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Set list?...Yes or No?
- Thread starter 51PRI
- Start date
I preferred to have a set list that wasn't written in stone. If the band was tight enough, if things heated up and really started rolling, you need to call tunes to ride that wave as long as you can to keep 'em up and dancing, and not just march down the list oblivious to what's happening right in front of you. Done that too, unfortunately.
Holy crap! I just got the setlist for our next gig. We seriously need new songs big time and when I say new I mean the 80"s would be new. Seeing them written out on paper is embarrassing and it's easy to see why we're not getting bookings.
Sorry. Vent over!
For my own band, I make a setlist primarily for the drummer, who craves the structure, but I do deviate if I see things need to change (more dancing, etc.)
The other bands I have played in call out songs as we go, and they take their time doing it.
The other bands I have played in call out songs as we go, and they take their time doing it.
yes or no.
Some bands need one, others work the room which means it isn't a busk gig mostly.
Plus, reading the room well is quite an art.
Not many do it well.
The reason i think I know this is my first function band at 17 did this from about 100songs.
Never seen anyone get close in ..eons.
Now stage craft to move the crowd to a song is something
Some bands need one, others work the room which means it isn't a busk gig mostly.
Plus, reading the room well is quite an art.
Not many do it well.
The reason i think I know this is my first function band at 17 did this from about 100songs.
Never seen anyone get close in ..eons.
Now stage craft to move the crowd to a song is something
That would aggravate me to no end. Yeah, roll with the punches, but why go through all the trouble to put a smooth flowing show together only to abandon it.
We have about 80 songs fitted into 3/4 songs blocks. These are for the vocals, guitar tunings and type of guitar. I am a stickler for running songs back to back. I hate watching a cover band or playing in a cover band that stops after every song.
We do rock songs from the 60's to the 2010's. We know our demographic and adapt the set lists to the venue and the patrons.
We may drop or add on the fly. It seems to work for us.
We do rock songs from the 60's to the 2010's. We know our demographic and adapt the set lists to the venue and the patrons.
We may drop or add on the fly. It seems to work for us.
For the most part for me it’s yes. It’s set lists that are put together and rehearsed before hand. For more professional original gigs playing with touring bands the set times have to be spot on. If you get a reputation for going over your time you won’t get any more high profile gigs. It also helps to minimize time wasted changing tunings or instruments in order to maximize playing time and minimize dead time on stage. Putting together a set list can be a bit of an art in itself but I do recommend trying to learn how to write a set list that works. If it’s a new band a good way to kind of work up to using a pre planned and rehearsed set list is to sort of do half and half. Basically have a set list written out but also have a couple audibles just in case.
i recommend the entire band have input on the set list. If they don’t it can turn into a disaster. Just get everyone at a table and talk. Drummers and singers aren’t going to want to play all their most physically demanding songs in a row. Really respecting the drummer and singers opinions on set lists are a good way to control the energy at gigs because you don’t want to go balls to the wall half the set and be laid back the other half. You want it to be like a roller coaster of energy with highs and lows. And that tends to be how drummers and singers want set lists so they can have energy when they need it and rest when they need it. Guitarists and bassists are helpful when writing a set list by knowing things like what songs require an instrument switch or tuning switch also what songs are in what key. If you put two or more songs back to back that are in the same key often times to the audience it becomes a “all their stuff sounds the same” kind of deal. So you want to avoid that.
I'm currently with 3 bands...
Band 1, BL rarely makes a setlist. When he does, he's been known to hand it out while saying "here's the setlist we aren't going to follow". Mostly we just call 'em on the fly. He does like to have a song list handy, just to remember what we know. If there's too much dead air, I just start up with the old "we love ya for bein' here with us today/tonight" blah blah blah. Our main gig is at a local winery/brewery/distillery, I might plug one or another of their products. Or whatever else comes to mind. Last gig I was telling the crowd how my son just "popped the question" to his girlfriend! That got a round of applause. And how my other son finally got a job, that also got a round of applause. We don't worry much about dead air.
Band 2, my brother is a songwriter, we do a lot of his originals, a couple of mine, & some covers so we can get paying work. He's the opposite of band 1's BL, he likes to make a setlist as early as 2 weeks before the gig, email it out to everyone, then changes it, emails the revised list, changes it some more, emails the re-revised list, etc. This doesn't bother me as I expect it, we've played together for many years and I know all the tunes pretty well by now. Usually I ignore all lists until the day before/day of the gig. I imagine the other guys, who have been around a much shorter time than me, aren't too thrilled by this. At the gig we mostly stick to the (final) list, with the occasional rearranging. He's good about printing copies of the setlist for everyone, and in a BIG FONT SO WE CAN READ IT! We're all over 50...
Band 3 is 2 ladies w/one acoustic guitar, and me. BL makes a setlist, we mostly stick to it.
Band 1, BL rarely makes a setlist. When he does, he's been known to hand it out while saying "here's the setlist we aren't going to follow". Mostly we just call 'em on the fly. He does like to have a song list handy, just to remember what we know. If there's too much dead air, I just start up with the old "we love ya for bein' here with us today/tonight" blah blah blah. Our main gig is at a local winery/brewery/distillery, I might plug one or another of their products. Or whatever else comes to mind. Last gig I was telling the crowd how my son just "popped the question" to his girlfriend! That got a round of applause. And how my other son finally got a job, that also got a round of applause. We don't worry much about dead air.
