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Minding the dance floor
- Thread starter jmon
- Start date
It's great to get the right tone., absolutely. Song selection and not pausing long (or at all) in between songs are more important, imo.
In my experience, dance participation is more connected to tempo than tone. If a song is fun to play and has a good groove, but doesn't cater to the dancers in regards to tempo, they'll sit it out. My group will typically survey the room's reaction to a song when starting, and if they look uncomfortable, we adjust. But of course, sometimes they just aren't feeling the tune. To each their own, yeah?
In my experience playing and listening to live music, pretty much the only people at a venue who care about the bass tone are onstage, possibly limited to those wearing your footwear. 
Extreme situations excepted (eg, "Think For Yourself" should have a little fuzz if you're playing it at a Beatles night).
Extreme situations excepted (eg, "Think For Yourself" should have a little fuzz if you're playing it at a Beatles night).
The band needs to look at what songs are good dance songs and what songs are not. Your drummer is probably the most important guy in the band to get people dancing, btw.
These are great points regarding why a crowd will or won't respond favorably to any given song.
It's because dance floor party crowds can be fickle. When you try to decide why the crowd isn't into it, it may have nothing at all to do with your performance or delivery. Maybe they just aren't feeling that tune that night.
I have to caution my band mates about this all the time. They take it very personally when the crowd won't dance to a bonafide rump shaker. Sometimes they impulsively want to scratch a song from the playlist and never play it again.
I've lost count how many times I've seen a dance tune get yawns on Friday night, and the same tune and execution packs the floor tight on Saturday night with people working themselves into a lather. Same audience demographic, same venue, back to back shows, totally different reactions. There is no amount of tweaking your instrument or adjusting your technique to change that.
If you're confident the song is a good choice for your target audience the majority of the time, don't freak out if it's not packing the floor every single time you play it. If it bombs the majority of the time, maybe you should start trying something else in its place. I'll cut a good dance song short on stage before I'll drop it from the playlist just because the crowd is having a relatively rare moment of non-participation.
Again all great responses. I agree that there is some influence on the dance floor when it comes to tone. But once a solid tone is in place volume and groove are WAY more important.
I’m lucky enough to have a great drummer. Nails the tempos as well. Thanks again to everyone for feedback on this!
I’m lucky enough to have a great drummer. Nails the tempos as well. Thanks again to everyone for feedback on this!
Whenever that happens to us I, too, tend to take it personally. Not as the bass player but in our song choice. One thing I tend to see is, though they aren't dancing on that particular tune, we get a good response after the song has ended. What I have heard is that people weren't dancing because they were ... tired. But they listened. I take that as a huge compliment... now about tone... most people couldn't tell which is the bass and which is the didgeridoo...(no, we don't actually have a didgeridoo). BUT, in order to get them on the floor the bass has to be "felt" even though they don't really know what they are feeling, except good. Blending correctly is the objective and constantly changing tone is something I really don't understand... unless you are in a "copy" band and need everything to be exactly as the original... which I am not...
It is mostly about song selection and the band's stage presence.
There are some songs that will always get people on the dance floor. I don't know why, but in the 70s, Brown Sugar would get people out of wheelchairs to dance. But, if your band members are just standing there looking bored, so will the audience.
There are some songs that will always get people on the dance floor. I don't know why, but in the 70s, Brown Sugar would get people out of wheelchairs to dance. But, if your band members are just standing there looking bored, so will the audience.
On the other hand, I have seen patrons more amazed that we could pull-off some of the songs we did and just stood there in awe especially when you're new to their venue-they just stood back checking us out. After about the third or fourth uptempo song we could tell the mood. You can never go wrong with a good front-person/lead-singer and a flexible set-list to play in accordance with the venue.
