, except I'm finding with an older crowd that they look forward to a chance to catch their breath on the slow tunes. There's probably an ideal mix that's age-dependent, at least around here. It says "know your audience". Some of them tell me they're actually happy going back to their tables every few songs.
Try just you playing a song without the rest of the band and report back on how the dance floor fills up.
I think you are definitely overthinking it.
IMHO the biggest contributors to getting people up and dancing are in order of importance:-
1. How many people are already dancing and how attractive they are.
2. How much alcohol has been consumed.
3. Song selection within a wide array of danceable stuff.
Agree. Our crowds tend to skew older and we will play three-five dance songs in a row, more than that and the floor will clear anyway. So giving everyone a chance to catch their breath and visit the bar is not a bad strategy. You just have to follow up with something that has a good shot at getting them back on their feet again once they've rested.
Some great responses so far. Next weekend I’m gonna set my EQ and forget it. Maybe adjust my tone knob a hair when needed. Paralysis through analysis it would appear!
Hah! ...or if you're playing the modern VFW circuit, you might be TOO loud.
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IME, there's a little bit of an art form to set arrangement, but other than that the crowd will dance if they want. Obviously there's some hits that resonate better than others, but some nights people just aren't into it as much as others.
Edit: we've had nights where we thought we played like garbage but the floor was packed all night and other nights where we were super tight and nothing. It's hard to predict.
Edit: we've had nights where we thought we played like garbage but the floor was packed all night and other nights where we were super tight and nothing. It's hard to predict.
It's a problem you can't solve without good bass, but good bass alone might not solve the problem.
Some crowds just be like that.