Band 2, my brother is a songwriter, we do a lot of his originals, a couple of mine, & some covers so we can get paying work. He's the opposite of band 1's BL, he likes to make a setlist as early as 2 weeks before the gig, email it out to everyone, then changes it, emails the revised list, changes it some more, emails the re-revised list, etc. This doesn't bother me as I expect it, we've played together for many years and I know all the tunes pretty well by now. Usually I ignore all lists until the day before/day of the gig. I imagine the other guys, who have been around a much shorter time than me, aren't too thrilled by this. At the gig we mostly stick to the (final) list, with the occasional rearranging. He's good about printing copies of the setlist for everyone, and in a BIG FONT SO WE CAN READ IT! We're all over 50...
Band 3 is 2 ladies w/one acoustic guitar, and me. BL makes a setlist, we mostly stick to it.
We do a show. Set list is carefully designed to
1. Make sure the singer is comfortable with the placement of difficult songs
2. Kick of and end each set strong - 3 songs min, bam-bam-bam. Make a statement in and out
3. Ends on an epic song: Sweet Child, Radar Love, Dead or Alive
4. Allow for instrument/key changes (end a song in Eb, next song has drum intro while E instruments grabbed)
5. Give a break / pass / slow it down in the middle.
6. Songs rotated in/out as reasonable
List is published - feedback received - edits made, final published.
1. Make sure the singer is comfortable with the placement of difficult songs
2. Kick of and end each set strong - 3 songs min, bam-bam-bam. Make a statement in and out
3. Ends on an epic song: Sweet Child, Radar Love, Dead or Alive
4. Allow for instrument/key changes (end a song in Eb, next song has drum intro while E instruments grabbed)
5. Give a break / pass / slow it down in the middle.
6. Songs rotated in/out as reasonable
List is published - feedback received - edits made, final published.
I much prefer the set list approach. At least in the bands I'm in, if you don't have one, there is too much dead air when you need to figure out what to play next. Part of the issue is that both bands are decent sized (6 piece variety band, 7 piece country) and just communicating the stuff takes time. In the variety band, the horns and keyboard player are using charts, so it also takes time to find the music if you deviate from the set list. We also rotate instruments a bit (I play guitar on some songs and the keyboard player or one of the horns takes the bass). The singer in that band, unfortunately, likes to go off list. The motive is good, because he wants to match the mood in the room, but the execution is bad and we lose a lot of momentum. I think the no set list thing can work, but probably best in a smaller band where everybody knows their stuff cold, and with one person calling them rather than having a discussion
We had an 8x11" metal prop-up like one would use to display brochures or typed pages. It had Velcro strips and had all of our songs in large type oak tag strips so the whole band can see. Place them in order and off you go.
Selection was based on songs that went well together, what the singer was voice-ready to perform, etc. The worst was when I had a 4 string Steinny with a d-tuner (ordered as a 5 string which lasted about a week). Since we did a lot of synth pop I had E + 4 different tunings to make the fingering work on ?-A-D-G. Sucks if the front man called out songs randomly.
Selection was based on songs that went well together, what the singer was voice-ready to perform, etc. The worst was when I had a 4 string Steinny with a d-tuner (ordered as a 5 string which lasted about a week). Since we did a lot of synth pop I had E + 4 different tunings to make the fingering work on ?-A-D-G. Sucks if the front man called out songs randomly.
I do church gigs - 95 percent of the time it's a set list - well planned, etc.
But....baptisms...we often invite people up that haven't signed up to get baptised, so....we might have 2 people getting baptised, we might have 30 - we have NO idea when we start how many will come forward. The pastor (this varies by where I'm playing) often spends a couple minutes with each one, so....we have no idea how much time we have to fill. Usually, we start with a set song or two, and if we go into extra innings, we can either work a tune for a VERY long time, or the worship leader will, at the end of each tune, start another one (no warning or announcement) - you get to figure out, in real time, what song we're doing, what key it's in, and what feel we're doing (I can name the tune we're doing in...2 notes, Alex...). It REALLY helps to have an extensive knowledge of the songs we might do.
But....baptisms...we often invite people up that haven't signed up to get baptised, so....we might have 2 people getting baptised, we might have 30 - we have NO idea when we start how many will come forward. The pastor (this varies by where I'm playing) often spends a couple minutes with each one, so....we have no idea how much time we have to fill. Usually, we start with a set song or two, and if we go into extra innings, we can either work a tune for a VERY long time, or the worship leader will, at the end of each tune, start another one (no warning or announcement) - you get to figure out, in real time, what song we're doing, what key it's in, and what feel we're doing (I can name the tune we're doing in...2 notes, Alex...). It REALLY helps to have an extensive knowledge of the songs we might do.
So Anyway, my current band has a setlist, but we'll go 'off the reservation' as we want/need to. We take requests and if we don't know it, we might try to put it together during break and play it in the next set. I like requests and playing songs that we might know but have never done before. Takes me back to my days as a sub.
But we play gigs, not shows. I can see how being in a show band would require a very tight set list.
But we play gigs, not shows. I can see how being in a show band would require a very tight set list.
Even if it's just me playing/singing from my book, I have some semblance of a dedicated order. Any other time, set list. It is the only way.
Since I'm active in multiple bands, I need a setlist.
Now following the setlist, well that doesn't matter, I just want to know what I need to practice and not waste time on songs we are not playing.
Often we will have an encore setlist with 3-6 additional songs, which we play if time allows. I don't mind if these get skipped, I just don't like playing songs I did not practice.
Now following the setlist, well that doesn't matter, I just want to know what I need to practice and not waste time on songs we are not playing.
Often we will have an encore setlist with 3-6 additional songs, which we play if time allows. I don't mind if these get skipped, I just don't like playing songs I did not practice.
